Skip to content

SD43 art teachers show their stuff

A new exhibit that opens next Friday at Place des Arts aims to give students, their parents and the public a better understanding what School District 43 art teachers create outside of the classroom.
andrew
Andrew O'Neill's Barber.

A new exhibit that opens next Friday at Place des Arts aims to give students, their parents and the public a better understanding what School District 43 art teachers create outside of the classroom.

A total of 15 teachers are showing their personal artwork in a month-long display in the Mezzanine Gallery at the Coquitlam venue, ending Oct. 6.

Co-ordinator Sherida Charles, who has taught art at Centennial secondary since 2002 and previously at Port Moody and Terry Fox secondaries and George Pearkes junior high school, said the exhibit will be a surprise as she’s only seen images of the entries; she also won’t be involved in the gallery installation next week.

“I’ve basically been organizing the show over email so I’m hopeful the quality of the work will be good,” she said of the paintings, drawings, photography, mixed media, pottery, sculpture and jewellery to be submitted.

For her part, Charles will have two landscapes in the exhibit: an acrylic on canvas and an acrylic on paper — both based on trips around B.C.

It’s not the first time SD43 art teachers have come together to display. They’ve also held events at the Evergreen Cultural Centre, the most recent in 2010; however, those exhibits were not seen as much by students as they were held in between school breaks, Charles said.

She hopes to draw a bigger crowd at Place des Arts, as the teachers’ exhibit is timed with the start of the new academic year.

“It would be nice if people could see that teachers have another reality other than the classroom,” Charles said, adding, “Many of us have studied art and that impacts the planning we have on the students to help them stay creative during their life times and bring art into their own professions.”

• Also opening Sept. 7 are The Forgotten City (mixed works by Jay Lyonns) and Exploring Form in Paint and Clay (painting and ceramics by Dorothy Doherty). The reception is at 7 p.m. at Place des Arts (1120 Brunette Ave., Coquitlam).

jcleugh@tricitynews.com 

••••••••

The list of teachers participating in the exhibition:

Tim Eccles
Sherida Charles
Kihoon Yoo
Olga Dodic
Andrew O’Neill
Robyn Croft
Karen Learmonth
Judi Gardnner
Angela Stevens
Robert Morris
Sheri Tomkins
Wah Kee Ting
Charlotte Lightburn
Mary Otey
AJ Vittie