MERGE: workshop day at Lynnmour Xá7elcha Elementary

I had a wonderful day yesterday at Lynnmour Xá7elcha Elementary in the District of North Vancouver.  The school is right across the street from the ‘Merge’ artwork.

Last October I was contacted by teachers Paul Best and Leslie McGuire, who had heard my interview about the colourful acoustic barrier wall on CBC’s ‘On the Coast’ and invited me to visit the school and talk a bit about the project.

After a brief presentation to Monique Zander’s grades 3/4 and Mr. Best’s 4/5 classes on how the colours were chosen from references in nature, everyone went outside with pencils and notebooks in hand to notate the natural colours they could find in the ‘Merge’ neighbourhood.
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Back in the auditorium, all 40 students made colourful, abstract stripes, using oil pastels to represent the found colours before arranging them into one large and fascinating conglomeration – their own version of ‘Merge’!

MERGE (2022) Rebecca Bayer, 356m x 4m, Powder-coated Aluminum Acoustic Panels

Trans-Canada Highway @ Keith Road⁠, Lynnmour, District of North Vancouver, territories of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations