Cultivating Community Care: Using Research-Creation & Art-Based Workshops to Explore Care in Queer and Mad/Disabled Communities in Toronto

Drawing on six art-based workshops and focus group sessions that took place from January to February 2023 with six 2SLGBTQ+ and/or Mad/Disabled identified participants from Toronto, Ontario, my thesis reimagines and redefines (community) care from a queer/mad/disabled perspective. Drawing on a Research-Creation informed visual methodology for community- and art-based research, this project challenges traditional ideas around knowledge production in the academy by inviting 2SLGBTQ+ and Mad/Disabled participants into the knowledge creation process through arts-based community research. I audio recorded, transcribed, and analyzed art workshops and focus group sessions using applied thematic analysis to identify themes emerging from workshop and focus group sessions. I then grouped these research findings thematically into narratives of care I identified in the transcripts. In my Findings section, I identify several care frameworks and core features of community care that participants described as essential to meeting their care needs. As a collaborative community-based research project between my participants and I, this project contributes to academic discourse on care in queer and Mad/Disabled communities.<p></p>