High school students get sentimental to create exhibition at Woodstock Art Gallery

A group of Woodstock high school students working under the guidance of a professional artist got sentimental to create a moving exhibition at the city's art gallery. 

The exhibition opened in May and features 12 students who are enrolled in Woodstock Collegiate Institute's Specialist High Skills Major program — an initiative allows students to earn high school credits while focusing on a specific economic sector

"We came up as a group for the theme, which was nostalgia," said Grade 11 student Madison Wende.  "Then I really found that I wanted to do something with photos from my childhood."

She decided to paint a photo of herself crouched near a clothes drying rack, which reminds her of family.

"My family is from Newfoundland and it's almost like a thing over there that people take pictures of the clothes lines," said Wende. "It's just something that is so simple and yet you always hang up laundry throughout your life."

The students are the first cohort part of the Creative Pathways: Emerging Artist Mentorship Program, which gave them a chance to work with artist Lindsay Liboiron to create an exhibition for the Woodstock Art Gallery.

Liboiron is an award-winning Hamilton-born artist whose work has been featured in galleries all over Soutthwestern Ontario.

She helped the group of young artists to research, plan and create nostalgia-themed artwork over four sessions since December.

When Liboiron first got together with the students, she wanted to pick a theme that would inspire them.

" [It] took a little while to figure out something that we all could connect on equally that would inspire us to create artwork," said Liboiron.

Students decided they wanted to explore nostalgia in their artwork because it is seen and interpreted in different ways, Liboiron said.

Lily Caskanette, a Grade 12 student, said she was thrilled to see how everyone's art together at the Woodstock Art Gallery Exhibition

"It's fun to see how each of us went down a very different path with what we consider nostalgia," said Caskanette. "Some of us did memories, some of us did ideas, some of us did feelings."

She tried multiple drafts before she settling on a picture of a girl frolicking near a stream.

"My grandma used to live in Dorchester," said Caskanette. "She had a little brook, and a lot of my childhood was spent playing through there."

While working on her art, Caskanette reflected on her time as a high school student and her future plans.

"[As a ] Grade 12 student about to graduate, everything kind of feels like it's changing," said Caskanette. "You have to choose one thing for university, you have to choose one career you want.

"People are always expecting you to have that plan."

Creative Pathways is on display in the Community Gallery at the Woodstock Art Gallery until Saturday, June 22.