What is Studio 101?
STUDIO 101 is an art program where Artists, working with elementary school students create community development through layers of art experience.
History: While I was on the Eastside Culture Crawl Board I proposed this program for development. Private funding was made available to explore the feasibility of an art collection program geared towards educating students about the artists in their community and city, specifically the thriving artistic community of the eastside.
Pilot Project: Richard Tetrault, Katherine Youngs and myself set out to develop a unique program learning from what we saw and knew of existing art programs. This team visited Artist for Kids on the North Shore, VAG school touring program, listened to each other’s experiences working with children directly thru mural projects and hands on work with collections and children.
The team also found inspiration in Esther Rausenberg’s Collectors workshop held at the Cultch that she organized for the Eastside Culture Crawl Society as well as Ron Longstaffe, a longtime collector in Vancouver, who passed away in 2003. When Ron was a young man he was given $100 to start an art collection he initially saved his $100 annual fund to buy a work he really wanted. This purchase resulted in a lifelong relationship with art, artists, art collecting and art sharing.
The team worked with ECCS Artists, volunteers, teachers, and students from Strathcona Elementary School and Seymour Elementary School to develop today’s program.
Today’s Program: At present I am still involved with the program. Elementary school groups are involved in the Program firstly at their school, where a team presents the 6 – 7 Artists they will visit. The children are given Artist Cards for all of the participating Artists. The Artist Cards outline the creative process and biographies for students to keep and use as reference. The week following the CRAWL groups of approx. 10 students are taken to the Artist’s studio where they have a workshop and hands on experience with a specific medium. Following this workshop the students return to school where they experience the final part of the program. Here the students, under the direction of their teachers, select one piece of art that is given to the School for their school art collection. The participating Artists are asked to submit a work for the students to review, debate, discuss and finally select. The Artist is paid for his work by a program grant.