j AT 88, Jack Shadbolt i is B. C." s "greatest living. artist- 1-éducator. ia . Bugs, Birds and Beasts, his first exhibition ‘organized for young people, opens at. ‘Artists For: Kids Gallery this weekend, EHIND the faded facade of what was once Hamilton high school there is a priceless collection of art. By Layne Christensen Community Reporter What was the school gymnasium is now a teaching gallery, adminis- tered by the Artists For Kids Trust. In this gallery, at 810 W. 21st St. in North Van, are the works of 25 of this country’s premier artists — Bill Reid, Gordon Smith, Gathie Falk, Robert Bateman and Molly Lamb Bobak among them. Over the next cight wecks 2,500 school children are expected to pass through the gallery, to view and to By Anna Marie D’Angelo a have their art education enriched by Bugs, Birds G Beasts, a show of works by Jack Shadbolt. Like the gallery in which his works are being shown, Shadbolt’s life has been a unique blending of art and education. At 88, Shadbolt is B.C.’s greatest living artist-educator, according to For Kids administrator Bill Macdonald. The tribute doesn’t sit comfortably with the artist, who says modestly “Pve been at it the longest.” Shadbolt’s artistic career has spanned 70 years. His career as an art educator began in the *30s, when he taught art at Kitsilano high school, and continued through four decades as he taught ax the Vancouver School of Art. He had not planned it to be so. “My plan of survival was to teach “T think that black Canadians News Reporter CANADIAN blacks are different from American blacks. That is because the long his- tory of blacks in Canada is dif- ferent and distinct from American black history. “T was the only black in my class when T grew up ina rural town in Canada. It would have been nice to know that blacks had been here for a long time and had contributed to Can- adian society for years,” said Const. Donovan Tait, of the North Vancottver RCMP. Tait is one of three black Mounties working at the North Vancouver RCMP detachment. The police officers and North Vancouver District bylaw officer Mark Braithwaite agreed to speak about their experiences and views abour their racial backgrounds to raise awareness of Black History Month, cele- brated last month. don’t seem to be as overt about their heritage as we see black Americans being very forward abour it,” said Const. Milo Ramsey, 29. Ramsey was born in Kelowna. One of his grandpar- ents was from Africa. Tait, 27, grew up in Port Alberni where he never had problems and “forgot about my color” asa kid involved in hock- cy up io the Junior 8 levei. Tait is originally from Jamaica and credits his outgoing parents for getting the faraily immediately involved in) Canadian culture and fostering his positive atti- See Slurs page 26 NORTH Van RCMP constables Donovan Tait (left), Shaun Ali, Milo Ramsey and bylaw officer Mark Braithwaite all sport the shaved head fook which is currently popular with young officers. 5 enough to carry me economically,” he says, seated in his large painting studio at the home on Bumaby’s Capito! Hill that he and wife Doris have occupied for 47 years. Instead, he continued teaching into his 50s. By his own estimation, he has trained 8,000 students. Teaching, says Shadbolt, was one way of educating himself as a painter. ““Every time I was teaching I used to think: I’m the one that should be paying. All the time I was teaching I was learning like hell,” says the artist. Though he retired from the Vancouver Schoo! of Art in °66 in order to make painting “an all-out preoccupation,” his commitment to art education has endured. In °83, he warned school admin- istrators from North Vancouver schoo! district 44 that all children’s education must include art in order that they could “live with grace in an ungraceful environment,” recounts Macdonald. In °89, Macdonald met with Shadbolt to convince the artist, along with Bill Reid and Gordon Smith, to assist the school board in establishing the Artists For Kids Trust. In his role as a patron artist of the trust, Shadbolr has donated wo prints, proceeds from the sale of which support visual and performing arts programs and scholarships for children. Fiis first, an 18-color etch- ing called Garden in Flux, was released in 1993, as a limited-edi- tion of 99, at $1,200 apiece. His second, a 10-color intaglio called Night Transformation, was tu be released yesterday at the exhibition opening as an edition of 100, at $2,000 apicce. "The show, Bugs, Birds e Beasts, is open to the general public every weekend from noon to 4 p.m. The collection of 36 drawings, paintings and prints is meant as a thematic exploration, and is not a complete representation of Shadbolt’s work, says the show’s curator Scott Watson. Watson, who is also curator of the Belkin Art Gallery at UBC and author of two books on Jack Shadbolt, thinks the theme is a fit. “Kids like beasts,” he says. Macdonald is quick to agree, confident that the show will be as well received as a teaching tool as it - is a coup for the North Shore. Jack Shadbolt, says Macdonald, is a living Emily Carr. “A legend.