Youth aimed arts day takes centre stage at Calgary’s Werklund Centre

Hundreds of students packed the Werklund Centre on Tuesday for an art event that seeks to increase local children's participation in the arts.

Nearly 400 students from Grades 1 through 12 packed the Werklund Centre on Tuesday for a day filled with events from concerts to sing-alongs, and hands on experiences with local artists.

“We have the shyest students, the quietest of students, who suddenly they say to us at the end of the week, I found my voice,” said Werklund Centre associate director Karen Youngberg.

The event — dubbed ‘Arts Reimagined’— is put on by the Werklund Centre and the Calgary Arts Development. CAD president and CEO Patti Pon says research has found that children’s participation in the arts has declined, and projects like Arts Reimagined will have a positive effect beyond the arts.

“The earlier you engage young people in the arts, the more engaged they become,” Pon said. “The more voter turnout goes up. Civic participation goes up.”

The event is part of a three-pronged approach to making art accessible to all students, and to help provide skills for teachers in the classroom to better break down geographical, financial and perceived barriers to art.

“It’s the perceived barrier that we’re working at through these partnerships,” said Werklund Centre president and CEO Alex Sarian.

“The perception that kids can see themselves here and that they can see this belonging to them. If we can overcome that barrier, then this place belongs to them.”

Liesl Ritz, a Grade 5 student at Eugene Coste School, finds a connection with her classmates and friends through art.

“I can connect with my already made friends, and I can connect with them by getting to know more about them with this stuff,” Ritz said.

“I connected mostly with juggling with my friends and some of my friends loved juggling and I didn’t know that about them.”

Organizers say 13 classrooms and 16 teachers took part in the event this year, and they expect that number to climb next year.