Books of Belonging : Maquinna Elementary

printmaking (monotypes, lift, relief, drypoint and offset printing) and scratchboard with Julie McIntyre

Ours AIRS Residency took place in the library, so we compiled all our explorations in printmaking techniques into artist books that were displayed all along on the top shelves through the school year.

Grades 6 and 7s looked at historical and contemporary self portraits and drew themselves Manga style on Monotypes. They explored personal symbolism and associations with animals and plants and created lift prints. Scratchboards were used to mimic the carved white line of relief prints and they brought these images together into a personal coat of arms in drypoint with viscosity print and hand tinting.

Grades 3, 4 and 5s theme was Biodiversity and we looked at traditional landscape painting and contemporary Indigenous artwork and concepts to define ecosystems, inter-connectiveness and stewardship while being introduced to monotype, lift and relief printmaking techniques.

Grades 1 and 2 students celebrated Community with images of family, neighbourhoods, and a parade using monotype, scratchboards and offset printing. They also explored relief printmaking in their pond prints while being introduced to concepts of biological communities.

Moberly Elementary

Stories of Courage and Transformation with artist Maggie Chow

The Exhibition of “ Mosaic of Marks Words Material” from Reggio Emilia was in Vancouver a few months ago and hosted by Vancouver Reggio Association.

Teachers who are involved in this project have visited the exhibition and were so moved and inspired, by not just the documentation and wonderful stories but the spirits of the whole possibilities. We decided to use the “ Mosaic of Marks Words Material” exhibition as a metaphor for an extended research project.

All objects have identities and stories. For children, the most common object has a story, sometimes a very long story. However, if we are willing to be an authentic audience and hear the background story, you might find it surprising to connect on a level of which you might not be aware. Children share their stories with respect and

generosity that emanates from their hearts. How do we be an authentic audience? How do we get young children to use their own voices so that they feel relevant? Sharing stories takes courage. How do we nurture the courage to share? How do we encourage

scribbles, the scribble of lines can represent beauty, complexity and simplicity. How do we give the children time and freedom to explore and understand the qualities of the materials? How do we understand the line as a form of representation, a possible motivation to develop a body of work?

For five weeks at Moberly, we learned to be the authentic audience. We shared stories and strengthen relationships. We renamed the multi-purpose room as an art studio. We used a wide range of materials to investigate and play. For lower primary classroom teachers this takes courage. Without themes and motives, we need to trust and be comfortable with uncertainty. Students develop themes, ideas, theories and imaginative stories while engaging, exploring and interacting together with objects, tools and materials.

Our works are not preset or based on themes. We are seeking the student's point of view, using objects to connect and transform to expand and deepen meaningful friendships and relationships. During our project, we also place an emphasis on lines, shapes and colours. We use lines to re-create our final projects. We examined each line and gave them a new perspective. We all work collaboratively and nurture a participatory inclusive environment. What if students can benefit from just marks making and materials experiment approach to mindfulness that can teach them emotional regulation, social and coping skills and that can improve aspects of their self-awareness, self-esteem, and resilience?

SCROLLING: movement-images for other possible worlds with artist Alysha Seriani

Building on the animation projects with Moberly in the 2021/2022 school year, Media Artist in Residence Alysha Seriani continued to use school-issued iPads as creative tools for bewilderment and embodiment in artmaking. Our culminating project was the students’ live performance of their hand-built crankie theatres featuring back-lit scrolls of paper covered in hand-drawn traces of monstrous bodies alongside original mesostic poetry.

By valuing both poetry and somatic centring as useful technologies, we began each session with a poem and ended each session with mindful breathing. This residency included the practices of automatic writing and panoramic photography. We handled the iPads as pieces of the living land, and experimented with how these devices can be used in ways that are unconventional, joyful, and curious.

In-Vision / Envision A World of Possibilities: Lord Beaconsf

With artist Kat Wandel

Explore the creative process of art making with nature; utilizing traditional and new media art practices to envision a world of possibilities; With a focus on the value of exploring the creative process of New Media art-making, community-based learning, and environmental practices. Students will engage with artistic concepts and practices that foster creative growth, artistic agency and environmental stewardship.

transforming ideas / information through different mediums (i.e. what is lost, what is gained through this process?)
with references to historical and contemporary artists that explore the subject of nature
creating new understanding of our relationships with nature (on the micro and macro scale)
discussing these subjects from various perspectives and experiences of our peers
projects will be adapted to suit the developmental levels of each division

Through socially engaged and community-based learning that focus on the well-being of the self, family, community, land, spirit and ancestors. With a particular focus on connectedness, reciprocal relationships and sense of place, generational roles / responsibilities, roles of indigenous knowledge, memory, history and story, patience, time, exploring ones identity, sharing sacred knowledge with permission.

Through material transformation, students will explore various ways of seeing/ being, micro-perspectives, movement and creative inquiry utilizing light, drawing, digital photography and light-based sculpture. What is lost and gained through material transformation? What new ways of seeing / being are produced through the creative process of material transformation?

Referencing “Frequent-Sees” and “Mycelium Movement” featured in Still Moon Art’s Annual Renfrew Ravine Moon Festival (2017-2022), the artist will guide students and teachers through experimental art practices creating nature-inspired installation-based artwork using light, sound, drawing, photography, video projection and repurposed /recycled materials. Students will create their own light-based artworks, sculptures, photography, etc…and create a group installation for the school community to experience in the last week (session #8) of the program.

Kathryn references mushroom motifs and mycelium as an analogy for the unseen connections we have with our environments and communities. Collaborating with the students and teachers, to create a large-scale installation inspired by “Mycelium Movement” at the school. Students will be asked to write messages or drawings on the mushrooms (made from paper coffee filters) for their communities that communicate the world they envision for the future. If the school is interested, Kathryn would like to submit an iteration of this collaborative installation for the 2023 Moon Festival.

Tender Pathways: Mount Pleasant

collaborative textiles (felting, sewing, silk dyeing) and drawing with artists Alex Ruiz Ramirez

Mount Pleasant Elementary School students embarked on an exploration that brought focus, presence, and attention to moments, objects, and places that may be overlooked in our daily lives.

Reflecting on meaningful life experiences and working with key moments became provocations for students’ art processes that led into the joy of play with ideas and materials. Each process was led by purposeful storytelling that covered a range of considerations including working toward the acceptance of ourselves, human rights, and others that we share spaces with. Projects ranged from kite building to silk painting and embroidery, needle felting and wet felting.

In our conceptual explorations, students were asked to work in collaboration on almost every part of the installation. Students were invited to bring conscious care to the process and to one another, with special attention given to each student’s ability to overcome obstacles. Emphasis in this specific area was directed toward strengthening responsiveness to change, and strengthening the cultural fabric of the art space in order to work with open hearts and open minds.

Designed to include all students and all school divisions as contributors to the year-end installation, students came to understand that they were creating an overall communal experience with their collective works. This collaborative piece’s purpose is to offer viewers a place of reflection and joy. The overall design includes elements of an embrace, where quiet reflection comforts and provides a meditative space.

Our Story/Our Community: Thunderbird Elementary

Drawings, prints and collographs with artist Tami Murray

Artist’s at Thunderbird have been exploring how our experiences frame the story of our community. We each bring a unique perspective to the world. Those experiences provide a lens for us to look through when participating in our surroundings and our communities. We create our community’s culture by bringing all of our perspectives together.

When we share our experiences with the people around us they become a part of the fabric of the community we live, play and work in. Each person takes that story and interprets it through their own personal lens and shares their ideas, the empathy and the emotions through that lens. Just by being we leave an indelible footprint in the places we live in, the stories that we share with our neighbours, family and friends adds texture to who we all are within a community.

Students shared ideas and imagery within their art practices, There was a strong sense of empathy and support during studio sessions and exuberant sharing of work and stories. Participating artists created and retold stories, from the small and mundane to big life changing experiences and shared them within a visual framework. In addition to working

collaboratively by layering images, colour and texture with personal imagery to create a patchwork reflection of each school’s community; Artists also worked individually building a story within an image. The art we have shared when viewed together can be interpreted as community story read and understood differently through each viewer’s personal lens and experiences.

A Place of Two Rivers: Trudeau Elementary

Printmaking, painting, textiles and mixed media with Artist Alex Ruiz Ramirez

In A Place of Two Rivers, students at Pierre Elliot Trudeau Elementary explored the history of the land the school rests on. Provocations involving recreating what existed before, with an emphasis on the two streams that cross through the school’s property. Starting with indigenous plants and species, we can look at how balance was traditionally achieved in the local ecosystem. From there we can imagine questions like: “what can exist here in the future?”, “how can we pay homage to what was here in the past?”, “what is here now?”, and “how can we appreciate what is here now?”

Through these provocations students are guided to contemplate the role of biodiversity, people’s roles and involvement in fostering biodiversity, and the critical nature of biodiversity in both land and water systems. In empowering students with local knowledge about plant and animal life, the art processes offer time for reflection. Connecting the use of art materials and art practice with larger critical thought, contemplation, and connection with the present allows students to explore frequently spoken about issues in inviting ways.

In our lives, when we contemplate the things that existed before, we may not feel connected to them in a physical way, such as the two rivers that belong on this land. However, in our process, we can begin to connect with them, appreciate them through our process and acknowledging that they were here. By doing so in a collaborative process, we can also begin to challenge notions of disconnections and individualism and work together for a common goal. In this way, the importance of community and interdependence become a fundamental practice in this exhibit. Students embody the vital notions to support and be supported by others in ways that are both visible and invisible, just like the environment that supports us.

Our Story/Our Community: Henderson Elementary

Drawings, prints and collographs with artist Tami Murray

Through our studio time at Henderson Elementary we have been exploring how our experiences frame the story of our community. We each bring a unique perspective to the world. Those experiences provide a lens for us to look through when participating in our surroundings and our communities. We create our community’s culture by bringing all of our perspectives together.

Students shared ideas and imagery, taught each other the techniques that they adapted through exploration of the materials during their time in the studios. There was a strong sense of empathy and support during studio sessions. Participating artists have taken stories, from the small and mundane to big life changing experiences and shared them within a visual framework. In addition to working We have collaboratively by layering images, colour and texture with personal imagery to create a patchwork reflection of each school’s community; Artists also worked individually building a story within an image. The art we have shared when viewed together can be interpreted as community story read and understood differently through each viewer’s personal lens and experiences.

Stories Half Told : Mentorship

with Monica Cheema

A Komagata Maru Collage Project

Collective memory is shaped by stories. In the case of the Komagata Maru, the role of oral storytelling and community archiving has been crucial in locating truths, and understanding that we can never truly know everything about the past.

Working with a single photograph from the Komagata Maru archive, students collectively held a discussion to ask questions about this history, and more specifically about the archive image. Holding these questions as prompts, they then worked in groups to create collages representing their wonderings.

Home Archives: I Wonder…

Archiving is not just the work of the library, the city, the museum, or the school — archiving begins in the home: with the collecting of photographs in an album, a shoebox, on the fridge. Or the digital archive: an endless stream of photos saved to our phones.

Working with a chosen family photo, students dreamt up curiosities and feelings around their family histories. These animations were an exploration in documentary filmmaking. Beginning with brainstorming curiosities as a form of pre-production, moving to production where we then created animated collages around these photographs, and finally post-production, where we used narration and sound effects to consider the power of sound design.