What is AIRS?

The Artist in Residence Studio program or AIRS is a Vancouver based charitable organization for providing equitable access to high quality and socially relevant visual arts education for children in schools.  AIRS is a program developed in partnership with the Vancouver School Board that seeks to create  studio space within public elementary schools and to support local, professional artists to work  in collaboration with teachers in the studio, to  create meaningful hands-on visual arts engagements for children across the whole school.  

Every year, AIRS releases an end-of-the-year report based on the review of visual documentation, written reflections, and recollections of participating students, teachers, and artists collected throughout the year. This year was significant for AIRS as a newly formed registered charity. The report reflects on this milestone and the possibilities for new partnerships, growth, and the expansion of the program's long-term impact. 

The VSB  hosted an exhibition to celebrate the art and learning that emerged from the studios this year by students working with artists in the AIRS program. 

Imprints of Belonging was located in the Student Gallery, on the Main floor of the Vancouver School Board Education Centre.  To experience the online version of the exhibition, click below.

Intermediate students make historical animations with Monica Cheema. The short stop motion films centred on one of three historic Vancouver neighbourhoods; China town, Hogan’s Alley and Punjabi Market.  Each film is centred on a single archival photograph that students’ discovered and selected through their research about their chosen neighbourhood.  These archival photographs were animated and brought into meaningful relation with found materials such as magazine images and text and patterned cloth, and everyday objects and ephemera like sweet wrappers, silk flowers or wooden chopsticks.  These animations were over-laid with spoken word and Foley sound, to produce imaginative and thought-provoking film shorts that evoke the rich and enduring cultural heritage of each place and the unsettling impact of development and displacement.  

A few months ago, Perrin Grauer a visual  artist who works as a writer for Emily Carr University of Art + Design  visited AIRS artist Kelsie Grazier at the Trudeau Elementary AIRS  studio. Perrin captured his observations of the day spent at the studio  in this article for Pancouver and the Shumka Center.