By Chris Brown

More than 600 submissions already

Esplanade to post School Art exhibition online

May 1, 2020 | 3:33 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB – Esplanade staff weren’t going to let a global pandemic stop a tradition that dates back more than 40 years, but they did have to make changes on the fly. That means a virtual spin on the annual School Art exhibition.

Always one of the most popular exhibitions, last year’s School Art had more than 700 pieces from 40-plus area schools.

This year there are already more than 600 submissions, said gallery assistant Dan Meller, and you still have until May 8 to get yours in. You can submit them at esplanade.ca, which is where you’ll be able to find the gallery when it’s posted.

“I’m sure lots of people, parents and kids and actually everyone in the community were pretty disappointed to hear that they wouldn’t be able to see their kids art or all the artwork in the community in general,” said Meller. “We just want to give everybody a chance to see what everybody’s been up to for the past year and all the awesome stuff kids come up with.”

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Meller said the submissions he’s seen have had an uplifting effect on him.

“I certainly couldn’t match most of the submissions that even the Grade Ones or Twos do. Some of them are just so amazing,” he said. “The best thing is that it just shows the kind of innocence and levity that children can put out. They seem kind of unjaded at these times. Maybe they are going through lots of difficulties but even their artwork still reflects how hopeful they feel and how positive they keep the situation. It’s great to see all that happiness and the different colours and even just the humour that kids can put into the spin of a situation too.”

Meller said this will be no ordinary online gallery where you just click or swipe through a bunch of images. People will be able to see the exhibition in virtual reality through the gallery website being used.

He said you can view the exhibit both on your phone and on a desktop computer, and you’ll be able to view it with a VR headset if you own one.

Meller adds they want to have the gallery posted next weekend.