Students at Caledonia Secondary School can now peer into imagined worlds beyond school walls.
Funded through ArtStarts, a provincial charity that supports art and creativity with B.C.’s young people, the ‘Window to Another World’ project invited students from Grades 10, 11 and 12 to create a permanent art installation in Caledonia’s cafeteria.
The students have been working with teachers Collette Stewart, Cara Purita and art gallery coordinator Laura McGregor since October, creating 21 windows from scratch — from the wood frames to the design and landscape. Students were also instructed to create three-dimensional details within their windows to invite the viewer further in.
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“We started working with basic perspective drawing and talked about how different places can affect you in different ways, and how there is a relationship between the viewer of an image and the actual image,” Stewart says.
Grade 11 student Bryce Roy Allan used a piece from a broken skateboard to design his gothic window, and Eva Almgren designed hers as a playful take on the Queen of Heart’s backyard oasis.
“It’s a different side to her [Queen of Hearts] because she’s usually pretty violent, so it’s a nice soft piece with her lanterns and heart-shaped bushes,” Almgren says.
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After a summer spent travelling, Grade 11 student Jasmine Robinson wanted her window to make visitors feel like they were overlooking a city landscape, complete with a room key hanging from the apartment window.
“Being in the city growing up, I loved it. I always want to leave Terrace and go to the city,” Robinson says.
She says seeing the finished collection of unique pieces has turned the cafeteria into a more welcoming space for students.
“At first it was kind of boring, there was nothing on the walls — it was just brick. Now this makes it more lively,” Robinson says. “Overall, it all looks beautiful.”
brittany@terracestandard.com
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