Connecting Children to World Heritage - Project Description

We will partnered with the Rideau Canal Festival to create a heritage ad campaign the will appear on Ottawa buses for three months.  The theme is “I love the Rideau Canal”.  The Rideau Canal is a UNESCO World Heritage site and therefore belongs to everyone in the world including the students in Saskatchewan.  The project is sponsored by the Saskatchewan Arts Board.

The artwork created  combined text and art. The students artistically created the phrase I Love (heart) the Rideau Canal. The actual student printing appears on the bus .5 of a metre tall.  The focus of study in the unit is font.  The students were taught about some of the font families and the serif and sans serif fonts as well as the history of font.

The children explored the concept of visual culture and how that visual culture influences the decisions we make. Current advertising is inundated with computer graphics and the use of student created artwork creates a completely different human feel and this will be a topic of discussion as the project progresses. A question posed to the older students might be….Has society lost the human element and has it been replaced with assembly line images???

Some of the history of handwriting and it’s influence on font was also explored. Handwriting is the art form that is being lost in this age of computers.  This project will celebrate and highlight student handwriting and printing which I believe will make not only the students but the viewing public appreciate the graphics differently than if it were done with just text on the computer.  The students will understanda picas and points, and be able to use and understand kerning and leading in regards to font.
Artwork for Rideau Canal Festival will be done by grade 1,2 and 3 students at Georges Vanier School Saskatoon, Pope John Paul II Saskatoon and Elisabeth Bruyere School, Avalon School and Lakeview School in Ottawa.

How come this Heart means Love?  By Doris Beintnholz (Saskatchewan Author) is the major resource for the art unit of study with the students. I will share with them how the heart shape came to be and how its use in art changed over time, from the first heart forms inspired by leaf forms, to the I Love New York t-shirts. The student artwork created focused on the heart shape.

Graphic designs were completed by grade 7 and 8 students at Georges Vanier School, and a group of children that are home schooled.