243: Communities of Care with Patricia Ki
- Diana Varma
- Apr 10
- 3 min read
Welcome back!
This is a 3-part mini series about new ways of thinking about education, assessments, grading and ungrading with 3 brilliant educators who work and teach in the spaces of communication, design, creativity, art and art therapy.
The previous episode explored Rupsha Mutsuddi’s experiences learning and teaching in an interdisciplinary program, exploring the idea that design is creative midwifery; helping to bring ideas to life through thoughtful process.
This episode features Patricia Ki (she/her), an immigrant/settler of Chinese-Hakka descent living and working in Tkaronto. She currently serves the community at Toronto Art Therapy Institute as the executive director, practicum supervisor, instructor, and research advisor. She is also an adjunct faculty in the Critical Disability Studies program at York University. She is a graduate of Ontario College of Art and Design (BFA 2007), TATI (2011) and York University (BSW 2013, MSW 2014, PhD Critical Disability Studies 2023). She is where she is today because making art saved her life. She deeply believes that arts-making for healing must be shared as widely and freely as possible.
Patricia brings a rich understanding of therapeutic practice and educational pedagogy informed by her practice to this conversation. She discusses how traditional grading systems are in misalignment with the communities of care art therapists are aiming to foster, as well as the importance of imagination and self reflection, not just for not only for clients of art therapy, but also for the schools and teachers that facilitate the training of practitioners.
Patricia dives into the concepts of individualism and competition that lie at the centre of a colonial education system, as well as the connection between capitalism and traditional grading systems, all of which are in direct opposition to the goal of collective care. She discusses shame and how it’s detrimental to transformative learning and she shares a fundamental truth: that educators ultimately don’t have control over students’ actions; we can only support, guide and facilitate.
Let’s listen in…
Notes from Patricia about ideas explored in this episode:
"outside the lines" come from this article of poetry: https://www.jocat-online.org/c-24-ki
"the master's tools will never" comes from this editorial: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/26907240.2022.2140910#d1e440
"unfolding revolution" comes from this article: https://feralfeminisms.com/an-unfolding-revolution-toward-widespread-flourishing-artist-statement-for-cover-art/
My work can be found on https://mappingcare.art/
Full list of publications are on my LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/patricia-ki-ab049038/details/publications/
TATI's website, points of interest related to collective care:
Zine archive: https://tati.on.ca/current-students-alumni/tati-zine-archive/
Not Standard Procedures Podcast: https://tati.on.ca/current-students-alumni/video-library/ - a project initially developed by the students in the TMU MDM program.
About Our Guest:
Patricia Ki (she/her) is an immigrant/settler of Chinese-Hakka descent living and working in Tkaronto. The land of the Hakka village in Hong Kong to which she belongs, the enthusiastic brilliance of students, the solidarity amongst diverse peoples, and the transformative magic of arts-making are the sources of her imaginings, efforts, and hopes toward a decolonial future of collective care and thriving. She currently serves the community at Toronto Art Therapy Institute as the executive director, practicum supervisor, instructor, and research advisor. She is also an adjunct faculty in the Critical Disability Studies program at York University. She is a graduate of Ontario College of Art and Design (BFA 2007), TATI (2011) and York University (BSW 2013, MSW 2014, PhD Critical Disability Studies 2023). She is where she is today because making art saved her life. She deeply believes that arts-making for healing must be shared as widely and freely as possible.
Professionally, Patricia is a registered member of the Canadian Art Therapy Association and the Ontario College of Social Service Workers and Social Service Workers. With a commitment to disability justice, she has practiced professionalized care work (art therapy, psychotherapy, social work) in various community-based mental health and social services, including community health centres, emergency shelters, drop-in services, and supportive housing, working alongside individuals who are navigating effects of violence, housing/income insecurity, and intersecting forms of marginalization and oppression.
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Music:
A Kwela Fella - John Bartmann licensed under a CC0 1.0 Universal License
Talk Paper Scissors Theme Music: Retro Quirky Upbeat Funk by Lewis Sound Production via Audio Jungle