ABSTRACT
Since launching in 2011, the Improviser-in-Residence program has been through a number of iterations, featuring artists from a wide range of improvising contexts: Jane Bunnett (Canada, 2011), Miya Masaoka (U.S., 2012), Scott Thomson and Susanna Hood (Canada, 2012), Rich Marsella (Canada, 2013), and, most recently, Dong-Won Kim (South Korea, 2014). The central objectives for this initiative are
• To connect the communities of Guelph (and surrounding areas) with profound direct and indirect experiences of improvised music making
• To promote the creative process, concept development, and experimentation in musical improvisation
• To track the process of the program itself through a complementary research component
From the outset, the Improviser-in-Residence initiative has been concerned to reach beyond traditional academic settings into broader communities, and, in effect, to redefine the very nature of “research” and “pedagogy” by prompting a critical reassessment of orthodox assumptions about where “knowledge” or “expertise” resides. Challenging conventional boundaries between pedagogy and performance, classroom and community, the initiative is part of a series of ongoing efforts to develop, and to build on, well-established, active, and mutually supportive partnerships in ways that highlight how community and university research and pedagogy can purposefully support one another.
