A little more than a year ago we began to shift our focus from continued growth, to reinforcing who we already were. The results have begun to stack up:
1 – ESA just won 155 Scholastic Art and Writing Awards – a global competition. Congratulations, especially those moving on to round two
2 – We will be exhibiting at the Albright Knox Gallery and in downtown Buffalo again this spring
3 – We will be participating in the annual Arts Etobicoke Edge Youth Art Exhibition at Artscape Youngspace which opens Wednesday February 28th, 2018, 6:00pm – 8:00pm
4 – One of Another curated by Spencer Julien opens at Les Enfants Terribles February 8 7-9pm: CLICK HERE FOR NFO
5 – Art Talk 8 will take place on Friday March 23 at OCADU from 7-9 pm with 12 of our students speaking about their research, passion and art work. CLICK HERE FOR INFO
6 – Art Talk 9 will take place on Friday April 6 at OCADU from 7-9 pm with 12 of our students speaking about their research, passion and art work.
7 – More than 90 of our grade 11 students will be exhibiting in Turning Point, curated by Ethan Wilder, at the Nelson Park Creative Centre – our opening in February 28 from 7-9 pm CLICK HERE FOR INFO
8 – Two grade 12 students have solo exhibitions in Contemporary Art Galleries this spring – this is groundbreaking and hugely exciting news – more information to come
9 – Our Contact Photography Festival exhibition will take over all three floors of Artscape Youngspace oepning May 3 6-8pm – stay tuned for details
10 – 20 of our grade 11 students will be exhibiting in the 2018 Flash Forward Incubator Photography Exhibition in Canada’s premier photography gallery – more info to come
11 – The gargantuan End of Year Art Sale takes place Thursday May 24th from 3.30 to 9pm with more than 1500 art works throughout the first floor of the school. Due to high demand we suggest arriving as early as possible to avoid disappointment. Our 2017 sale saw fights erupt about certain work!
12 – Last year saw Reed Hollett receive 1.2 million dollars in scholarship offers, the only person we know of who has managed this sum. The entire 2017 grade 12 post-secondary applicant total reached an amazing 4 million dollars. This year, and we are only ten weeks into the process, I have already written 185 letters of recommendation (more than doubling any previous year’s total), and one of our grade 12 students has received close to a million dollars in initial offers from only 12 schools – and they are still waiting for 20 more offers to arrive in the next few weeks. As you can imagine we are forecasting new records set in every possible way. Stay tuned for final figures in May.
13 – We will be releasing a documentary about PD8 this spring directed by Tessa Hill
14 – Portfolio Day 9 appears to be taking place here at ESA on Friday November 2 2018 – plans have already begun to make this another staggering success
15 – Our YouTube Channel has received almost 15000 views since it launched at the end of August 2017 and has been instrumental in our grade 12’s success with post-secondary schools this year – CLICK HERE
16 – Grade 12 student Shellicka Anglin will be featured in an upcoming podcast by Andrew Hunter – the former Curator of Contemporary Art at the Art Gallery of Ontario and current Senior Curator at the Art Gallery of Guelph
17 – Grad Keiran Brennan-Hinton has his second New York solo exhibition up at 1969 Gallery until February 25th
18 – Audition Day – thank you to everyone who auditioned for us this year. This was the strongest group of applicants we have seen. Thank you to Lucy Carolan for her organisational brilliance and expertise that made this such a relaxed experience.
Enough for now! More to come! Book these dates into your calendars and I will see you all soon.
As always, we are happy to accept donations of art supplies, and monetary donations can be made by clicking here
Matthew Varey
