Despite the current economic uncertainty, the Sidney Fine Art Show was an outstanding success, financially and artistically. This success, in these times of reduced and unstable funding for the arts in BC, will ensure that local programs such as the arts council’s Art-in-the-Schools program can continue.

The arts council is particularly pleased to be able to team with the Saanich school district to fund writers, musicians, theatrical experts and visual artists to give programs to students in our schools, where funding for art education has been drastically reduced over the past few years.

It opened on Sept. 17, and Parkside director Joanne Young says it met with instant success.

She was one of the main supporters of the idea to make student art visible to the public. What she hadn’t anticipated was the immediate embrace it got from local schools.

With participating schools each allotted one month to display their works, the student gallery is already booked for the year.

“I didn’t know that teachers would be so gung-ho about it. They’re just thrilled and it’s really inspired them to do something special to put on the wall.”

He dropped out of the University of Wisconsin in the early 1970s to play fiddle in an Irish band and do community organizing. He also started one of the first world music radio shows in the States, relocated to Seattle, and paid the bills driving a school bus and a tractor.

He hurt his back, which led him to return to school. In Wisconsin he had studied forestry, but at the University of Washington he found his true calling, ethno-musicology.

He became an expert on Haitian music and embarked on a sterling academic career that has taken him from Columbia University to Wesleyan, New York University and the University of Toronto.

Now he’s the new Dean of the Faculty of Arts at the University of British Columbia.

“The school has significant extracurricular activities, a long history of fine arts programs built into the school in an unofficial way,” said NDP MLA Jenny Kwan, who joined parents, members of the school’s parents advisory council and local artists in announcing the proposal on Sunday.

“We want to designate it as an official fine arts school with a multicultural twist,” said Kwan, who represents Vancouver-Mount Pleasant, where the school is located.

Before Kwan and council co-chair Renita Fernandez made the announcement, five young members of the school’s guitar club played and sang.

The 38 first-year students accepted is the largest number since the college’s inception in 1997, said college director Ron Schuster, and brings the total number of students at the school to 77 this year.

Schuster said a funding injection from the federal government was critical to the school’s growth.

The CCPA is one of more than a dozen arts and culture groups in Greater Victoria that received a funding boost from the federal government.

This fall, 2,691 students are expected to attend arts classes at the University of B.C.’s Vancouver and Okanagan campuses, followed by 2,033 in the faculty of science.

Together, the two fields draw about 63 per cent of new students, dwarfing other faculties such as commerce, engineering and fine arts.

One of the reasons for the 22-per-cent hike in undergraduate admissions to UBC Okanagan is the increase in science students, which jumped up by 40 per cent this year compared to last year.

The new studios fall in line with industry trends, marrying world class input / output devices to allow for the trade’s shift to “in the box recording” – or computer aided – advancements. The compatibility between studios allows for a seamless transfer between work environments to ensure that students are getting the full hands-on training they will need for the working world.

Reporting to the Board of Directors, the Executive Director is responsible for setting the overall artistic and educational aims for the society; for guiding and implementing its strategic plans; for representing the society to the public, funders and other stakeholders; and for planning and overseeing the society’s operations, which are currently run by a team of seven employees.

That’s because Burnett has just become one of the relatively few Canadians named a knight (chevalier) of France’s Ordres des Arts et des Lettres. The honour was bestowed last week, in recognition of Burnett’s many contributions to culture, including founding Cine-Tracts, an early Canadian cultural studies journal, and his efforts to strengthen the cultural relationship between Canada and France.

But for British Columbians and Canadians, Burnett’s stewardship of Emily Carr stands head and shoulders above his other conspicuous accomplishments. Indeed, over the last 14 years, Burnett has overseen a significant expansion of an institution that was already a cultural icon.

The money will support Capilano’s new Centre for Film and Animation, due to open in 2011, said the university in a release Wednesday.

Capilano, already a major B.C. film and animation school, plans to branch out into 3-D and high-definition filmmaking at the new centre.

This Thursday, May 20 from 6 to 8 p.m. the community is invited to the Longhouse for a sneak preview of the youth videographers’ accomplishments.

“The youth have been amazing,” says project leader Rosemary Georgeson.

“We are impressed by how they have applied themselves to learn new skills, and have begun their own artistic journey as writers and filmmakers. Their honesty and generosity is inspiring to the artist team. We feel the project has been very worthwhile and look forward to continuing to work with the youth.”

The students, all seniors at various secondary schools, auditioned in March for the concert and have had rehearsals with local professional musicians Steve Griffith, Ian McQuaig, Dale Rasmussen and Peter Ward.

The goal of the program, said school district fine-arts co-ordinator Lori Jane Froese, is to help students who want to play jazz learn improvisational techniques to further their abilities.

The scholarship is open to any 2010 graduate of School District #83 who is going on to post-secondary education in any fine arts discipline.

While music, drama, art and dance training are obvious choices for qualification, other creative avenues such as video production and sound engineer training are also acceptable.

To qualify, a letter of intent must be submitted to the office of district music co-ordinator Gordon Waters at 2960 Okanagan Ave. by May 15.

Its aim is to strengthen critical thinking skills, boost social collaboration and to encourage curiosity about the world by inspiring artistic creativity in the four disciplines.

Kerri Wallin, Principal at Nootka Elementary, says the benefits of a fine arts education are far-reaching.

“We know that music education at an early age is extremely beneficial to brain development, and this kind of outside-of-the-box learning is great for these students who will be eventually working, especially in the arts field,” she said.

An estimated 700,000 students from across the country participated, but the local performance underscored the Vancouver School Board’s struggle to maintain the district’s elementary band and strings program.

Last week, the board deferred passing its final 2010/11 budget until June, giving the program a temporary reprieve. The budget proposal suggested eliminating the program and cutting 8.7 full-time equivalent teachers to shave $589,077 off the budget, which faces a $16.33 million shortfall.