ArtsSmarts Welcomes New Executive Director

Jason van Eyk

In May, the first task for ArtsSmarts' new Executive Director, Jason van Eyk, will be to open our new head office in Toronto. Then he can start to turn his impressive management skills to benefit the organization's next stage of growth.

While Jason may be new to ArtsSmarts, he is no stranger to the transformational power of the arts, personally and professionally. While his first love is music - Jason received a B.Mus from University of Ottawa in viola performance and continued his studies to earn a M.Mus from the Eastman School of Music - his practice has been aligned with arts education and administration activities for many years. Merging these worlds into one, Jason enrolled and completed an MBA from the Schulich School of Business at York University, specializing in art and media administration.

Since then, Jason has demonstrated his passion for an expanded role for the arts in Canadian life, a flare for teaching, and an appetite for launching new ideas and exciting ventures wherever he works. You only have to look at the Canadian Music Centre, where he was the Ontario Regional Director, or the University of Toronto, where he was Founding Director of the U of T ArtsZone, to find examples of his impact. Add in his classroom experience as a teacher and it becomes clear why Jason can connect with the ArtsSmarts mission in a deeply personal manner.

If you ask him what he will bring to ArtsSmarts, Jason would tell you it's his skills as a dedicated network builder, motivated educator and a experienced marketer. But ArtsSmarts C.E.O, Sandy Foote, was particularly impressed with the combination of Jason's arts, education and business skills. "His experience tells me he is able to deliver shrewd planning, effective operations, strong community relations and insightful research and analysis," explains Foote. "And that's particularly important to us at a time when we are working to engage our partners, build new funding opportunities, grow the symposium into an important event on the arts and education calendar and expand the reach of ArtsSmarts into more communities by delivering new tools to help teachers and artists." 

Jason has developed a passion for connecting audiences to enriching creative experiences. He believes that one of the most important means of doing so is to ensure that artists, educators and learners of all ages have robust, resonant and inspiring creative channels through which to connect and collaborate, and thus to build strong communities. His motivation comes from his personal love for the arts and their transformational power matched by a deep interest in creating dynamic, innovative opportunities to stimulate the expressive lives of individuals. These are the cornerstones of a new educational environment that fires up the engagement in students and helps build vibrant communities.

Welcome to the team, Jason!

Dawson Drummond, left, and Alexis Richard showing they will stand up to bullying at the Standing Small Arts Smarts Celebration in Elm Street School Thursday.

'Standing Small' against bullying

By S. Ryan Quigley, Journal Pioneer 

Printed in The Journal Pioneer, April 22, 2011

SUMMERSIDE - Bullying is always a tough issue to deal with.

Rhonda Ellis wanted to get her Grade 6 class at Elm Street Elementary involved with addressing the issue while working with the Arts Smarts program in P.E.I. After talking to her friend, Maurice Bernard, about how they could combine teaching art and bullying awareness they came up with the idea of a graphic novel.

Entitled "Standing Small," the project had the kids illustrate and tell stories of either their own experiences or fictional accounts of bullying. The project took the class three months to put together, including basic art lessons with Bernard.

The graphic novel, which was completely done by the kids, had each student specifically design their own cover. The idea was easy to come up with because of the popularity of graphic novels and the attention bullying is getting, said Ellis.  "Bullying is a very hot topic and kids are dealing with it all the time. Graphic novels are also a hot thing right now, a lot of the books we used to read like the 'Babysitter's Club' and the 'Hardy Boys' are coming out in graphic novels now."

There has been a decline in bullying in her class, said Ellis."With my class I certainly see a decline in bullying than I've seen in recent years. I attribute a lot of it to the project."  The goal for the program is to have the kids live what they had written, said Ellis.

"We just want to make an impact with this class, sort of break the silence I guess. There's a lot of different ways that people try to deal with bullying but it still seems to be a constant issue."  Dawson Drummond, a student in the class, said he had fun working on the project and also learned a lot.  "I learned that you have to respect everyone, but you don't have to like them. You can just stay your distance and respect them. Also the words just aren't on paper, you have to mean them."

He knows what he's going to do next time he gets bullied or witnesses someone getting bullied."I'm going to try to stop it by telling a teacher or trying to make the situation a little better by trying to talk with them about it."

Classmate Alexis Richard said she learned bullying is wrong.  "I learned that bully is not nice at all and it can hurt people up to the point where they might hurt themselves."  Richard said she had been bullied herself before, but she now knows how she'd handle it.  "Just not listen to it."

Boy smarts meets ArtsSmarts

In Quebec, as in many other provinces,  there is about a 10% discrepancy between the graduation rate between girls and boys, so the engagement of boys in the classroom has been a big area of concern.

That's where ArtsSmarts can help according to educator Barry MacDonald's most recent newsletter.   As a result of his work on boys and learning, Barry MacDonald  has been speaking to sold out crowds of parents and educators across Quebec with regard to gender issues, and most school boards have made his book Boy Smarts available to their schools.

Cultivating Creativity 

A feature in the St John Telegraph Journal shows the rapid spread of the ArtsSmarts model through the provinces education system.

Whether: it's through singing social studies or making arithmetic art, more than 75 ArtsSmarts projects this year in New Brunswick schools have brought learning to life. Story by Kathy Kaufield.

ArtsSmarts enters exhibition season: P.E.I.

ArtsSmarts is in its seventh year on PEI and once again, the Confederation Centre Art Gallery is holding an exhibition of original artwork .This year 's exhibition features the work of 350 Island public school students from the program. Through the ArtsSmarts program, artists work with teachers and students on projects that integrate arts activities into non-arts school subject areas. The Gallery will host an opening reception May 5 from 7 to 9 pm in the Sobey Gallery. The exhibit runs to May 19.

GénieArts accueille son nouveau directeur général

Dawson Drummond (gauche) et Alexis Richard prêts à faire face à l'intimidation à l'occasion de la célébration de Standing Small (« se faire petit ») de GénieArts, à l'école Elm Street, ce jeudi.

« Se faire petit » pour contrer l'intimidation

Article paru dans le Journal Pioneer, 22 avril 2011 (en anglais seulement)

Par S. Ryan Quigley, Journal Pioneer

SUMMERSIDE - L'intimidation demeure une question difficile à gérer.

Rhonda Ellis désirait que sa classe de 6^e année de l'école Elm Street Elementary participe à cet enjeu tout en collaborant avec le programme GénieArts à l'Î.-P.-É. Après avoir discuté avec son ami, Maurice Bernard, pour savoir comment ils pouvaient s'y prendre pour combiner l'enseignement des arts et la sensibilisation à l'intimidation, ils ont trouvé l'idée de produire un roman illustré.

Ce projet, baptisé « Standing Small » (se faire petit), a permis aux enfants d'illustrer et de raconter des histoires provenant de leurs propres expériences ou d'origine fictive au sujet de l'intimidation. Les élèves ont mis trois mois pour mettre au point ce projet, comprenant des leçons d'art de base avec M. Bernard.

Chaque étudiant a ensuite réalisé sa propre page couverture de ce roman illustré entièrement conçu par les enfants. « Nous n'avons pas eu de mal à trouver cette idée en raison de la popularité des romans illustrés et de toute l'attention que l'on accorde à l'intimidation, rapporte Mme Ellis. En effet, l'intimidation est un sujet brûlant auquel les enfants sont constamment confrontés. Les romans illustrés sont également très appréciés en ce moment. Un grand nombre de livres que nous avions l'habitude de lire, comme Babysitter's Club et Hardy Boys sont maintenant publiés sous forme de romans illustrés. »

« Le phénomène de l'intimidation a diminué dans sa classe, souligne l'enseignante. J'ai vu dans ma classe une nette régression de l'intimidation par rapport aux dernières années. J'attribue cette amélioration en grande partie à ce projet. Ce programme vise à ce que les jeunes vivent ce qu'ils ont rédigé, explique-t-elle. »

Nous souhaitons seulement avoir un impact parmi cette classe. Je crois qu'il s'agit d'une façon de briser le silence. Les gens essaient de composer avec l'intimidation de bien des manières, bien que cela semble demeurer un enjeu continuel. »  Dawson Drummond, un élève de cette classe, partage qu'il a eu bien du plaisir à participer à ce projet et qu'il a beaucoup appris. « J'ai appris qu'il faut respecter tout le monde, sans toutefois être obligé de les apprécier. On peut se contenter de garder une certaine distance avec ces personnes et les respecter. Les paroles ne se limitent pas également à des mots écrits sur papier, il faut que celles-ci aient un sens. »

Il sait ce qu'il fera la prochaine fois qu'il sera victime ou témoin d'un acte d'intimidation. « Je tenterai d'y mettre fin soit en le rapportant à un enseignant ou en cherchant à améliorer un peu la situation en essayant d'en parler aux personnes concernées. »

Alexis Richard, une camarade de classe, raconte qu'elle a appris que l'intimidation n'est pas une bonne chose. « J'ai appris que l'intimidation n'est pas bien du tout et que cela peut causer du tort aux autres au point où les victimes pourraient se faire du mal. » Cette étudiante rapporte avoir subi de l'intimidation auparavant, mais que maintenant elle saurait comment la gérer. « Il faut seulement l'ignorer. »

Boy Smarts (garçons futés) rencontre GénieArts

Au Québec, comme dans bien d'autres provinces, il y a un écart d'environ 10 % parmi le taux de diplômés entre les filles et les garçons. Ainsi, le niveau d'engagement des garçons en classe a représenté un sujet de préoccupation important.

 C'est à cet endroit que la contribution de GénieArts peut faire la différence selon les propos de l'enseignant Barry MacDonald dans son dernier bulletin d'information.   À la suite de son travail réalisé sur l'apprentissage chez les garçons, Barry MacDonald s'est adressé à de nombreuses foules de parents et d'enseignants partout au Québec en ce qui concerne les problèmes liés au genre, et la majorité des commissions scolaires ont décidé de rendre son livre, Boy Smarts (Garçons futés), disponible dans leurs écoles.

Cultiver la créativité 

Un reportage dans le Telegraph Journal de Saint-Jean témoigne de la progression rapide du modèle GénieArts parmi le système d'éducation de la province.

Qu'il s'agisse de chanter les études sociales ou de faire de l'art arithmétique, plus de 75 projets GénieArts cette année dans les écoles du Nouveau-Brunswick ont permis de rendre l'apprentissage vivant (en anglais seulement). Reportage de Kathy Kaufield.

GénieArts entre dans sa saison d'expositions :   Î.-P.-É.