SD 45 One: An Art Exhibition of West Vancouver Students Past and Present, West Vancouver Museum April 10 - May 31.
Douglas Coupland, Geoffrey Farmer, Graham Gillmore and Ian Wallace. What's the connection? They're all West Vancouver artists, of course.
While West Vancouver is known for its natural beauty, its venerable transit system, and the wealth of many of its denizens, a local teacher's passion project sets out to show the West Vancouver school district as a nurturer of the arts.
Jackie Wong is a teacher at West Vancouver Secondary School as well as the organizer of the new exhibit SD45 One, whose name is drawn from the West Vancouver school district's official title, and the first year of the project.
The exhibition includes works by recent school district students, staff and the likes of Coupland, Farmer and other internationally-acclaimed artists who were once enrolled in the school district.
"It's the first time ever that these artists, very internationally-acclaimed artists, have ever been shown together under the same venue," says Wong.
"I just realized as an art teacher and a person in the community, that we have had a lot of international artists who have come out of West Vancouver and a lot of local residents and the public don't know where they're from," says Wong.
Wong says the inspiration for the show came a year ago, when she saw Ian Wallace's exhibition at the Vancouver Art Gallery. She considered that perhaps most people were unaware that Wallace, who has been lauded for co-creating the modern art scene in Vancouver, had grown up and been educated in West Vancouver.
"The first person I asked was Wallace. I figured if I could get him, then everybody else would be pretty enthusiastic about (the exhibit). So he was overly enthusiastic and most willing to be a participant," says Wong.
While the list is already quite star-studded, Wong says there are hundreds of artists on the list and is hoping they will be featured in future exhibits of SD45.
"So I just thought the students could get inspired by knowing that there are a lot of graduates from our
district and that they've made it really big in the art world."
Wong says another goal of the exhibition is to show students a viable career path, and to use the work of the acclaimed artists to inspire a new generation of artists to take up the easel.
"You find that sometimes it only took a nudge in the right direction by someone who believed in the value of art education for a young student to follow their dreams."
"I want to bring a big awareness to the community, not just West Van, but the whole North Shore about these artists."
The exhibition runs from Apr. 8 to May 31.
