LGBTQ youth community centres provide safe haven

Enter the LGBTQ community centre, a safe place where queer youth can socialize. Michel Levesque, MA (art ed.) 14, explored the notion of such a centre as a good environment for learning.

Levesque spent eight weeks teaching what he knows best — making comics — and understanding its impact on youth. He was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and his supervisor, Kathleen Vaughan, associate professor in Concordia’s Department of Art Education.

“Comic making is my art and was the focus of my bachelor’s degree at the University of Victoria,” Levesque says.

“My goal after completing my BFA, which developed through teaching comics in community settings, was to use this unique storytelling medium to empower communities such as gay youth.”

He went to New York City to teach his craft at a LGBTQ community centre.

“At this centre, youth had the opportunity to be public about their identity,” he says. “They were relaxed and could be themselves. I wanted to see how this affected their learning to determine if it provided a positive experience — one where they could gain a deeper understanding of themselves.”

Levesque’s thesis focused on understanding the role his comics pedagogy played in actualizing the comics creation of two learners in the program he taught, as well as the safe space in the centre and his program that made their comics creation possible.

Learners could choose their subject matter. Some explored their queer identity through their art while others did not. At the end of the project, a digital comic book was compiled and presented to the community centre.

“The enthusiasm for the project was gratifying. I consider this a success in terms of the creativity, learning experience and the self-exploration,” says Levesque. “I am interested in reaching out to the LGBTQ community through research, and this was my first step.”

Levesque is now pursuing his PhD at the University of Alberta’s Institute for Sexual Minority Studies and Services in the Faculty of Education. He’s grateful to Concordia’s Department of Art Education for providing him with the research experience that allowed him to study art education in a community setting.

“The Community Art Education Program has been around for more than 20 years,” Levesque says. “This has brought together a core group of researchers, students and practitioners who understand the role of the community setting as a place of learning. Without this support, it would have been difficult to obtain funding and pursue my project.”

About Kathleen Vaughan

• Associate professor at Concordia’s Department of Art Education
• Has supervised eight graduate students to completion
• Largely funded by Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and the private support of donors
  

What she says about her students:

“I enjoy seeing emerging artists and scholars come into a deeper understanding of their own creative and research practices through the intensive, interactive work of graduate study.”

Her motivation:

“I have the pleasure of knowing that my work and that of my students helps move scholarly understanding and discourse forward, participating in a great wave of innovation and possibility.”

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