ECU Summer Teen Programs and Exhibition Inspires Creativity in Young Students

In the leadup to the summer exhibition, aspiring artists and curators were sprawled out on the main floor putting the final touches to their paintings and illustrations, climbing sky-high ladders, squinting at the alignment of artworks on the wall and helping each other with installations. This collaborative atmosphere is a key tenet that underpins the Junior Arts Institute (JAI) and Summer Institue for Teens (SIT) at Emily Carr University of Art + Design (ECU), where over 200 students, ages 13 to 18, showcase their final projects in the exhibition.

For Caitlin Almond, Summer Programs Coordinator, demystifying the curation process was crucial in sparking the students' interest. They were keen to collaborate and learn more about what curation entailed.

“I feel like the arts and visual arts field can seem quite opaque and obscure at times. There's not much clarity, particularly in high schools, on what it means to have a career in the arts and what that looks like,” says Caitlin. “So we try to give some hands-on experience on what’s actually involved in the exhibition-making process, the possible careers in the arts such as an exhibition preparator or a curator working in a gallery. It's really important for them to see all of the work that goes into a career in the visual arts.”

In breaking down the exhibition process into palatable chunks, Caitlin and the student committee could delve deeper into the minutiae of certain visual choices, inscribing meaning through placement and pairing different visual mediums next to each other in the hallways.

For Scout Light, a Drawing Studio participant and student curator, it opened their eyes to a new way of looking.

According to Kelsey Lee, Youth + Community Programs Coordinator, ECU's emphasis on empowering young artists through the exhibition and allowing them agency in their curatorial decisions sets it apart from other art programs in the city. She coins the term “futuring work” when thinking about how these programs deepen a teen’s artistic practice through the variety of courses and disciplines, they explore at ECU at a pivotal age.

“Even just beyond the time commitment of these programs, which is Monday to Friday, 9 am to 4 pm every day. That's a lot to ask for a teenager. For them to choose to spend half of their summer with us in these programs speaks to the level of commitment and dedication that the students have towards developing their artistic practice, but also the trust that they have in Emily Carr University and in our programs that we're offering to them as well.”

Kelsey is particularly pleased that the Continuing Studies team was able to host a second cohort for the JAI program's in-person courses, along with a new Experience + Interaction Design course, which took students through the ideation and creation of an app about their experiences at ECU.

Though the exhibition is a final culmination of the young artists’ work throughout the programs, it’s the collaboration and skill-building that students have been able to harness. Tuuli Leppänen points out that one of the big takeaways from the SIT program was mastering her time management with the instructor and completing projects within the allotted time.

For future students who might be nervous about applying to the teen programs, Tuuli offers these wise words: "No one is judging you for your art because art is diverse and we’re here to improve, learn and not be perfect!”

Celebrate the next generation of artists and creators at the Reverie exhibition at ECU from July 26 through Aug. 8. Admission is free and open to the public.

For more info about Teen Programs at ECU, click here.