This year, the first week saw eighty-two elementary students exploring a variety of media including drawing, watercolours, printmaking, and raku pottery. Providing them with inspiration and instruction was artist-in-residence Ross Penhall and a crew of art teachers from Lower Mainland schools, all practicing artists themselves. In the second week, fifty-two older students had the opportunity to develop and further their skills in drawing and painting with Graham Gillmore, and in sculpture with George Rammell. As Bill MacDonald, the managing director of Artists for Kids, explains, the goal of the summer program is to shake students out of the classroom paradigm, allowing them to experiment with media in new and exciting ways.

Artists for Kids was conceived in the late 80's when budgetary constraints forced the North Vancouver School Board to downsize. Programs were cut, and as is unfortunately most often the case, the arts were among the first to go. Undaunted, a committed group of art teachers, led by Bill MacDonald, set about to seek external funding sources in order to continue to provide art enrichment through extra-curricular activities. When Bill was a student himself, he had the privilege of studying under Gordon Smith and Sam Black who were both teaching Fine Arts at UBC. These two venerable artists wanted to take their senior students on a field trip to New York and came up with the fund-raising strategy of selling a portfolio of limited edition prints, donated by themselves and their students. The project proved successful enough to defray the costs for the trip. So, in 1989, Bill decided to try something similar.

Using a loan from the North Vancouver School District, he purchased an original work of art from each of three well-known BC artists: Gordon Smith, Bill Reid, and Jack Shadbolt. They, in turn, agreed to donate a limited edition set of high quality prints, drawn from these images, to Artists for Kids, who would market them and use the generated income to finance after-school art workshops.

The program has never stopped growing, and has received enthusiastic support from an impressive cross-section of contemporary Canadian artists. There are now over forty prints for sale in their gallery (www.artists4kids.com), including works by Governor General's Award winners: Gathie Falk, Betty Goodwin, Takao Tanabe, and Irene F. Whittome. Many artists have shared not only their art, but also their time, participating actively in the after-school and weekend workshops, the summer camps, and the conferences that Artists for Kids have sponsored over the years. Gillmore, Rammell, and Penhall have added their names to an impressive list of artist/collaborators, including: Kenojuak Ashevak, Anne Meredith Barry, Robert Bateman, Doug Biden, David Blackwood, Marcus Bowcott, Wayne Eastcott, Joe Fafard, Rodney Graham, Ted Harrison, George Littlechild, Roz Marshall, Guido Molinari, Tiki Mulvihille, Toni Onley, Jane Ash Poitras, Jack Shadbolt, Gordon Smith, Charles van Sandwyk, Gu Xiong, Irene F. Whittome, and Xhwalactun.

Bill MacDonald speculates that the public school programs Artists for Kids run are unique in North America, not only because of the way they are funded, but also because they involve artists and teachers working together as a team. Graham Gillmore, put it succinctly when he said, "artists aren't teachers". He went on to say that when he was first approached about the possibility of doing the summer camp, he had been reassured to learn that he would be collaborating with veteran art educators.

Along with classes and workshops, over the past five years Artists for Kids have organized three major exhibitions of works from their permanent collection, inviting guest curators, Scott Watson, Ian Thom, and Robin Laurence to participate. Last year's show, Outside and In: Towards a Culture of Place, will soon go online at www.artists4kids.com accompanied by a set of K-12 lessons that can be used by anyone. Aligned with the show was a conference that brought artists, art educators and students together for an intensive three days.

Artists for Kids also run a popular fashion photography class every year, where secondary students work with a professional photographer, and an experienced team of designers, models, and stylists. Each spring, North Shore News publishes a selection of the photos in their annual fashion feature on local designers. Student work is also showcased regularly at the Artists for Kids gallery, and once a year, 500 pieces are matted and displayed in a giant art show in Capilano Mall.

In 2002, the Ministry of Education awarded Artists for Kids an Award for Excellence and Innovation. The $10,000 prize was a welcome addition to the coffers, since their programs are funded exclusively through print sales and corporate donations. Believing strongly in making the programs as accessible as possible, Artists for Kids absorb many costs internally, and provide scholarships, and bursaries to students in need. They must rely on continued print sales, sponsorships, and a fledgling trust fund, The Gordon and Marion Smith Foundation for Young Artists, to keep growing.

So far, over five thousand kids have participated in their programs, or in Bill MacDonald's words, "? have been touched by art." In this time of cutbacks in education, when schools are losing specialist teachers, and art rooms are being dismantled, it is a program like Artists for Kids that keeps art alive for young people. Opus knows the importance of art education for children and young adults and partnered with Artists for Kids early on in its development. We are proud to be counted among their sponsors and have happily supported their summer art programs for a number of years now.

If you would like more information, please visit their website at www.artists4kids.com or call 604-903-3797, email: info@artists4kids.com or send your enquiry to Artists for Kids Trust, 810 21st Street W., North Vancouver, BC V7P 2C1.

Aubin van Berckel
aubin@opusframing.com