‘True talent and creativity’: Surrey Art Gallery features elementary students’ artwork

Elementary school students’ artwork is on display for an exhibition at the Surrey Art Gallery until May 3. The installation features art from more than 60 students across 23 Surrey schools.

The program has been running since 1983 and is a partnership between the gallery, the Surrey School District, and the Surrey Arts Teachers Association.

“It’s important to have this work up here and see that they’ve been exhibited at the Surrey Art Gallery, too,” says Jas Lally, assistant curator at the Surrey Art Gallery. “Young artists take that inspiration and [can] perhaps pursue an art or have that creative element through their life.”

The installation features many different types of art — from picturesque landscapes, 3D art, and anime-style pieces to works that use yarn and feathers.

The exhibition alternates every year between displaying work from elementary and high-school students. The selection process begins in classrooms across the district. 

“It really is quite holistic — the teacher says they would like to participate in the show, then the teacher, class, or school selects which artworks to put forward,” Lally says.

From history to science, the teacher uses aspects of the curriculum that are integrated into the students’ artwork, she says.

“You can see in the works that there is an influence of the curriculum,” she says. “What comes out of that? It is the innovation, creativity, and inspiration that comes out of it — to me, it is just mind opening.”

Despite being given the same idea, prompt, and curriculum base by their teachers, Lally says the artwork is individualistic — and it’s important to celebrate that.

“It’s really quite wonderful. The breadth of medium, the breadth of thought, the expressions each student is expressing is quite different,” she says.

While Lally says they would love to show every student’s art, they choose a limited selection due to space constraints. Some teachers and schools have held competitions where students vote for their favourite artwork.

Once the gallery receives the pieces, Lally says they work together to plan how the installation is hung and displayed, so the art pieces work in conversation with each other.

“It is so wonderful to see there’s such true talent and creativity in the works, too, and that the students learn, understand, and engage in that subject matter,” she says.

Each art piece is accompanied by a statement, which the teachers collect from their students while they are creating the pieces.

“I think this is a great moment for the visitor — to see, read, and celebrate the youth of Surrey’s communities and to take away a joyful and inspirational moment.”

For more information, visit www.bit.ly/surreyartgallery.