Location: Design Room

Moderator: Derek Manderson

Eva Bojner Horowitz, “Expertise in creative arts in boardrooms: A new perspective on transformative learning and problem solving”

Drawing on Eva Bojner Horwitz’s interdisciplinary research and the conceptual foundations outlined in her book “A New Manuscript for societal stages” (2025), this paper presents a new method for integrating creative arts professionals—particularly those working in music, theatre, and visual arts—into leadership structures and decision-making arenas. Framed within social medicine, the approach highlights how artistic processes can enhance organizational well-being, strengthen collaborative problem solving, and support leaders navigating societal complexity.

Central to this method is the creation of new learning environments for boards and powerholders, where artistic expertise becomes a strategic catalyst for reflection, innovation, and adaptive thinking. Through embodied practices, improvisational techniques, and narrative exploration, artists help reshape traditional boardroom dynamics by facilitating aesthetic experiences that promote emotional awareness, social attunement, and deeper collective insight. These environments encourage leaders to move beyond linear reasoning toward more holistic, relational, and transformative learning processes.

By embedding artists within boards, management teams, and policy contexts, the model expands the role of the creative arts from cultural enrichment to structural societal innovation. Drawing on Bojner Horwitz’s research, the method demonstrates how arts-based interventions can strengthen organizational resilience, support more human-centered governance, and open new pathways for socially sustainable leadership.

Lisa Davenport, “”Yes, and…”: Improvisational Theatre Foundations as Pedagogy”

As educators in all forms – directors, professors, mentors – we must demonstrate confidence in our knowledge. This confidence, which may teeter on being ‘all knowing,’ establishes that students can trust us to guide them in their quest for knowledge. Yet, how can we as educators continue to grow when we cannot predict the shifting questions, skills, and curiosities of each generation? Drawing on Heathcote’s (1997,
2008) focus on using drama frameworks to process change, this paper asks: How can foundations of improvisational theatre drive pedagogical transformation within our interactions with students and our educational institutions?

“Yes, and…” is a notable foundation of improvisational theatre that fosters mutual acceptance of ideas within collaboration. Tompkins (1990) and hooks (2010) identify that a pervasive culture of fear can impede genuine inquiry and challenges of the status quo. However, Johnstone (1999) and Spolin (1986) suggest that breaking free from the cyclical nature of education is the key to promoting creativity and maintaining students’
interest in knowledge.

This paper will analyze how the application of “Yes, and…” could generate valuable moments of challenge, inquiry, and curiosity, for students and educators. Both improvisers and teachers rely on their ‘bag of tricks’ to claim their success in their careers and to avoid the perception of inadequacy in their role. I question how modeling “Yes, and…” can serve as a vital pedagogical tool to reinvigorate training and curriculum during this current period of transition in education, helping educators collaborate with students to navigate complex challenges that standard textbooks cannot address.

Bibliography:
Johnstone, Keith. Impro for Storytellers. London: Faber and Faber, 1999.
Heathcote, Dorothy. “Drama as a Process for Change,” in The Applied Theatre Reader, edited by Tim Prentki, Sheila Preston. Volume 1, Routledge, 2008.
hooks, bell. Teaching Critical Thinking: Practical Wisdom. New York: Routledge, 2010.
Tompkins, Jane. “Pedagogy of the Distressed.” College English, vol. 52, no. 6, 1 Oct. 1990, pp. 653–660, https://doi.org/10.58680/ce19909632.

Kara Flanagan, “Rehearsing Stage Fright: Transitioning Drama Curriculum to Support Musicians with Music Performance Anxiety”

This study is informed by my dual practice as a drama and music educator in exploring how drama curriculum can be transformed to address a significant and unsolved issue in education that impacts music students (Orejudo Hernández et al., 2018; Sims and Ryan, 2023) and professional musicians (Beder, 2017)—music performance anxiety (i.e., stage fright). My research exists in a sub-field of music performance anxiety that is virtually non-existent (i.e., adapting acting education) and offers a practical approach to reduce debilitating (Powell, 2004) and harmful (Kenny & Halls, 2018) impacts of anxiety. The purpose of my study is to create drama curriculum as an educational intervention for managing music performance anxiety. My curriculum design is based on: acting education (e.g., Stanislavsky & Hapgood, 1936/2004; Strasberg, 1996); my 13 years in curriculum and acting; robust curriculum design principles (Meyers & Nulty, 2009); curriculum theory (e.g., Dewey, 1916/2018); self-presentation theory (e.g., Leary, 1983); and feedback from my doctoral study. This three-part qualitative study consists of the creation, implementation, and assessment of curriculum. I draw on Johnson and Christensen (2020) for research design and collection of data and Braun and Clarke (2006) for thematic analysis. The study will examine how acting curriculum supports, or fails to support, professional musicians in managing music performance anxiety and enhancing performance delivery.

Biographies:

Eva Bojner Horowitz: Professor of music and health in Stockholm. Specialized in psychosomatic medicine and creative arts, co-founder of the Center for Social Sustainability (CSS), Karolinska Institutet (KI). Internationally known for the implementation of cultural & contemplative activities in school and health care systems. Combining quantitative (stress hormone analyses, heart rate variability, flow) with qualitative research. Established the Healing Theatre in Sweden with professional actors in 2008.

Lisa Davenport (she/her) is an OCT certified drama educator and a PhD Student at the Centre for Drama, Theatre, and Performance Studies at the University of Toronto.

Dr. Kara Flanagan’s research focus is on the development and applications of acting curriculum. Kara works as a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Curriculum & Instruction, University of Victoria. She is a co-founder of the Victoria, Academy of Dramatic Arts, a post-secondary acting conservatory in B.C.