The amount of energy in a room can tell you lots about the event that is going on. When I stepped into the Edmonton Christian West School gymnasium yesterday, believe me, there was real, positive energy. The students, ranging from grade 2 to grade 9 were seated on the floor in front of long sheets of paper. Spread out in front of them were collections of 2.5 inch by 3.5 inch cards which they had recently created in their Art classes. Many of you will recognize the size of these cards as being that of trading cards. The subject matter of the cards ranged from stickmen to wisdom sayings and the style ranged from abstract to anime. Welcome to ECWS’s first ever, beauty-creating, community-building, art Trade-A-Palooza!
After some instructions from the organizer of the event, art teacher Jenessa Lowe, the students did a gallery walk, and enjoyed the creativity of some of their schoolmates. This fit very well with the through line* focus for January– Beauty-Creating. Then, the energy let loose as the students were allowed to go around the gym trading cards with others.
Energetic, engaged students, creating and interacting in a community-building (another through line) event. This was the first ever Trade-a-Palooza but I have a feeling it won’t be the last.
