For a better view of the invitation, please view the PDF version

AfK Alumni All Stars
April 12th to May 8th, 2010
open 7 days a week
Opening: 7:30 PM Thursday April 15, 2010
Artists for Kids Gallery
located in the Leo Marshall Centre
810 West 21st Street, North Vancouver, BC
(six blocks north of Capilano Mall)

THE ARTISTS FOR KIDS TRUST was established in 1989 through a generous partnership among some of Canada’s finest artists and the North Vancouver School District. Its mission, through the sale of original prints created by its artist patrons, is to build an art education legacy for the children of British Columbia. The Artists For Kids Gallery is home to a stunning collection of work created by its patrons. Artists For Kids provides a variety of art enrichment program opportunities for thousands of students of all ages each year including the popular Paradise Valley Summer School of Visual Art.

One of the major supporters and patrons is artist Gordon Smith who, together with his wife Marion set up The Smith Foundation. Quoting a portion from the letter that came with my invitation:

The Smith Foundation is proud to join with Artists for Kids in celebrating our Twentieth Anniversary by producing this major exhibition of 50 works by twenty young artists who once called North Vancouver home. They now live in Berlin, London, Toronto, Whitehorse and around BC. They have contributed phenomenal video work, photography, performance art, mark-making, illustration, sculpture, graphic design and painting in a way which makes us all incredibly proud.

Upon her high school graduation, our middle daughter Elisa was a recipient of the Gordon Smith Scholarship to assist her continuing studies in art. She is one of the twenty Artists for Kids Alumni in this 20th Anniversary celebration exhibition. Now living in London, I’m sure she wishes she could be here.

Related links about Elisa from my archives:
About one of her exhibitions
About her blog, since revised for new work