Trustin Hanson recreated Salmon Arm Art Gallery’s Little Lake exhibit on Minecraft. (Photo submitted)

Trustin Hanson recreated Salmon Arm Art Gallery’s Little Lake exhibit on Minecraft. (Photo submitted)

Field trip inspires Salmon Arm student to recreate art exhibit in Minecraft

Grade 5 student makes a model of The Little Lake exhibit at the Salmon Arm Art Gallery

  • Nov. 22, 2019 12:00 a.m.

A school tour through the Salmon Arm Art Gallery’s current exhibit inspired an elementary school student to recreate the artistic setting in a popular video game.

The gallery’s exhibit, a recreation of McGuire Lake made entirely out of knitted felt, was then made on a computer by a student at Hillcrest Elementary.

Trustin Hanson in Tyra Menzies’ Grade 5 class shared a video of his work with the Salmon Arm Art Gallery, which then posted it on the gallery’s Facebook page.

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“During one of our recent school tours a student said, ‘I want to design the Little Lake in Minecraft,’ and he did!” the post read.

Astrid Varnes, program manager for the gallery, is delighted the exhibit made such an impact on the student.

“This is the kind of stuff that sends us over the moon,” Varnes said. “It shows that the educational program here captures their imagination and they can see how art is connected to all the things that we do in life.”

From a 50-minute tour, Trustin was able to recreate the exhibit complete with a willow tree, the lake’s signature fountain and lily pads floating atop the lake.

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Trustin’s teacher was thrilled to hear of the online recreation.

“I’m totally going to use that as a teachable moment because that is going above and beyond,” Menzies said. “Connecting to yourself, connecting to the world and connecting to others – that’s always what we’re trying to do so I think that’s super amazing that he actually did it.”


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