Music therapy to help treat patients with schizophrenia. Collaborative live art practices that transform feelings of dislocation among refugees. Media arts training to foster inclusive social participation among persons with disabilities. These are just a few examples of the creative arts in action across a range of disciplines, making a critical difference for individuals and society. In this collection of creative research in action, leading academics, health researchers, physicians, educators, environmentalists, and artists share first-hand accounts of how they’re using the creative arts in cutting-edge research and in methodologies for health, hope, and change. These compelling accounts demonstrate how the creative arts can cross disciplines and fields in search of solutions while creating new communities for change in the process.

Cheryl L. McLean is an independent scholar and the founder, executive editor and publisher of The International Journal of The Creative Arts in Interdisciplinary Practice (IJCAIP). She has also edited the collections Creative Arts in Interdisciplinary Practice and Creative Arts in Research for Community and Cultural Change, and she has taught the course Creative Responses to Death and Bereavement at Western University. A leading contributor to the field of the creative arts in interdisciplinary research, Ms. McLean has presented keynotes and workshops across North America and has special research interests in ethnodrama and health.

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Educator, author, artist, and keynote speaker Robert Kelly is a recognized leader in the fields of Collaborative Creativity, Creative Development, design thinking for innovation, and transformational educational practice. He is academic coordinator of the Collaborative Creativity and Design Thinking for Innovation graduate program in the Werklund School of Education, and an associate professor at the University of Calgary. Robert has been an invited visiting scholar and keynote speaker at several postsecondary institutions for his work in the field of collaborative creativity.

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