Over the summer, the Board of Trustees was delighted to attend a private viewing the 2nd Annual BGSD High School Student Virtual Art Showcase at the County Centre in Nisku, to check out the amazing artistry and creativity of students from across the school division.

“We were excited to showcase the imagination and creativity of our high school students,” said Superintendent Bill Romanchuk. “This artistic celebration is designed to be an annual affair. As well, our Board of Trustees will select a number of artworks from these exhibitions to become part of the Division’s permanent student art collection, which is proudly displayed on the third floor of the County Centre.”

“The visual and arts teach students to use their imagination, to visualize and generate ideas, to bring ideas to life and to communicate effectively,” said Board Chair Esther Eckert. “For example, perspective is an important element in creating visual arts. These sort of abilities are not frills, they are essential to everyday life and work. An art education can help to prepare our students for the complex demands of the twenty first century workplace.”

After careful consideration, the trustees chose the following student artworks to add to the growing art collection:

• École Secondaire Beaumont Composite High School student Amber Hunter’s photograph ‘Tea Party’, which formed part of Amber’s submission for Photography Provincials at Skills Canada Alberta this year. The photo is a composite shot; Amber took photos of three different teacups and saucers in various positions, which were then combined into a single image. The image is a self-portrait using studio lights, gels, and editing software for final compositing.

• Leduc Composite High School student Calley Rustand’s contemplative graphite on paper drawing ‘New Normal’ is meant to focus on the calm mundane moments in the busy of life, according to Calley. “The focus and detail on the model and the newspaper zooms in on the quiet moment to he has to himself in the midst of the busy train. The mask around his chin is also important; it shows the sudden and dramatic changes we’ve all experienced over the past couple of years.”

• École Secondaire Beaumont Composite High School student Emma Hickey’s nostalgic white charcoal on paper drawing ‘A Fresh Lunch’ was part of a class Cluttered Spaces drawing project. The students explored various black and white mediums and still life cluttered space reference images. Emma chose a more difficult black and white medium – white charcoal pencil on black paper, which was more challenging as it required the mind to think opposite of what artists traditionally practice, which is adding value to white paper. “My artwork was inspired by a memory of eating salmon slices with my mother’s freshly baked soda-bread on Christmas morning, as a light breakfast,” said Emma. “It was quite delightful, and this image I found reminded me of it quite a bit.”

Congratulations to all three students on being selected for inclusion in the permanent collection.

The 2022 Virtual High School Student Art Showcase is available for viewing at: https://sites.google.com/…/2022-bgsd-student-art…

We hope to see more inspiring and thoughtful art at next year’s student art showcase, which we hope to host in-person so that our school community can take it in. Stay tuned for details…