Hub Community Gallery
STREAM — SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, ROBOTICS, ELECTRONICS, ARTS + MATHEMATICS
CVAG is committed to supporting youth in navigating their learning pathways at the intersection of art and technology — areas that have been historically patriarchal. STREAM Incubators emphasize access, diverse perspectives and ways of learning, rooted in relationship building and reciprocity.
The CVAG STREAM Incubators is a inquiry-based, hands-on learning program for youth, ages 10 – 15, facilitated at the Comox Valley Art Gallery by educator Stew Savard.
The initial series of the STREAM incubator began in 2021, inspired by the work of Deb Dumka and Claire Sanford in the exhibition, Our Young Girls an interactive installation exploring gender + digital empowerment + access + technology + safe spaces + art.
In the summer of 2022, the STREAM group explored how it is to be thinking, making and imagining, within an immersive space of art and design, in relationship with community + cultural workers participating in CVAG programming is which diverse identities came together to express something about place, identity and belonging. In this a safe space for learning, the group expanded their scope of inquiry to include the design and construction of a LEGO model of the art gallery architecture, plaza and the 2022 renovations | exploration of stop-motion animation | and collaborative learning of EV3 and VEX V5 robotics.
As part of Integrating Reality: Building from the Inside Out, December 2022 – April 2023, an installation of the LEGO model of the art gallery and a photo mural of participants working collaboratively on various projects was presented in CVAG’s Reception Hub. The STREAM Incubator photo mural was relocated to the Hub Community Gallery in CVAG’s entryway in the late fall of 2023, where it remains visible.
In 2023, inspired by the REPOSITORIES SERIES by Reva Stone, which was presented at CVAG as part of the exhibition Together Apart | Under One Roof, the STREAM students also initiated the Community Make Art Project Imagining + Exploring Robot Behaviours, inviting the public to join them in experiments using old and new technologies to create robots that had sensor responses and new behaviours to produce could produce drawings, make responsive sounds.
Currently, the STREAM participants are building a model of the Vancouver Island Regional Library in Courtenay and continue their incubator explorations in robotics, coding, and stop-motion/animation using the gallery’s flex spaces as they as they draw inspiration from the work that is part of the Comox Valley Art Gallery’s programming presentations.
