News Item

Sketching their school with wet charcoal on wet paper during a rainfall didn’t stop Ecole Duncan’s Division 3 from enjoying a three-month art project that culminates this month with an exhibit of their art at the Cowichan Valley Museum in Duncan’s train station.

Sponsored by the Cowichan Intercultural Society and facilitated by well known local artist Jennifer Lawson, the exhibit – Home is Where the Heart is - celebrates the preservation of heritage architecture, says museum curator Kathryn Gagnon.

It was a great project for the twenty-eight grade five/six Ecole Duncan students who participated, says sponsoring teacher Suzanne Dionne-Coster.

During the project, which began last November, students worked with artist Lawson, drew on the site of chosen heritage buildings, painted a heritage building, imagined who could have lived in that specific building and are now participating in an art show, Dionne-Coster explained.

The students depicted the buildings, including Queen Margaret’s Chapel, Duncan Elementary School, Duncan’s Train Station and The Garage, in diverse ways.

Each student created drawings on site varying in size, including a water colour painting of the building of their choice. They also wrote essays (in English) about their experience. These, too, will be exhibited at the museum as interpretive side panels complementing their work.

“The results are wonderful,” says museum curator Gagnon. “It is hoped that the students who participated in the project now understand the importance of preserving the heritage architecture and cultural spaces that make up our collective home,” she adds.

Says teacher Dionne-Coster: “The students have learned to appreciate the unique beauty of older buildings in their community. They also learned to work with lines, shapes and colours in order to produce images of their own, inspired by what they had seen on site.”

The exhibit in the museum’s Priscilla Lowe Gallery opens officially on February 22 during BC’s Heritage Week and runs until March 26.