Coming Soon – Art For Earth 2008-09

For many years I have been teaching children about the importance of protecting our environment through art workshops entitled: Art For Earth. I have organized these classes in communities in Manitoba, British Columbia, Nova Scotia, Nunavut as well as here in London, Ontario. These classes have always been taught on a part time basis when I have had the money to rent a room and purchase the needed supplies. In an average year I usually teach close to fifty students.

Last year things began to change…

Last November I was getting myself ready for work – I was then working at a hotel – and the phone rang. It was the Ontario Arts Council. They had heard about my educational art programs and they wanted to know if I would become a member of a jury team that would be evaluating proposals from different groups requesting funding for their educational arts programs. I said yes and a month later I was spending a week in Toronto with the rest of the jury team.

I learned a lot and a few months later I had submitted my own proposal for funding. In June I received approval. This coming school year I will be teaching at three London elementary schools. I will be teaching six different grades in each school. By the end of this school year I will have taught over four hundred students – which is quite a few more than the fifty I would be teaching without the funding.

I’M VERY, VERY EXCITED!!!!!!!!!


These last few weeks have been very busy for me, getting ready for all these art classes. Two weeks ago I was designing T-shirts and just yesterday my order was ready and I went and picked them up. I had a little over one hundred shirts made and this will let me give six shirts away in each class I teach with a few left over for prizes at next April’s Earthday celebrations.

I can’t wait to see the smiles on the students who win these special T-shirts!

Jim