Interdisciplinary Consultation Services

At the heart of my consultation work is a commitment to fostering clear and respectful relationships across disciplines. With a focus on integrating art into interdisciplinary contexts, I support individuals, teams, and organizations in improving communication, engaging in critical reflection, and deepening their awareness of relational dynamics. Through tailored tools, creative practices, and facilitation strategies, I help navigate ethical challenges, strengthen partnerships, and center art as a catalyst for inquiry and collaboration. Grounded in the unique needs of each project, this work fosters meaningful collaboration, thoughtful and respectful research, and stronger connections within communities.

All consultation services are designed to meet the specific needs of your project or group. Below are examples of approaches and services I offer:

Why THIS project and what does it need?

Meet with project stakeholders to clarify the role of art, research, or community engagement within your initiative.

  • Facilitate discussions around key questions, such as:
    • What does research mean in the context of your project?
    • What does art mean in the context of your project?
    • What are you hoping engagement with research and/or art will achieve?
  • Identify or refine the specific needs of your project and propose tailored strategies to meet them.

How will we work together?

Offer guidance on structuring partnerships, clarifying roles, expectations, and responsibilities.

  • Provide and facilitate tools such as Partnership Agreement Guidelines and Data-Sharing Agreement Templates, and guide their customization to support equitable collaboration.
  • Facilitate conversations to address and resolve challenges as they arise, ensuring relationships remain clear, respectful, and productive.

How can we treat one another and our project with respect?

Help teams navigate ongoing ethical considerations, including questions of power, representation, and ownership of research-generated art or art-generated research.

  • Provide Ethical Consideration Guidelines to ensure thoughtful and responsible engagement at every stage of the project.
  • Act as a facilitator for discussions about relational challenges, fostering trust and accountability.

How do we tell the story of what’s happening in our project?

Collaborate to develop a plan for ongoing documentation that captures the process and relational dynamics of the project in real time.

  • Encourage creative approaches to documentation that celebrate the artistic and relational aspects of the work, ensuring they are visible and valued alongside traditional academic or research outputs.

What do we need? How did it go?

Provide continued consultation as projects and relationships evolve, offering space for reflection and recalibration

  • Address shifting needs such as roles, budgets, collaboration agreements, and ethical concerns, ensuring alignment and transparency.
  • Facilitate reflective sessions to maintain a shared vision and honor the contributions of all participants.
  • Offer follow-up support, including retrospectives on the project to explore:
    • What was learned?
    • What worked and what didn’t?
    • What opportunities or next steps might emerge from the work?

Building Inclusive Research Practices in Academia

Interdisciplinary work involving art, artists, and communities often faces unique challenges. Voices can be left out, valuable perspectives overlooked, and diverse approaches to knowledge dismissed. Established frameworks for research and collaboration can unintentionally exclude the contributions of artists and fail to fully integrate art practices, limiting the potential for creative inquiry and meaningful engagement.
I offer tailored workshops and guidance to help academic institutions address these challenges. Designed to support emerging researchers, faculty, and university libraries, these services provide tools, frameworks, and strategies for navigating the complexities of art-based inquiry.

What I Offer

  • Workshops for Emerging Researchers: Tailored sessions introducing tools like Partnership Agreement Guidelines and Data Management Plan Templates.
  • Librarian Collaboration: Partner with university libraries to integrate these tools into existing research support programs.
  • Research Guidance: Help students and faculty explore interdisciplinary approaches to research that prioritize ethical and relational engagement.

For broader facilitation offerings, including workshops focused on improvisation and embodied learning, visit Facilitation Services. These sessions are designed for academic, community, and professional contexts.

Examples of Past Consultation Projects

  • Art-City Partnership 

    Project: Putting the Public in Public Art (City of Hamilton, 2024–2025)

    Objective: To support collaborative and respectful relationships between the City and artists, ensuring that the engagement process honours artistic autonomy while aligning with institutional goals.

    Outcomes:

    • Facilitated clear communication and expectations between the City and artists, fostering mutual trust and understanding.
    • Introduced tailored tools, including Partnership Agreement Guidelines, to clarify roles, responsibilities, and shared goals among all participants.
    • Supported ethical decision-making by adapting Data Management Plan templates to handle community-generated data with care and transparency.
    • Mediated divergent priorities between the City’s focus on public accountability and the artists’ creative freedom, creating space for compromise and collaboration.

    Why This Matters: Relationships are at the core of successful public art initiatives. By prioritizing the collaboration between institutional stakeholders and artists, this work strengthened trust, aligned creative and organizational objectives, and demonstrated how ethical frameworks and communication tools can create a foundation for meaningful partnerships.

  • Art -Research Collaboration

    Project: Director of Art and Research Collaboration (2022–2025)

    Objective: To foster equitable and effective collaborations between artists, researchers, and community partners in interdisciplinary projects.

    Outcomes:

    • Developed tools and resources (e.g., Partnership Agreement Guidelines and Ethical Consideration Guidelines) to clarify roles, responsibilities, and ethical considerations in collaborative work.
    • Engaged artists and researchers in defining shared mandates and clear working processes to guide partnerships.
    • Secured funding and led research initiatives that advanced artist-researcher collaborations, generating impactful frameworks for future interdisciplinary work.


    Why This Matters    : This work demonstrates how tailored tools and facilitation can support collaboration between artists and researchers, ensuring that both creative and research-driven contributions are valued and integrated meaningfully.

  • Academic and Library Partnerships

    Project: Developing the Community Data Toolkit

    Objective: To create accessible, shareable resources that support interdisciplinary research involving communities, artists, and academic institutions.

    Outcomes:

    • Refined the Art and Research Data Management Plan Template to support diverse research contexts, ensuring clarity and usability for broader applications.
    • Partnered with university libraries and data management specialists to align tools with existing research support systems, strengthening institutional capacity.
    • Created shareable resources that enabled community organizations and researchers to approach data sharing and collaboration more ethically and effectively.


    Why This Matters    : This work bridges the gap between academic resources and community-based research needs, ensuring that tools for collaboration, ethics, and data management are accessible, practical, and supportive of meaningful outcomes.

"Cathy is a true pleasure to collaborate with! We started working together while she was developing a series of tools for arts-based research. Adept at learning and listening deeply, Cathy synthesizes sprawling conversations—about everything from ethics to best practices—into practical and instructive documents. Cathy readily finds common ground, creating generative spaces to let everyone around the table’s expertise and life experiences shine in the work.

 Data management is an evolving requirement for grants and publishers. However, it should not just be a checked box or a webform completed halfheartedly and forgotten. Working with Cathy on how best practices for data management can be more than a requirement has evolved into a conversational version of a Data Management Plan to get all community partners on the same page about data management. I look forward to thinking and working alongside her in the path ahead!"

-Danica Evering, Research Data Management Specialist, McMaster University

"Cathy Paton is an amazing consultant. I have had the opportunity to work very closely with Cathy on a number of diverse projects. Her strengths are in making sure all voices are heard/represented in a supportive and considerate way, bringing creative solutions as responses for new approaches to recurring issues, and using her completely approachable non-intimidating nature to bring others into the group dynamic. 

Our work together involved many projects working with vulnerable populations including families and children. Cathy has a remarkable gift for being thoughtful and patient and is a natural listener, which is one of the most valuable skills in a good facilitator and consultant. I would most definitely work with her organization again, and highly recommend her services."

-Alia Abaya, CEO, Circle Community Land Trust

My consultation work is guided by the following principles:

Relational Inquiry

Prioritizing the relational aspects of interdisciplinary work, creating space for clear communication, reflection, and trust-building.

Ethical Engagement

Emphasizing ongoing ethical maintenance, helping teams navigate questions of power, representation, and accountability with care and thoughtfulness.

Creative Integration

Bringing an art-forward approach that values artistic inquiry as integral to collaborative projects, ensuring that the artistic process and outcomes are honored and celebrated.

My consultation methods are grounded in years of applied practice, including work developed during my postdoctoral fellowship with McMaster University’s Community Research Platform, where I explored how art and research intersect to foster more equitable, ethical, and creative collaborations.

 

Ready to Collaborate?

Whether you’re starting a new interdisciplinary project or looking for support to strengthen an ongoing initiative, I’d love to help. Let’s work together to create meaningful connections, navigate challenges, and bring clarity to your collaboration.

Get in Touch