Students from Westlane Secondary School’s (Niagara Falls, Ontario) Gr.10/11 class worked in partnership with Dr. Peter Vietgen, Associate Professor of Art Education, Brock University, to create a series of pastel pieces inspired by the SDGs. Students started by learning about the properties of pastels and the art of “slow looking” by doing a series of oil and chalk studies outside in the school courtyard. Next, students watched a video of Zaria Forman, a contemporary artist who creates large-scale pastel drawings of melting glaciers to bring awareness to the impact of the climate crisis. Zaria’s video showed how she utilizes personal photos as reference material to help her create her pastel works. Inspired by Zaria, students took their own reference photos based on an SDG that they were passionate about to help inform their own artistic creations. Results ranged from animals in crisis due to loss of environment, to re-designs of buildings in their community with sustainable green space. Each student had a unique perspective and personal lens that they brought to this project, resulting in a wide range of SDGs expressed in nuanced ways.
SDGs addressed through this project:
