Arts Alive! is excited to be pairing with Antioch University this year. We’re partnering with Dr. Tomoyo Kawano, and working with student Cierra Tunquist to support our Access to the Arts research. This amazing student is a brilliant researcher, and she is excited about the arts’ impact on community and wellbeing!
Dr. Tomoyo Kawano is a Board-Certified Dance/Movement Therapist and Licensed Creative Arts Therapist in the state of New York. She directs the Dance/Movement Therapy Program at Antioch University. Her clinical experience includes working with acute inpatient psychiatric adults, suicidal teenagers, teenage sex offenders, victims of domestic/partner violence, and immigrant children of refugees. She has several publications on using dance as a way to analyze interview data, as well as on dance/movement therapists’ attitudes regarding LGBTQI and gender-nonconforming communities. Most recently, she co-authored “Applying Critical Consciousness to Dance/Movement Therapy Pedagogy and the Politics of the Body,” American Journal of Dance Therapy (2019) with Meg Chang. Dr. Kawano is a member of NYC Creative Pedagogies in the Arts Therapies collaborative; co-leads the Asian and Asian Pacific Islander Desi American Affinity Group; Chairs the Education Committee, and is a Board Member of the American Dance Therapy Association.
Cierra Tunquist completed her undergraduate in biomedical engineering and did not anticipate becoming heavily involved in The Arts. Fortunately, The Arts had a different plan. As a recreational dancer, Cierra found herself most alive when engaging with others in creation. She found that these personal and interpersonal connections are universally essential: humans are meant to be together; we are meant to create. Cierra witnessed and engaged in healing traumas through dance, and wishes to bring her engineering and medical background to make creative engagement more accessible and acceptable.
She is designing and preparing research materials for the study we are conducting to determine the barriers to accessing arts in our region. This project will help us provide tools and resources to arts organizations who want to expand their mission impact across our region to folks who rarely or never participate in or take advantage of the wider arts community events.
Dr. Tomoyo Kawano
“Hello, I'm Tomoyo! I am excited to work together to explore ways to integrate dance and other creative arts’ dynamic processes to engage with and benefit the members of the Monadnock community.”
Tomoyo has provided fantastic guidance and support in digging into how to shape our study in an inclusive and sensitive way. She continues to share her expertise and enthusiasm to help advance the project.
Cierra Tunquist
“Hello Monadnock Community! My name is Cierra Tunquist, and I am in the Dance/Movement Therapy program at Antioch University. I believe engaging in the arts has a profound healing nature, as I have personally experienced and witnessed it. ArtsAlive! has given me a platform to report on that belief. I am grateful, and I hope to one day see and engage in the art with you!”
It’s all about community in the Monadnock region, and we’re glad to provide this opportunity so that this student can stretch her wings AND connect more deeply to our region’s arts organizations and community service nonprofits. We hope she builds some great relationships.
“Hello Monadnock Community! My name is Cierra Tunquist, and I am in the Dance/Movement Therapy program at Antioch University. I believe engaging in the arts has a profound healing nature, as I have personally experienced and witnessed it. ArtsAlive! has given me a platform to report on that belief. I am grateful, and I hope to one day see and engage in the art with you!”
It’s all about community in the Monadnock region, and we’re glad to provide this opportunity so that this student can stretch her wings AND connect more deeply to our region’s arts organizations and community service nonprofits. We hope she builds some great relationships.
If your organization or a group you’re involved with would be interested in getting involved in this study - by sharing it with community members and helping us promote it on social media, let us know! If you’re interested in becoming a partner in this work, reach out to our director Jessica at office@monadnockartsalive.org