McMICHAEL SIGNATURE STUDIOS
Duration: 2 Hours
Fee: $16 per student or $12 per student when booked with additional programs
Each McMichael Signature Studio is a two-hour, process-oriented workshop led by professional art instructors and developed in collaboration with established Canadian artists. The programs are designed to foster creativity, develop manual skills, and to position the artistic process as a tool for personal and collective expression.
LANDSCAPE PAINTING STUDIO
GRADES 1 – 12
Starting with a close look at nature and discussion of various cultural concepts of landscape, this studio takes a modernist approach emphasizing an emotional reaction to the land. Students will start from an initial compositional study and move to a final painting, exploring colour gradation and space in the process and learning about painting perspective, identifying a focal point, and working with a palette inspired by nature.
Curriculum Connection: VA
Workshops are divided as follows:
In-Gallery
In-Gallery/Outdoor
Outdoor
.
Curriculum Connections Legend
| Kindergarten Program | KP |
| Elementary School | |
| Visual Arts | VA |
| Social Studies | SS |
| Science and Technology | ST |
| Language | L |
| Environmental Education | EE |
| High School | |
| The Arts: Visual Arts, Media Arts | VA, MA |
| Canadian and World Studies | CWS |
| First Nations, Metis and Inuit Studies | FNMI |
| English | E |
| Science | S |
| Environmental Education | EE |
STORYTELLERS & IMAGE-MAKERS ARTMAKING STUDIO
GRADES 1 – 8
This studio was developed in collaboration with Don Chretien, an Ojibwe artist, designer and educator who is inspired by the natural world, the work of Norval Morrisseau and the Anishinaabe School of Painters. Throughout the program, students will be encouraged to look at and creatively respond to patterns found in nature while reflecting on their personal relationship to the world around them through visual storytelling and as seen throughout Chretien’s work.
Curriculum Connections: VA, SS, EE
HAIDA MANGA STUDIO
GRADES 1 – 12
Developed in collaboration with Haida artist and author Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas, this studio explores the aesthetic and narrative function of the formline as seen in artworks of the Northwest Coast in combination with popular manga cartooning techniques. Students are encouraged to contemplate and creatively respond to an important moment in their own lives inspired by Michael Nicoll’s artwork and creative process.
Curriculum Connections: VA, SS, FNMI, CWS
#LandIsSacred, #WaterIsLife PRINTMAKING STUDIO
GRADES 9 – 12
This thought-provoking studio was developed in collaboration with Métis artist Christi Belcourt. The importance of land and water is a recurring theme throughout Belcourt’s work and is emphasized in this program through discussion and creative response. Students are invited to contemplate the notion of environmental stewardship, culminating in a creative project that uses innovative printmaking techniques and natural inks. The workshop comes full circle with students producing a final piece of art that they can choose to offer back to Mother Earth.
Curriculum Connections: VA, SS, FNMI, CWS, S, EE
MAPPING LANDSCAPES WATERCOLOUR PAINTING STUDIO
GRADES 7 – 12
Developed in collaboration with John Hartman, an Ontario-based artist known for his layered landscape paintings, this watercolour studio invites students to investigate the notion of a cultural landscape and to create their own personal responses to the land while investigating its geography and history.
Curriculum Connections: VA, CWS
ENVISIONING ENVIRONMENTAL FUTURES MIXED MEDIA STUDIO
GRADES 7 – 12
Each day, global warming pushes our world closer to climate disaster. Creativity and innovation have become necessary not only to finding a solution to a dystopian future, but also to changing peoples’ behaviors and attitudes when it comes to human-inflicted environmental damage. This mixed media Signature Studio, developed in collaboration with contemporary artist Rajni Perera, celebrates cultural hybridity and inclusivity and encourages students to collaborate with their peers, use their creativity to find solutions to the environmental crisis and envision a brighter future.
Curriculum Connections: VA, MA, S, EE
