For the 30th year, curated art representing schools and students across Calgary has connected students and highlighted the invaluable work of art teachers.
Artwalk, a Calgary Catholic School District (CCSD) tradition celebrating its 30-year anniversary, invites schools to select one piece of student artwork for display on the walls of the Catholic School Centre.
David Nielsen, a Bishop O’Byrne High School visual arts teacher, who has taught in the CCSD for more than 25 years, said that recent year’s displays have been extra special.
“About 30 years ago, they started sending picture frames to all the schools, saying, ‘Select a piece that’s going to fit in the frame and send it to us.’ So, we’d select one kid’s piece that would go down to the central office downtown, and then they would take all of the frames and the pictures, and then they would put them in the central office, which they still do,” he told LWC.
“Now, they’ve added another layer to it where they make digital copies of the pieces, and they frame them, and they put them all together as a gallery, and they have them down at St John’s (Centre for Arts and Culture).”
Nielsen said that before the walk, which was open Monday evening, the district invites families to come down and celebrate their child’s artwork.
“This may all seem like small potatoes, but it’s so cool for these kids to walk in there and see their art,” he said.
“I’m a high school teacher, so I try to put in stuff that is art with a capital A and really try and highlight the strength of my program, something that’s absolutely all killer, no filler.”
Ahead of this year’s submission, Nielsen challenged his students to create a series of 20 Andy Warhol-inspired self-portraits. The piece chosen for Artwalk struck him because of its immense depth.
“It’s one of those pieces where you look at it, you’re like, ‘That’s really cool,’ and then you look at it, then you start kind of digging in a little deeper. And there’s this super strong message,” he said.
Building community through the art showcase
As a large school district, rarely can an event unite the CCSD community, Nielsen said. Because of the nature of showcasing hundreds of student-made artworks, Artwalk is an exception.
“It’s very rare that our 120 schools come together at all, and this is one of the few ways where everyone comes together and everyone who’s involved in this thing gets a chance to be celebrated and it’s like a big part of our climate and culture,” Nielsen said.
Artwalk also bridges the gap to students for CCSD staff and admin who may not work directly in a school.
“When they see the work that kids made on the walls, they’re reminded of what they’re doing there. The only art that’s on the walls in the central office is kids’ art and that’s a hugely important reminder to them,” Nielsen said.
In recent years, arts education has been under scrutiny, according to Nielsen. As an art teacher himself, he said that oftentimes art can be a sanctuary for students of all ages.
“Thinking about my own career, my art room has been open at lunch every day for 16 years. Kids come in there, they eat their lunch, they love knowing that there’s this place where they can go, they can be with their friends,” he said.
“For some kids, it’s the gym, and for other kids, it’s science. For my kids, it’s the art world. We need creativity in the world, and the Artwalk is a piece of the larger mission that we need creative thinkers because it’s the creative thinkers that are going to help us solve problems.”
