Sense making through poem houses

TY - JOUR

T1 - Sense making through poem houses

T2 - an arts-based approach to understanding leadership

A1 - Grisoni,Louise

A1 - Collins,Brigid

AU - Grisoni,Louise

AU - Collins,Brigid

PY - 2012/3/1

Y1 - 2012/3/1

N2 - This article introduces an arts-based approach to leadership inquiry using 'Poem houses' - an art form developed by Brigid Collins. Poem houses are three dimensional artefacts combining visual interpretation with poetic text and which hold special significance for the maker. The bringing together of poetry and assemblage in the artworks made by Collins is a conscious attempt to create the conditions in which an 'uncovering' may happen, by means of a process of layered collage and juxtaposed words and images - in what amounts to 'intermediality'. This artistic form has inspired the methods and tools used in the workshops led, with Grisoni and described in this paper. The focus for this inquiry is leadership development and, in particular, sense making processes arising from the creation of and reflections on poem houses made by workshop participants. The poem houses provide an innovative visual narrative of individual and organisational experiences of leadership. Examples are drawn from a workshop for public sector managers where we show how new insights of what it means to be a leader and collective reflections on the creative process were generated. These findings create individual and organisational narratives that contribute to our understandings of the current context of public sector leadership. © 2012 International Visual Sociology Association.

AB - This article introduces an arts-based approach to leadership inquiry using 'Poem houses' - an art form developed by Brigid Collins. Poem houses are three dimensional artefacts combining visual interpretation with poetic text and which hold special significance for the maker. The bringing together of poetry and assemblage in the artworks made by Collins is a conscious attempt to create the conditions in which an 'uncovering' may happen, by means of a process of layered collage and juxtaposed words and images - in what amounts to 'intermediality'. This artistic form has inspired the methods and tools used in the workshops led, with Grisoni and described in this paper. The focus for this inquiry is leadership development and, in particular, sense making processes arising from the creation of and reflections on poem houses made by workshop participants. The poem houses provide an innovative visual narrative of individual and organisational experiences of leadership. Examples are drawn from a workshop for public sector managers where we show how new insights of what it means to be a leader and collective reflections on the creative process were generated. These findings create individual and organisational narratives that contribute to our understandings of the current context of public sector leadership. © 2012 International Visual Sociology Association.

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?partnerID=yv4JPVwI&eid=2-s2.0-84857204649&md5=02e7557b40705a82e61c30df4b7e2d37

U2 - 10.1080/1472586X.2012.642956

DO - 10.1080/1472586X.2012.642956

M1 - Article

JO - Visual Studies

JF - Visual Studies

SN - 1472-586X

IS - 1

VL - 27

SP - 35

EP - 47

ER -