A quick scan of Google maps suggests travelling from Vancouver to the Carcross/Tagish First Nation would take around 30 hours of non-stop driving through some of Canada’s most remote terrain.
Situated just north of the B.C. border and slightly south of Whitehorse, the remote Yukon community is roughly 2,400 kilometres away from Arts Umbrella’s headquarters on Granville Island.
Until two weeks ago, there was very little linking the 700-person community with an arts hub in Metro Vancouver.
Two-way video technology has made that vast distance a non-issue.
One of Vancouver’s oldest arts education groups, Arts Umbrella has rolled out a collaborative curriculum called Northern Arts Connection, which links instructors locally with classrooms in some of the country’s more inaccessible locations.
Two streams of programming are offered out of Arts Umbrella's Surrey campus, covering both the visual arts and theatre programming.
Now operating in 40 schools across Canada’s north, Arts Umbrella’s first foray into the program began a couple weeks back in the remote Yukon community.
“We’re learning as we go, but the feedback already has been very positive,” Arts Umbrella president and CEO Paul Larocque told the Courier.
Arts Umbrella’s inclusion in the program is a piece of a far larger puzzle that involves a partnership with tech firms Cisco and TakingITGlobal called Connected North. Aimed at kids in both high school and elementary school, classes have been launched across all three territories, B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario.
The focus is to deliver those classes to underserved, remote communities, with a focus on providing those lessons for First Nations learners. While other course streams focus on science, technology, math and literary studies, Arts Umbrella’s lessons will key in on visual art, printmaking, calligraphy and theatre workshops.
Connected North and Arts Umbrella partner up to develop lesson plans and curriculum and any physical material needs are shipped to schools prior to the lessons starting. Once the plan is ready to roll, a pair of cameras are set up at the Granville Island facility: one faces the instructor, the other faces the course materials.
“We’re learning how to use the technology so the experience for the students is the same as if they were in the classroom,” Larocque said. “The instructor is virtually there and able to walk students through the entire process.”
Given the program’s infancy, Arts Umbrella’s goal is to reach between 500 and 1,000 students this year. By 2022, the number is expected to jump to 2,500 and instruction will be offered out of Arts Umbrella's revamped digs on Granville Island.
“This is about building community and delivering profound life experiences through arts education,” Larocque said.
@JohnKurucz
