Students across the province will be able to learn more about the art and the artists featured in the collections of Saskatchewan’s two major galleries with the launch today of the ARTSask website located at www.ARTSask.ca.

The website, which showcases visual art and artists chosen from the collections of the MacKenzie Art Gallery in Regina and the Mendel Art Gallery in Saskatoon, is organized according to 10 themes: Homelands, Identity, Place, Common Place, Humour, Pop Culture, Body in Crisis, Isolation Landscape, Futureperfect, and Natural Light.

“The University of Regina is proud to have taken the lead in developing this valuable educational resource,” said U of R President Jim Tomkins. “ARTSask is a powerful example of how the University of Regina can use its expertise – in this case, in the arts, technology, and education – to engage in a strong community partnership for the benefit of everyone. It is a further testimony to the University’s commitment to making art accessible to the public.”

The project was made possible in part through the Canadian Culture Online Strategy of the Department of Canadian Heritage. Canadian Heritage invested more than $297,000 in the project. ARTSask collaboration was led by the University of Regina in partnership with the MacKenzie Art Gallery in Regina, the Mendel Art Gallery in Saskatoon, and SaskLearning.

The project was produced by Saskatchewan researchers, writers and technicians and is designed to promote the province’s collective cultural heritage and share the artwork, ideas and lives of contemporary Saskatchewan and Canadian artists represented in the galleries’ collections.

Several contemporary Saskatchewan artists including Vic Cicansky, Donna Kriekle, Ruth Cuthand, Doris Wall Larson, Leesa Streifler and David Thauberger are featured on the website in video interviews, discussing their art and their lives as artists.

Interactive online activities on the site are presented in both English and French for all 10 themes, and one theme is also presented in Cree.

The activities and materials developed for ARTSask match the curriculum needs of Saskatchewan’s online K-12 visual arts curriculum and are designed to engage middle years students in elementary schools, as well as secondary and post-secondary students. As a result, ARTSask will support teachers in their efforts to provide learners with access to and knowledge about contemporary visual arts collections.

In addition to being an educational resource for schools and teachers, the ARTSask site also provides a new avenue for people outside Saskatchewan to access the province’s rich artistic resources.

In addition to funding from Canadian Heritage, cash and in-kind contributions were provided by the U of R (Faculty of Education and the Centre for Academic Technologies), SaskLearning, MacKenzie Art Gallery, and Mendel Art Gallery, bringing the total project value to just over $400,000.

The following is a brief description of the 10 themes found on the ARTSask website:
Common Place: Incorporates the commonplace or ordinary objects of daily life into art.

Homelands: Explores the concept of "native land" or place of birth and how that attachment to place, lifestyle and ancestors can be important to each individual's development and sense of self.

Identity: Deals with the process of personal growth and maturation as it influences and shapes personalities and identities.

Place: Artists from a selection of works from the MacKenzie Collection reflect on the experience of their urban or rural landscape or their reactions to it.

POP: Artists in the Mendel Collection reflect on the influence of popular culture on their work.

Natural Light: Features work from the Mendel Collection that uses light as a marker of time, a marker of space, a connection to nature, and an expression of spirit and emotion.

Isolation Landscape: Isolation is expressed throughout the traditions of landscape painting, print making, and photography within the Mendel Collection.

Humour: Humorous images provide a new twist on an old idea or a different way of seeing the world.

Body in Crisis: Contains artwork from the Mendel Collection depicting trauma and evoking the mortality of ideas, civilizations, cultures and individuals.

Futureperfect: Features art from the Mendel Collection dealing with heavy industry and electronic life and their effects on human society, health, culture and the environment.