Gallery Program - Artists for Kids

Artists for Kids

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Gallery Program

Artboard 9.png Our Windows to Canadian Art program brings contemporary Canadian Art to a class full of eager young people, introducing them to the art and culture of our country. Unlike any program in the Lower Mainland, our Gallery Program offers students a deep, engaged dive into reading and making art. Classes spend half of the day in the gallery and half the day in the studio making work that responds to the exhibition they have studied in the gallery. All sessions are co-taught by the classroom teacher and an art expert teacher provided by Artists for Kids.

Spring Gallery Program 2022-2023

We are excited to welcome K-12 classes to the Gordon Smith Gallery for the spring exhibition Endless Summer. Teachers can sign up for a half-day gallery visit. Artists for Kids art educators will lead classes in an interactive tour of the exhibition and a hands-on artmaking activity. Classes can visit from 9:30am-11:45am or 12:30pm-2:30pm on select dates from April 26-June 16.

Endless Summer is an exhibition that features the collaborative works of artists Katie Kozak and Lucien Durey. The project will include new and recent sculptural, photographic and video works that consider lineages of reciprocity that grow from friendship and familiarity.

Registration is now open for North Vancouver School District schools only.

Registration will open to out-of-district schools on April 3, 2023.

Image 1: Katie Kozak and Lucien Durey, Candelabra, 2020, video still

Image 2: Katie Kozak and Lucien Durey, Flotsam Mobile, 2023, found metal, fishing net yarn, hammock yarn, frame

Grade 5 Gallery Program 2022 - 2023

AFK is excited to be offering our full-day gallery program at the Gordon Smith Gallery to grade 5 classes (including combined classes) in the school district. In each program, led by AFK art educators, students will explore the fall teaching exhibition and create art inspired by what they see. The 2022-2023 Gallery Program will run from the week of September 29 until the week of February 20, 2023.

Please register your class HERE.

Registration is free for North Vancouver School District teachers. The fee for out-of-district classes is $400.

The AFK Gallery Program objectives are to provide opportunities for students to:
-Describe and respond to original works of art and explore artists’ intent within a gallery context

-Develop critical and interpretive skills needed to analyze and interpret works of art

-Observe, describe, and inquire how artists use processes, materials, and techniques to create and communicate

-Draw upon original works of art by Canadian artists as inspiration to develop their own artworks

-Explore artistic elements, processes, materials, and techniques through first hand studio art experiences

Paths, the 2022-2023 teaching exhibition at the Gordon Smith Gallery will feature artwork by over 20 Canadian artists exploring paths, both real and imagined, through the mediums of painting, drawing, sculpture, photography, collage, and printmaking. Featured artists will include Russna Kaur, Charlene Vickers, Angela George, Gu Xiong, Emily Hermant, Gordon Smith, Ross Penhall, Bill Reid, and Anne Meredith Barry.

The works in the exhibition will show us that a path can be used to communicate a direction, a line of thought, or a plan for action. Paths can also be seen in representations of the natural world, taking the form of forest trails, migratory patterns, maps, and water ways. We invite you to join us at the Gordon Smith Gallery this fall to explore Paths, an exhibition offering opportunities for cross-curricular, place-based inquiry as well as rich connections to social and emotional learning.

Self-Guided Tours of the PATHS Exhibition

Artists for Kids invites K-12 teacher to use the Gordon Smith Gallery as their classroom and to book a time to bring a class for a half day self-guided tour. This is a unique opportunity for your students to engage directly with diverse works by Canadian artists and to learn through the lens of the arts. We will provide two orientation sessions at the Gallery for interested teachers - one in October and one in January. After attending an orientation, teachers will have the opportunity to book their self-guided tour, choosing from available dates.

The first orientation session will take place on Monday, October 24 from 3:30-4:30pm.

The second orientation session will take place on Monday, January 9 from 3:30-4:30pm.

PATHS, the 2022-2023 teaching exhibition at the Gordon Smith Gallery features artwork by over 20 Canadian artists exploring paths, both real and imagined, through the mediums of painting, drawing, sculpture, photography, collage, and printmaking. The works in the exhibition show us that a path can be sued to communicate a direction, a line of thought, or a plan for action. Paths can also be seen in representations of the natural world, taking the form of forest trails, migratory patterns, maps, and water ways. We invite you to join us at the Gordon Smith Gallery to explore PATHS, an exhibition offering opportunities for cross-curricular, place-based inquiry as well as rich connections to social and emotional learning.

Book your Self-Guided Tour HERE

The following are resources designed to support teachers in planning and leading Self Guided Tours of the PATHS exhibition:

Paths - Self Guided Tour Resources for Teachers.pdf

AFK Self Guided Tour Instructions_2022-2023.pdf


Ross Penhall, Summer Walk, 2007. Etching on paper, 14" x 14".	Russna Kaur, Butterfly Tattoos, 2019. Multi-media surface painting, 11 panels, various sizes.