This special issue of the Journal of Childhoods and Pedagogies embraces everyday artistries as we consider the arts as a way of life; as a way of seeing, paying attention, engaging with, and responding to the things we encounter. Artistic forms of paying attention and what is generated in and through this attention is at the heart of this issue.

             From the Latin attendere, the word ‘attend’ suggests stretching toward. Ingold (2018) elaborates on this by describing acts of attention as caring, listening, waiting, being present, going along, joining with, and longing as in “the stretching of a life” (p.21). It is an aesthetic attention that is lived, felt, sensed, textured, with singular attention to this moment, this fallen bird, these vibrantly hued berries, just 8 minutes of a walk, or a single jade plant leaf. It reflects responsive listening and dwelling-with that lingers, notices the particularities, variances, and nuances of things, and attends to the hesitant, temporal, and transitory. This echoes with the etymological roots of ‘research’, which, from the Old French and Latin, indicates acts of wandering and traversing, of seeking out and of searching closely. Much like walking it requires responsiveness to the terrain, to the changing conditions, and to what is unfolding around us.

             This suggests an expectant and responsive listening that joins with things in their formation and engages in the processes of inventing and proposing new configurations and possibilities. So that something is activated and generated through these gestures of care and attention. This situates the creative act as one of response where we answer to and move in correspondence with what calls to us. This is the essence of these everyday artistries. (Sylvia Kind, guest editor) 

NOTE TO READERS: To view the video submissions, please download the PDF files onto your computer first. When you open them up, hover over the image embedded in the PDF and click on it once. Adjust your volume (all videos have sound) and enjoy!