BY WENDY CZAKO-MAH
When it comes to today’s youth, most have lost the ability to just be kids and create. However, not all have lost their creative flair, as shown at the Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery’s Expressions 38, an art exhibition that displays artwork from schools across Waterloo Region.
The annual event runs every April, with the call for entry having gone out in October. The program co-ordinator, Kate Carder-Thompson, sends information to all schools, including private schools, on the upcoming theme. Teachers take the information to their students and without influence, give them free reign to create their works of art.
This year’s theme, Strange and Wonderful, was inspired by artwork from last year’s show, The Purple People Eaters. Carder-Thompson always uses an anchor, as she refers to it, from the previous year to inspire the upcoming year.
Over 200 works-of-art from JK to Grade 12 arrived in February and had to be sorted and organized, taking approximately two weeks to go through.
Carder-Thompson came up with the theme after being inspired by the art submitted last year by Grade 2 students from St. Aloysius Catholic Elementary School. She believed the theme would foster a lot of fun and creative works. She expected a lot of monsters this year, but received so much more. One class sent in sock monkey portraits, while another class sent in pictures of conventional items that were seen in unconventional ways. For example, one piece was based on a lead pencil, but you really have to look to see it.
The exhibit runs until April 28.
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