Teaching Note—Creative Place Making: An Interdisciplinary Meeting Point Between Social Work and Art Studies

ABSTRACT

The article describes a Creative Place Making (CPM) academic course, devised as a platform for an interdisciplinary collaboration between students in the fields of art studies and social work. After presenting a brief background on interdisciplinary education and CPM, the article discusses the course work model and its implementation within a community setting, together with four main areas of learning identified in the course evaluation. The article concludes by discussing the potential that CPM courses create for promoting the interdisciplinary perspective in social work education.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. This initiative was funded by the Jewish Federations of North America.

2. The other two lecturers of the course are the artists Eyal Assulin and Orit Yishai from the School of Art at Sapir Academic College. I thank them for their unique involvement in the project and the insights that emerged following the joint teaching of the course.

3. I thank the principals of the School of Social Work and the School of Art at Sapir Academic College, Dr. Merav Moshe-Grodofsky and the artist Michal Shamir, for leading this unique initiative and for building the infrastructure for implementing and operating the course.

4. The financial supports for the CPM project, such as the Jewish Federation of North America and the Ofakim Municipality, are specific to the southern region of Israel. It is therefore advisable for academic institutions around the world that are interested in setting up a similar project to seek the advice of resource recruiters to locate suitable funds at local and global levels.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Menny Malka

Menny Malka, MSW, PhD, is a senior lecturer at the School of Social Work, Sapir Academic College, Israel.