Featuring the 2024 Student Art Exhibition from the Freda Diesing School of Northwest Coast Art from March 1st to 30th in the Upstairs Gallery Upstairs Gallery of the Museum. This year marks the 15th year we have hosted the School to showcase student art.

Join us for an opening reception on March 1st, 2024 at 6 pm. The student artists will be in attendance for the reception. This is a great opportunity for you to ask about their artwork. Refreshments will be served.

This year’s exhibition will feature art pieces by first- and second-year students, including the winners of the President’s Choice Award (Savannah Medeiros) and Honourable Mention (Erica Davis).

This unique institution, part of Coast Mountain College, offers Fine Arts Certificates and Diplomas with a focus 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.