I was grateful to visit the Two Rivers Art Gallery this week with our Education 394 class! The art gallery was a powerful representation of place-based learning because it highlighted local contexts and how they can be brought into the classroom. We got a tour of their current art exhibits at the art gallery. My favorite artwork was a painting called “Two Rivers” by Mykola Zhuravel (shown above) which presented Prince George through the lens of someone who is not local. This painting got me thinking a lot about the importance of local context. Although the painting was gorgeous, it was missing some of the details of the city that a local citizen would understand. An artist from Prince George would probably have painted the city very differently than Zhuravel. This shows that understanding the local place where we reside is necessary for education and recognizing where we come from and where we are.   

Like our experience at the art gallery, students can learn many social skills and agency from connecting to place. By understanding the role, they play in the community, and by participating in local events students build curiosity, inspiration, and a love for the community. This is a powerful form of education that cannot be achieved in the classroom. Just from one visit to the art gallery, I left with questions about my community, curiosity about local artists, and inspiration to be creative outside of school.

At Two Rivers Art Gallery, we also got to reflect on our self-identities and the role they play in our communities. For our art project, we were given the choice to express ourselves through a self-portrait or something important to us. Art is very important in education because it promotes creativity and self-confidence. Even though I am not an artistic person, the chance to express myself in the real world outside of the classroom empowered me to practice my creative skills and implement them in my classroom. Place-based learning at the art gallery, not only encourages creativity in students but it gives the students real-life applicable skills to use at home and outside of school.