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The Artist in Residence Studio program or AIRS is an artist-led charity for providing equitable access to high quality and socially relevant visual arts education for children in public elementary schools through longterm artist residencies. AIRS works in collaboration with the Vancouver School Board to create a studio space within a school and supports local, professional artists to design and facilitate dynamic, process based visual and interdisciplinary arts engagements for children across the whole school. AIRS awakens the creative and compassionate capacities of children empowering them to become transformers of their world.
"I feel like whenever I do art, I can always have a smile on my face. I feel like I crawl out my shell." -
- Grade 5 Student
You are most warmly invited to join us for the opening of our year-end AIRS Exhibition on Tuesday May 20th in the Student Gallery and Rm. 180 at the VSB Education Centre from 4:30-7pm. Students docents will be present to share about their work and there will be some formal remarks just before 5pm.
This years exhibition, I AM Resilience and Reciprocity, brings together select student works from artist residencies in 18 elementary schools. Themes include resilience, inner strength, courage and emotional awareness and art processes that allow students to attune to their internal voice and authentic self. Adjacent to this are projects that cultivate our reciprocal relationship back out into the world, nurturing connection to the land, waters, ancestors and neighbourhood communities. Rendered in diverse media (drawing, painting, puppetry, poetry, assemblage, light, stickers, printmaking, film, photography and new media), these works speak to the way that art cultivates the capacities for creative joy, integrity, compassion and mutual care that are needed now more than ever for holding true to the vision of a more just and equitable shared word.
We look forward to welcoming you there!
The third volume of ART WAVES is out. ART WAVES provides updates on what’s happening behind the scenes at AIRS and a glimpse of some of the incredible art projects unfolding in the studios for students with artists.
Yunuen Perez Vertti is a Digital Media Artist and Filmmaker originally from Mexico City, and is a beloved member of AIRS. Working in front of and behind the scenes at AIRS for 7 years as an artist, mentor and community builder, Yunuen’s passion for arts education creates spaces of artistic discovery and transformation for both artists and students.
AIRS program hosted a 3 day pop up exhibition at ARTspeak Gallery, a public gallery in downtown Vancouver from April 23-26, 2025 featuring masks, poetry, abstract works, collage animations and soundscapes created by intermediate students at Pierre Elliot Trudeau, John Henderson and Chief Maquinna Elementary. Led by artists Kelsie Grazier, Monica Cheema and fanny Kearse, students worked with diverse media (sound, light, colour, shadow, gesture, words, archival photography, and found ephemera) to explore the space where image and language intersect This is the spaces between silence and sound, seeing and speaking, where intimations and expressions of our authentic self and our being in the world can emerge. The opening was an inspiring celebration for students and their parents, featuring student poetry performances and a panel of student artists. This powerful exhibition, opened up space for intergenerational exchange where young people model the practice of being true to ourselves, and vulnerable to the possibilities of our creative transformation through art.
This residency and exhibition is funded through a City of Vancouver CASC grant and made possible through the generosity of ARTspeak Gallery.
Applications are now closed. If you would like to receive information about AIRS, please sign up for our newsletter below.
If you have any specific questions about the program connect with Yunuen Perez Vertti at yunuen@airprogram.org
With the 2025/2026 school year on the horizon, we are urgently expanding our funding base. To ensure the sustainability of our program, we've launched a Giving Tuesday fundraising campaign with a goal of $25,000 by December 3rd. These funds are crucial for providing high-quality arts education to underserved elementary public schools in the long run. Please consider a donation to our program. Every contribution makes a difference; all donations above $25 will receive a tax receipt.
Donations to AIRS Program Society can be made directly through link below.
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 Artist In Residence Studio program is honoured to be working together on the unceded, unsurrendered and traditional territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm|Musqueam, Sḵwxwú7mesh|Squamish & səlilwətaɬ |Tsleil-Waututh people, where we learn, live and work. We humbly acknowledge that we are unlearning and relearning and with this acknowledgement comes the commitment to engage in ongoing acts of reconciliation.