By Abbie North
Special to The Record
On Monday, June 21, Highland Secondary School’s Art department honored and celebrated National Indigenous Day through a screen print endeavor.
| This screen print design is a depiction of the traditional Big House of the Sisantla Clan of the Speck Family, located in Alert Bay. Photo by Abbie North |
This celebration was established through the help of a Highland student, Brooke-Lin Jestico, a member of the Speck family, who discussed with Highland’s art teacher, Charlotte Hood-Tanner, an appropriate way to honor the national holiday. Brooke-Lin knew that she wanted to acknowledge her roots, claiming that her screen print was designed “to connect [her] art to [her] indigenous heritage.”
The screen print design is a depiction of the traditional Big House of the Sisantla Clan of the Speck Family, located in Alert Bay. On National Indigenous Day, Brooke-Lin, with the help of Charlotte Hood-Tanner and accompanying students in the art department, screen printed the design onto shirts provided by staff and students as a community driven event showing support and providing education to the recent and raw events that have unfolded across Canada.
Outdoor art show
| Along with the celebration of Indigenous culture, Highland’s Art 11/12 class celebrated the end of the course with an art show, also commonly known as an “Art Walk.” Photo by Abbie North |
Along with the celebration of Indigenous culture, Highland’s Art 11/12 class celebrated the end of the course with an art show, also commonly known as an “Art Walk.” In this school wide event, 25 art students exhibited their artwork on the outside grounds of the school to celebrate their impressive talent and personal themes. Family members, staff, and students of Highland were all invited to witness the unique artistic visions of the class, bringing together a sense of community, positivity and connection to a school year filled with uncertainty.
Of the 25 students in the Art 11/12 class, eight have been chosen to participate in the art exhibit “THE NEXT GENERATION: Young Artists in the Comox Valley” at the Pearl Ellis Gallery later this month from June 24-July 17, 2021. These students are Charley Bridges, Brooke-Lin Jestico, Sebastian Robles Servin, Naomi Manifold, Grace Riley, Chantal Morfitt, Cami Bull, and Sage Hickey. The gallery hours for this exhibit are Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays from 10 a.m. - 2 p.m.. Students from all three Comox Valley high schools and students from North Island College were invited to submit their artwork, and Highland Secondary is proud that its talented students were awarded almost half of the spots in this local art exhibitition.
Abbie North is a Highland Secondary School graduating student, who plans to plans to study writing in her post-secondary endeavours.
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