THIS IS US 2025
Finding Home
Exhibition Date: May 5 – May 15, 2025
For this exhibition, participants (students, staff, and extended Central community) are invited to create an original artistic piece, such as an illustration, photograph, painting, or musical composition, that reflects their connection to the idea of home.
“Home isn’t where you’re from, it’s where you find light when all grows dark.”
— Pierce Brown, Golden Son
“You can have more than one home. You can carry your roots with you, and decide where they grow.”
— Henning Mankell
“I long, as does every human being, to be at home wherever I find myself.”
— Maya Angelou
DRIVING QUESTION: What does home mean to you?
GUIDELINES
PARTICIPANTS: Participants (staff/students) must be part of the Burnaby Central community.
THEMATIC CONNECTIONS: All entries must be related to the theme of the exhibition: Finding Home
ENTRIES: Participants will submit one photograph, original piece of artwork (painting, illustration, pastel work etc.), or musical piece which is a response to the driving question of the exhibition: What does home mean to you?
FOCUS QUESTIONS – Choose ONE question to respond to.
This will be the inspiration for the artistic piece you create!
- What are the first three words that come to mind when you think of “home”? Why do they make you think of home?
- Can you describe a specific memory that makes you feel at home?
- What physical features, objects, and/or people do you associate with your idea of home? How do they contribute to your sense of home?
- How do you feel when you are at home? What emotions does it evoke?
- Can “home” be a person, a feeling, or an experience rather than a place? Explain using your personal experiences as examples.
- How has the idea of home changed for you?
RESOURCES FOR INSPIRATION
What Does Home Mean to You? (2:38 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWt76WqRCVs
People ages 0-100 to answer some of life’s big questions: What does home mean to you?”
Let’s Eat – Award Winning Animated Short Film – Anamon Studios (8:30 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MX_fJAhmEE
Let’s Eat is a 8 minute animated short film that centers on the relationship between a mother and daughter in a Chinese-American immigrant family. Let’s Eat strives to be a universal story told through a distinctly Asian-American voice.
As a single parent in an unfamiliar country, Ma’s entire life centers around raising Luan, her rambunctious young daughter. Likewise, Luan spends her childhood indulging in endless quality time with her playful, loving mother. However, as Luan grows up, it isn’t long before daily life interferes and causes mother and daughter to grow apart. By channeling their feelings into cooking, the two strive to find their way back to each other, one homemade meal at a time.
Ma and Luan’s tale touches upon mother-daughter relationships, the American immigrant experience, and the unspoken translation of love into food – familiar themes reflected through a fresh perspective often overlooked in mainstream media.
Finding Home Through Poetry | Najwa Zebian | TEDxCoventGardenWomen (15:05 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNRygxe_8Ys
Drawing on her experiences growing up in different countries and struggling to find a place where she felt she belonged, Najwa Zebian revelas the power of the spoken and written word. She demonstrates how words can pave the journey that leads us to our home, to a place where we feel we belong, understood and valued, and most importantly where we feel worthy of feeling that way.
Najwa Zebian is a Lebanese Canadian educator based in London, Ontario, Canada. Her passion for creative expression was evident from a young age as she delved into Arabic poetry and novels. She arrived to Canada at sixteen years of age and pursued higher education. In 2011, she became a teacher and is currently pursuing her Doctorate in Educational Leadership as she teaches high school students
**NOTE** If you’re short on time but still want to catch the most impactful part of this video, please watch from 9:46 – 14:07 min.
In this segment, Najwa delves into the profound concept of growing a sense of home within yourself. She emphasizes how creating an internal sanctuary can provide stability and peace, regardless of external circumstances. This part of the video is particularly insightful and inspiring, offering guidance on how to nurture your inner world.
What is Home by Mosab Abu Toha
What is home:
it is the shade of trees on my way to school
before they were uprooted.
It is my grandparents’ black-and-white wedding
photo before the walls crumbled.
It is my uncle’s prayer rug, where dozens of ants
slept on wintry nights, before it was looted and
put in a museum.
It is the oven my mother used to bake bread and
roast chicken before a bomb reduced our house
to ashes.
It is the café where I watched football matches
and played—
My child stops me: Can a four-letter word hold
all of these?
Mosab Abu Toha is a Palestinian poet and founder of the Edward Said Library, Gaza’s only English-language library. He is a former visiting poet at Harvard’s department of comparative literature.
From Things You May Find Hidden in My Ear by Mosab Abu Toha. Copyright © 2022 by Mosab Abu Toha.
ARTIST STATEMENT
All entries must be original and accompanied by a short artist’s statement (a minimum of 100 words and a max of 500). Artist’s statements can also be in the form of a poem. The aim of this statement is to tell the story of what is captured in the artistic piece.
If a participant is unable to submit a statement that meets the above guidelines, please connect with one of the sponsor teachers, and we would be happy to work with the participant to help create their artist statement.
Sponsor teachers include:
- Ms. Pereira
- Ms. Gallivan
- Ms. Uhren
- Ms. Barichello
- Ms. Perrotta
Please also ensure that the following is included in your artist statement. See guidelines on next page.
- Full Name
- Grade
- Title of Piece
- Type of artwork (illustration, musical composition, etc…)
- Focus Question/s you are responding to
PROOFREADING: Please proofread and edit your artist statements before submission. Sponsor teachers can help you with this if needed.
Artist Statements should also respond to:
- What informed your decision to create this artistic piece?
- In what ways does your artistic piece reflect your ideas about home and what it means to you? (response to Focus Question)
Artist Statement Formatting |
|
Margins – top, bottom, left, right at 0.3” | |
Font – Calibri | |
1st Line – First Name, Last Name (bold), Grade – size 36 font | |
2nd Line – Title of Piece (bold & italicized), Year – size 26 font | |
3rd Line – Type of Artwork (illustration, musical composition, painting, etc.) – size 18 font | |
4th Line – Focus Question (bold) – size 14 font | |
Artist Statement – size 14 font | |
Distribute text evenly between margins | |
Top Ruler @ 5” |
ARTISTIC PIECES
Artistic pieces should help to express the participants’ experiences with the theme of Finding Home. Participants can include themselves and others in their work. Be creative! If your piece contains a person, you will need to get consent from the individual.
The artistic piece submitted must take into consideration the overarching intention of the exhibition: Finding Home.
Each artistic piece and response must be original and previously unpublished. Work may also include original collages (ie. collection of personal photography or artwork) and may not include the work of others.
MUSICAL COMPOSITITIONS:
-
- Musical compositions must include appropriate language for sharing at school.
- If the musical composition includes lyrics, a Word file of the lyrics and title must be submitted.
- Participants will submit the musical composition as an MP3 file.
- Musical compositions will be incorporated into the exhibit using a QR CODE.
PHOTOGRAPHS:
Photographs must be submitted as a RAW or JPEG file – with a minimum of 1200 pixels.
- DIGITAL CAMERA – If you are using a digital camera, your photo will be a RAW
- SMART PHONE – If you are using your smart phone camera, you will need to change your camera settings using the following steps:
- Step 1 – Go to Settings
- Step 2 – Click Camera
- Step 3. Click Formats
- Step 4 – Click Most Compatible (will use a JPEG format)
Please be mindful that if you are using a smart phone camera, it needs to be able to take a picture with at least 300 dpi or 8 – 12 megapixels (800 – 1200 pixels) to ensure that the printed photo can be enlarged to an 8 X 10 size. You will also need to make sure that you use the raw phone file (not optimized for iCloud storage) to ensure the highest quality print.
SUBMISSION OF WORK
DEADLINE: All entries must be received by APRIL 7 @ 3pm
Scan the QR Code to access the submission FORM.
OR you can access the FORM via this link:
https://forms.office.com/r/VuqFgdqipd
If you are submitting an original illustration, painting, etc., please submit to Ms. Pereira in room C231.
All work will be returned to the participants once the exhibition is over.
All non-digital work is to be submitted to Ms. Pereira (C231). Please ensure that your FULL NAME and GRADE are located on the back side of the artistic piece.
- Submit your Artist Statement as a Microsoft Word File
- Submit your photograph as a RAW or JPEG File(min 800 – 1200 pixels)
- Submit your musical composition as an MP3 File
- Submit song lyrics as a Microsoft Word File