A Closer Look at Booking & Touring

ArtStarts is dedicated to increasing BC student’s access and exposure to professional artists and art. Our Booking and Touring service is one of the key ways that we achieve this. With the annual Showcase recently behind us and booking and touring requests beginning to pour in, we thought we’d check in with the program’s manager, Tara Bailey, for some insight into the inner workings of the service. We discovered that the process isn’t always smooth sailing, providing some twists and turns that keep her and her team on their toes!

Now Available: BC Curriculum for Arts Education K to 7

The new Arts Education K to 7 2010 Curricula for Dance, Drama, Music and Visual Arts is now available on the BC curriculum website and through Crown Publications.

For more information about the new Arts Education curriculum, visit our post New BC Arts Education Curriculum Announced or the Ministry of Education website.

Gallery Tour - Grade 6's Hearing Voices

Grade six students from Clinton Elementary School in Burnaby were recently given a tour of our exhibition Hear Our Voices. Conversation and questions arose amongst the students as they looked at, read and interacted with the richly diverse collection of work on display. When asked for their thoughts on the show, one enthusiastic student declared, "I love it! Beautiful artwork!".

Hear Our Voices

Our current exhibition, Hear Our Voices, is named after a collection of colourful stories written by First Nations students from Balmoral and Carson Graham Secondary Schools. Under the guidance of author-in-residence, Sylvia Olsen, thirty-six students crafted fictional and true stories, honing their evolving skills at story telling and writing. 

Taking it to the Street- Public Art in the Curriculum

Taking it to the Street is a cross-curricular, multi-grade, inquiry-based project that takes students to experience the Vancouver Biennale International Public Art installations.

CTF to Launch Imagineaction Initiative

On September 1 the Canadian Teachers’ Federation will launch a new initiative – Imagineaction – a student-driven social action program for students from Kindergarten to Grade 12.

New BC Arts Education Curriculum Announced

The British Columbia Ministry of Education recently announced the implementation of a new Arts Education curriculum for students from kindergarten to Grade 7.  The new curricula has been designed to allow flexibility in organizing and implementing programs to best meet the needs of students, teachers, and communities.

Honour Scroll Project Unveiled

Students, teachers and members of the community gathered at Britannia Secondary on Friday, June 11th for the unveiling of the Honour Scroll project, which included scrolls made by students in collaboration with artist Susan McCallum.

Gallery Tours!

Students from Hammond Elementary in Maple Ridge recently visited the ArtStarts Gallery for a tour of our current exhibition, Welcome to Our World.

Artist spotlight: Julian Lawrence

Students from Windemere Secondary school, who came in for a tour of our current exhibition, Welcome to Our World, recently left ArtStarts some very original thank-you gifts!

Toward cultural harmony

Students at Handsworth Secondary in North Vancouver concluded a special music project with a concert at their school Friday afternoon. Working with a composer-in-residence, several world music experts, and mentors from Sinfonia Orchestra, a group of students collaborated over several months to create cross-cultural musical works that reflect their ideas on matters of cultural understanding, pluralism and community building.

Lord Roberts Elementary gears up for a special drawing project...

This morning excited students from Vancouver's Lord Roberts Elementary visited the ArtStarts gallery to get a glimpse of where their artwork will soon be exhibited. Three classes will be working with artist Julian Lawrence throughout the fall to produce a comic book project reflecting their connections to the spirit of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic & Paralympic Games.

Flutter, Hum, Buzz...

Yesterday the ArtStarts gallery was visited for a second time by a group of 3/4 students from Graham Bruce Elementary, here to view a display about their completed project Flutter, Hum, Buzz: An Artful Garden Party. The project was the result of an artist residency by Lori Weidenhammer, who helped the students to learn that art is more than painting and sculpture, and that the raw materials for artistic expression can be found all around them.

Creative

It's that time of the year again! With only a month left of Regional Voices (on until June 27), planning is underway for our next exhibition, Creative Connections. This exhibition will feature insightful work from some of BC’s youngest artists as they reveal their world through art.

Elsie Roy visits ArtStarts

We had groups of students from the neighbouring elementary school, Elsie Roy, working with artist Elizabeth Mackenzie on a portraiture residency at the gallery.