Banff High School Students take on Artist Interview Assignment for Dual Credit Program

From his Canmore studio and gallery, Canadian Artist Jason Carter met with six enthusiastic Grade 11 students from Banff High School.  The reason? They were on a key reporting assignment, to get to know the artist behind the work which features in the rooms and suites of The Moose Hotel & Suites – as part of their Dual Credit Business Program in Entrepreneurialism.

The Program, in partnership with Bow Valley College and Canadian Rockies Public Schools, saw the students apply some hands-on work experience with the senior management team of Banff Lodging Co., over a period of six weeks.  As a supporting partner of the Banff High School Dual Credit program, Banff Lodging Co. welcomed their Grade 11 recruits to become part of the hotel’s launching strategy; taking hard hat tours to understand the final stages of the hotel’s construction, meeting key Directors of the company, and contributing to Marketing discussions, guest experience brainstorms, and touring the hotel with The Moose Hotel & Suites General Manager, Peter DuBeau.

Joleen Brewster, now 18 and set to graduate from Banff Community High School at the end of this term, was one of the students enrolled on the program.

When Joleen arrived with her student peers to meet Carter, she found the interview and the time with Carter in-studio, to be an enjoyable, practical way to understand the industries of Marketing and Tourism outside of textbooks and classroom learning – not to mention Carter’s know-how of interview techniques and content creation from his previous role as a Video Producer, and his charismatic, larger-than-life personality.

“It was fun!  Jason was really friendly and welcomed us to his studio, where we were able to ask him lots of questions about his style of art, inspirations, and his work process.  We’d already been part of a conversation with the hotel team about why his work, as a local artist, would be a key feature of the new hotel, so we had that background context.  We were learning, but in a different way – with real people in real situations. I loved it.”

Joleen has since been accepted on a place at Ryerson University, Toronto, to study Tourism Management.

Read the full Q&A between the students and Jason Carter – conducted in his Canmore gallery in May 2016 – moosehotelandsuites.com/jason-carter