VANCOUVER – Recently, all English 10 classes embarked on a field trip to the Vancouver Art Gallery. The students experienced the diverse range of innovative and inspiring visual art museum that the English department hopes will help them find a “personal narrative” to define their lives. For the majority of the time, they encountered the works of two artists: Emily Carr and Charles Edenshaw along with more modern works.

Mrs. Carol van Rijn, English teacher, contextualized the experience by saying, “I definitely encourage all the students to try and frame their life narrative through visiting the Art Gallery. Visiting the  Vancouver Art Gallery will provide a starting point for our consideration of symbol, story, culture, and artifact beyond our classroom walls.”

When students return to their respective classrooms, they will experiment with synecdoche, which is a part that stands for the whole, to try and represent the whole of their lives thus far. This trip to the Vancouver Art Gallery will be conducted in close proximity to the Immigration Projects the Grade 10s will produce, which will mainly involve personal artifacts telling an entire story.

When asked what was learned through the visit to the Art Gallery, Paul Wang (10) said, “I was exposed to some very inspiring works by Emily Carr. It was a real learning experience and I feel I could easily relate the works back to my own life.”