INUVIK
From Old World to New World, the Art Travel Club at East Three Secondary School has changed the itinerary for its biennial trip to San Francisco, California, from Italy, due to limited funding.

Jennifer White, left, Amy Badgely, Paisley Van Vliet, Sarah Seward and Dawson Smith work on gifts for the different reward levels from the Art Travel Club's GoFundMe campaign, raising money for their trip. - Elaine Anselmi/NNSL photo

"We choose one location that is our ultimate goal, and then a backup location in case we don't achieve the funding," said teacher Lexie Winchester.

"Because of places that require deposits, that decision has to be made sooner since we can't keep putting money into deposits if we're not on track."

The group had a goal of raising $60,000 to travel to Italy, but Winchester said a lack of funding currently available in the community has left the group far behind their targets achieved by this time two years ago for the last trip to London, England. At approximately $40,000, she said San Francisco was a more feasible venture.

"It is still going to be an amazing trip," said Winchester.

"Instead of looking at Renaissance art, we'll be looking at Art Deco. We're leaving the historical works and going into modern art society."

The club was formed in 2012 to plan biennial trips to some of the world's hubs of arts and culture. The group is open to Grade 11 and 12 students, allowing everyone a chance to be a part of one trip.

"We try to go to places that have significant art and cultural atmospheres, places you can be completely enveloped, from the architecture to the museums to the theatre," said Winchester.

"We go to cities and places that are hotspots for art."

All 10 group members take art courses through the school and are contributing to fundraising through raffle ticket sales, an upcoming wine-and-cheese night and other events throughout the new year, said member Paisley Van Vliet.

Like several of the group members, she had an older sibling who was a part of the Art Travel Club and looked forward to her own opportunity to be a part of the group.

While preparing gifts for donors to the club's GoFundMe - an online crowd-funding forum - several club members spoke about their excitement for the upcoming trip to San Francisco. The students only became aware of the switch from Italy last week, but have been looking into the new destination.

"I heard there's a Walt Disney Museum there, so that will be really cool to see," said Jennifer White.

One of the goals of the trip, said Winchester, is to expose the students to different forms of art, such as set and costume design. On the England trip, she said several students were brought to tears seeing the live stage production of The Lion King.

"You only get to see so much living here," said member Amy Badgely. "So when you get to go somewhere else, you see there are so many different kinds of art out there. So, if I don't find one that fits me here, it might be out there."

The Golden Gate Bridge is another feature of the California city that White said she is looking forward to seeing first hand. The students all perked up when Winchester told the group they would be doing a boat cruise on the bay to work on some photography.

"I'm really excited to take pictures, I'm into photography - that's my thing," said Badgely. "I have a blog and I want to run a bunch of pictures and journal every day."

The club will continue their fundraising efforts towards the San Francisco trip and Van Vliet noted that they are very thankful for all of the donations that have been made so far.

Winchester added, "We want to get the word out that we are still going on the trip, it's still going to be about art, it's still going to be about culture, it's just going to be different."

We welcome your opinions. Click here to e-mail a letter to the editor.