For more than 40 years, the Mackenzie Art Gallery in Regina has offered a very successful provincial outreach program, and last week, they reached out to Lake Lenore.
"The program started in 1971," said Ken Duczek, gallery educator for the outreach program who was in Lake Lenore last week. "We used to visit approximately 30 schools a year but now with our involvement with other avenues such as health care, we are down to about 25 schools."
Duczek arrived in Lake Lenore and set up his display of artwork, of which two pieces were framed birchbark bitings. These two pieces of the seven on display were a clue to the hour-long workshops each class would receive during Duczek's two-day visit.
"The artwork is from our permanent collection and this program allows students to see some of what we have," he said.
After a brief introduction and explanation of the pieces, Duczek then led the class through a modern day process for creating birch bark biting pieces.
Instead of using birch bark, students were given squares of regular bond paper and carbon paper to create their individual patterns. With the carbon paper safely folded inside, students experimented with different lines and shapes bit into the paper. When unfolded, the full design was revealed.
After having the opportunity to create a couple or three pieces, Duczek showed the class samples done by others who had taken the process one step further and coloured the designs.
Families could be identified by the birch bark bitings they made. Often the design would be the same, but various family members may have chosen to use a different colour within the pattern to individualize it.
Lake Lenore students got to view permanent pieces of the Mackenzie Art Gallery, learn about traditional birch bark biting and its family significance and create their own modern-day birch bark piece of artwork during their workshop with Duczek.
