Art from the Freda Diesing School of Northwest Coast Art Student Exhibition will be displayed from March 8 to April 5, 2025.
This exhibition features art pieces on display, and for purchase, by first and second-year students. This year’s President’s Choice Award goes to Elijah Morberg with his piece Raven – Tsesk’iye. The 2025 Honourable Mention goes to Kashka Clellamin for The Balance Between.
Opening Reception
This unique institution, part of Coast Mountain College, offers Fine Arts Certificates and Diplomas focusing on traditional First Nations Pacific Northwest Coast art. Subjects taught include carving, painting, drawing, art history, and tool making. It is the only school of its kind in all of Canada.
The School is named after Haida artist Freda Diesing (Skil Kew Wat). Diesing was a master carver, painter, educator, and champion of First Nations culture. She and several other Indigenous artists helped bring about a reawakening of Northwest Coast arts in the 1960s. Her students included well-known artists such as Dempsey Bob, Norman Tait, and her nephew Don Yeomans. Diesing received an honorary diploma from Coast Mountain College in 2000 and the National Aboriginal Achievement Award in 2002. The Freda Diesing School of Northwest Coast Art was founded in her honour by Dempsey Bob, Ken McNeil, and Stan Bevan in 2006.
View past works by Freda Diesing, and students and faculty of the School here.
