Graphic novels by the students of Huband Park Elementary School, Grades 3 – 7
March 24 to May 30, 2009

Artist in Residence:
Mr. Jesse van Muijlwijk

Some of the Comox Valley’s youngest writers have produced a unique and insightful peek into the history of local families. The first week van Muijlwijk taught them interviewing skills and during the second week of the project he taught them to set up a storyboard…

The student’s next weekend assignment was to elicit the help of their elders to begin drawing the pictures to illustrate their stories…

During the third and final week, the students brought in their completed storyboards and learned drawing techniques…

“They are historians, they are journalists, they are writers, sometimes they are poets in their works and they are artists in visualizing their work. It adds to their identity. You know who you are when you know where you come from” [said van Muijlwijk].

Excerpted from “Stories of the past put in modern form” by Marcel Tetrault
Comox Valley Echo, Friday, March 6, 2009

Funding for A Portrait of Stories provided by:

Art Starts – Artists in Education grant.
Also supported by:

Vancouver Foundation
BC Arts Council
Columbia Basin Trust via the
Columbia Kootenay Cultural Alliance