Confederation Centre Art Gallery: Yellow Bus For Multicoloured Journey
Students studying the representation of Aboriginals in Canadian visual arts as part of the Confederation Centre Art Gallery's program, Claiming Identity.
Artist Profiles and Success Stories
Like many other Canadian galleries, the Confederation Centre Art Gallery (Charlottetown) was affected by the budget cuts of the 1990s. Its education programs were hardest hit, with the lay-off of the education agent.
“The consequence within a community is likely less apparent in the short term than in the long term. School-aged youth no longer have opportunities to visit the Gallery and it becomes unfamiliar territory to them,” explains Jon Tupper, Director of Confederation Centre Art Gallery.
The Gallery had always strived to provide students with “an experience that is not limited to classroom discussion but extends into their daily lives.” In 1999, it developed lesson plans that approached scholastic themes via works of art. The formula generated 800 for each level, from kindergarten to grade 12, in French and in English. The plans are available on its web site and solicited the world over!
In the fall of 2007, the Gallery was truly able to give students a sense of ownership of the Gallery. With the support of the Canada Council it hired an officer of Education and Outreach to develop an exhibit linked to the teaching objectives of the grade eight social sciences module.
Claiming Identity looks at the representation of Aboriginal peoples in Canadian visual arts. Cornelius Krieghoff, Charles Comfort and contemporary Aboriginal artists Jane Ash Poitras, David Neel and Teresa Marshall will be references in the program.
Students were invited to explore the material through the visual arts, dance and theatre during the Arts Discovery Days (November 20-22), organized in partnership with the P.E.I. Department of Education and pre-service teachers, Faculty of Education, University of Prince Edward Island. This program was highly successful, and the position of officer of Education and Outreach has been extended by the Centre to ensure the long term sustainability of arts education at its institution.