AUDIO: Exhibition reflects how school arts programs inspire creativity and opportunity for students
Still Unfolding, Art in School is free and open to the public until April 11.
The importance of arts programs in schools is being highlighted through a new pop-up exhibition at Eltuek Arts Centre, featuring recently created student works, including a film animation project from Sydney Academy.
Alison Uhma, a Bachelor of Education student at Cape Breton University completing her practicum at Sydney Academy, came up with the idea for the project. She consulted with local filmmaker Nelson MacDonald, who offered to help out.
“I spoke to my associate teacher, Ryan Hawboldt, and he said let’s apply for an ArtsSmart grant and Nelson can come in and really help us get this animation made,” she said. “So many people were involved to make it happen.”
MacDonald worked with students over five days, guiding them through the process of creating animation using 16 mm film. Each student contributed a short segment, which was combined into a finished piece.
“There’s 400 feet [of film] here — we cut up about 6 feet for each student in each class,” he said. “We were able to really easily, right in the classroom, splice together the 6-feet you do, the 6-feet the other kid does, and we were able to play it back for them at the end of every class and it’s really fun.”
The project comes as provincial budget cuts have eliminated funding for many arts education initiatives, including the ArtsSmarts Program and Artists in Schools, a long-running program that connected professional artists with classrooms across Nova Scotia.
For both MacDonald and Uhma, the experience underscores the value of bringing artists into schools and giving students hands-on creative opportunities.
“I’d never been interested in doing arts education before Alison asked me to do it — maybe I didn’t see the value in it as an artist because my time is so limited and I’m always trying to make ends meet and work on my projects — but very quickly Alison and I were thinking maybe there will be someone here who, through creating this film, is going to be motivated to be a filmmaker some day, be an artist some day,” MacDonald said.
“This kind of experience, seeing a professional artist in the classroom and then giving students an opportunity to make something that is then shown at a well respected gallery space, that they can use on their resume if they’re applying to art school — these are all thing students can use to further their own artistic career if that’s what they wish to do,” said Uhma.
Hear the full interview with CBC Radio’s Mainstreet Cape Breton host Wendy Bergfeldt here.
View this project as part of the exhibition Still Unfolding, Art in Schools until April 11 in Gallery 203 at Eltuek Arts Centre, Monday through Friday, 9am-4pm and Saturdays from 9am-3pm.
