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Young art comes to Millennium Place

Whistler Secondary students host art reception tonight

Whistler youth are being celebrated this month at Millennium Place.

Whistler Secondary senior art students have works on display at the performance centre and will host a public reception today (June 5) starting at 7 p.m. where their works will be up for sale.

The youth centre has already hosted its popular Friday Night Live show and Soul Function is about to celebrate youth dance at its sold-out shows.

“We don’t hear from this side of our youth very often in the media,” said Millennium Place general manager Dennis Marriott.

“There is stuff going on with our youth that is outside of the skateboard park.”

While all the youth featured exhibits this month came together more by happenstance than design Marriott said next year MY Place will designate June as a month to celebrate Whistler’s young people and their arts and cultural achievements.

“This, to me, is about arts and culture and involving the youth in the arts and culture and preparing them to have better appreciation later whether they do it commercially or professionally, or just have an appreciation for it.

“Here is another outlet for expression that is not sport. Sport is very important but there are other things.

“What is important for Millennium Place is that this is about arts and culture, and showing that we need a public art gallery, and we need a performance theatre that is not just about professional artists from afar — it is our own community.”

For Brenda Norrie, Whistler Secondary school’s art teacher, and a practicing artist herself, this is a wonderful way for students to gain experience in preparing for an exhibition and completing a project.

“It looks really good,” she said.

“There are a lot of different levels represented… and I would say every one of (the students) is proud of the piece they put in.”

Norrie hopes to do this again though framing for the art — a must to hang in Millennium Place — was a major hurdle.

“Everything has to be in frame and that was huge encumbrance as we don’t have any money to buy frames,” said Norrie.

“… But Harvey Lim (Art Junction) has been extraordinarily generous over the years and every single frame in that place has been donated by him.”