Creative Arts Champlain

Loto-Quebec has a travelling exhibition of Quebec art called TRACÉS. One of our teachers, Francesca Penserini (and her sculpture), appears in the promo video. Check it out here.

It’s that time of the year again! Many of our fourth semester students are biting their nails and losing sleep as they try to make some important decisions about university programs and deal with the complicated application process. That made them very appreciative of a visit from 9 former Creative Arts students who came to share their experiences with applications, interviews, portfolios, and life at university in general. Much thanks are due to our terrific grads: Annie-Kim Brais, Lillian Cheung, Spencer Dalton, Andre Dubois, Jason Goodall, Pat Therrien, Camille Gagnon-Chalifour, Bianca Boulay, and Marylene Pivin.

Champlain Creative Arts students Steve Deku, Michael Gannon and Melanie Cardinal worked as volunteers on this year’s “Dance To Give” event for Centraide.

Soraya Bashonga, the event’s planner & coordinator, writes, “These are very talented, passionate, and professional students!  I have only good things to say about Steve, Michael, and Melanie’s work ethic. They are serious and did amazing work.  During the event, they started at 1 pm and finished at 11 pm, videotaping and taking pictures non-stop!  I didn’t have to tell them anything; they knew what to do and how to do it.  I was also impressed by their natural ability to socialize with the people they were filming, some of whom thought they were working for Musique Plus (the sponsors of the event).”
The short video they made is posted on Facebook & YouTube; they are still doing some editing for the final video/documentary.  Check out their work in progress here.

Here’s a link to a trailer put out by Concordia University’s Animation Department. Two of our former DISA students, Fanny Berthiaume and Caroline DeKoninck, are completing their studies in the program and are featured in the clip. Click here to see it.  Annie and Caroline are also featured on our Students page.

Here is a slide show of photos showing students and teachers at work in the Creative Arts program, 2009-2010.

Below you will find the winning entries from our In Transition/En Transition Creative Arts Contest for high school students. We received a number of outstanding submissions and would like to thank everyone who participated. Emilie Parenteau took top honours with her mixed media book project. Second place prize was awarded to Claudel Routhier for her black and white photograph. Third place went to Caelen Costigan-Roberts for her painting. And an honourable mention went to Milyncia Létourneau Prud’homme.  All the award winners were presented with certificates  at our 38th annual year-end exhibition and film screening. Congratulations to everyone!

Marie Miclette (left) and Isabelle Caty (right) each won scholarships valued at $750, which were awarded during Champlain’s 2010 “Desjardins Scholarship Evening”.  Marie received an Entrance Scholarship as the Creative Arts student with the highest academic average based on high school results, and Isabelle won one of the Bourses d’Excellence-Desjardins as the Creative Arts student with the highest Cote R scores in her first two semesters.  Bravo!

Recently, Donna Noonan and Janis Lundman were guests in the Film/Video profile’s “Portfolio” class.  Donna spoke in detail about the job of production designer, overseeing locations and set design for feature films and TV series.  And Janis gave the class valuable insight into the process of producing films and television.  The two have worked on the TV series Bliss, St. Urbain’s Horseman, and Durham County, as well as many other productions.

The Film/Video/Communications profile recently had a visit from former students who were guests in the Portfolio class.  They shared their experiences with our current fourth-semester students, who are all busy thinking about life after Champlain!   The group of grads, who represented 10 different university programs, had plenty of practical advice about the university application process as well as first-hand knowledge about what things are like in the world of higher education.  Our thanks again to Scott Berwick, Annie-Kim Brais, Marianne Desfossés, Camille Gagnon-Chalifour, Amy Hêtu, Chris Jadah, Tyler Jadah, Mike Paolazzo, Paul Richard, and Alexanne Verville for generously giving their time.

One of our DISA teachers, Ashley Miller, was recently involved in the exhibition LAND ART –  which was sponsored by the city of St. Hilaire.  The website for the whole show is here.  The first image below is the work that was included in the exhibition. The second image, called Totem, is a piece from another of Ashley’s shows at the Vieux Prespetaire in Longueuil.