CANMORE – Helping students’ dreams take flight, the Town of Canmore and Canmore Collegiate High School are on the hunt for an artist to lead part of the Grade 9 work study program.
Town of Canmore arts and culture coordinator Nicky Pacas said it is exciting to play a role with the program for the second year. To help facilitate this process, the Town is searching for an artist to help lead an art project for interested students.
The work study program project takes place from Jan. 20-24, 2020.
“When Grades 10 through 12 are writing their exams, it leaves an opening for Grade 9 students who aren’t writing exams to do the work study program,” Pacas said.
The program is organized by the high school and involves a variety of businesses and workplaces throughout the community. Pacas said it is a great opportunity for the Town to support students in a project that “celebrates the diverse and robust community” of Canmore.
The work study program includes week-long internships around Canmore, the creation of an art project is one of many opportunities available.
“Grade 9 students can work in a field that they’re interested in,” Pacas said.
Last year, Pacas partnered with Canmore Collegiate High School vice-principal Hans Holthuis to create a position for up to four students who are interested in engineering, construction, or art to work on a public sculpture.
“We ended up creating a sculpture out of skis,” Pacas said.
The raven, known as Dirty Bird, was created by local artist Cedar Mueller and a group of Grade 9 students.
“They really saw what they could create as artists,” Pacas said. “To see that evolution of learning how to use the tools and equipment was really, really cool.”
They were “lucky” last year because Mueller came prepared with an idea for a project that was adaptable to the ideas presented by the students.
“The kids spent the first-day taking bindings off skis and thinking about how to arrange things so that we could build the raven.”
Pacas added that the students’ passions, expertise and voices in the project are essential to ensuring the program is a success.
“We want to make sure that their ideas are contributing to the project,” Pacas said, describing how she could see the students' confidence grow over the course of the project.
It was an awesome experience for the students seeing their vision come to life. Upon the completion of Dirty Bird, a couple of the students were inspired to pursue going to art school when they graduated.
“None of us really knew how the sculpture was going to turn out – we hoped that we could build something that would turn out well,” Pacas said. “For everybody at the end, especially the students, they were so proud of the work that they had created.”
It was amazing to see the complex components of the project that came together through manual labour, critical thinking, measuring and more.
“It inspired their pride in it,” she said. “To have them be able to show their work and receive such positive recognition from the community and from their peers was really important.”
Pacas said she is hoping to create a similar opportunity for students this year.
“We’re looking for an artist that is willing to be a mentor to the students – in addition, to having the expertise of creating a sculpture or installation,” Pacas said. “It’s really important for us at the Town of Canmore and with the high school to make sure the students are collaborators with this project and not just working on it.”
The Grade 9 work study program art piece will be displayed in downtown Canmore from Feb. 19 to April 13, 2020, as part of the Art Walk in the Woods temporary public exhibit.
Artists who reside in the Bow Valley are invited to provide an expression of interest to create a public work collaboration with Canmore Collegiate High School Grade 9 work study program by submitting their credentials, prior experience and a concept for a sculpture to the town.
Applications are due next Wednesday (Dec. 4) by 4 p.m. they can be found at canmore.ca/residents/public-art.
