Students paint bus which will play pop-up concerts in London, Ont. this summer

A collaborative project three years in the making is finally coming to fruition.

High school students from the Thames Valley District School Board (TVDSB), along with the Boys and Girls Club and artists from the London Arts Council are working together to paint a bus.

“Every single student came up with an idea and a template to brainstorm what they wanted to see,” said Laura Briscoe, TVDSB Innovation Coordinator. “Then they worked together to share that with the artists.”

The bus is a travelling audio-video (A/V) centre belonging to the Digital Creative Arts Centre (DCAC) at the Boys and Girls Club. It will travel around the City of London for pop-up concerts this summer once the painting is complete and the bus is converted to an A/V centre.

“We will be going to Boullee Street, Marconi on those non-profit housing throughout the city,” said Mario Circelli, manager of the DCAC.

“This will be our third year, but this will be the first year where we're showing up with the creativity and motion bus. It’ll be great to see the faces of some of these kids when we show up and this bus painted and decked out the way it is, and then a band comes out and sets up and starts performing," he added.

Artists Shane Wilcox and Kimberly Doerr from the London Arts Council work with students at Westminster Secondary School to paint a new travelling audio-video bus. (Source: Brent Lale/CTV News London)Many of these students are new to Canada from places like Lebanon and Syria, and some of them are just learning English. Some of those students even helped translate the ideas to London Arts Council artists Shane Wilcox and Kimberly Doerr.

“This was an opportunity to empower student voices, specifically students who are English language learners,” Briscoe said.

“They are newcomers to Canada and we really want them to feel like their ideas matter. They shine and the opportunity for some of them to see and work with professional artists was so very exciting,” she added.

Later this week, the bus will be at Beal Secondary where another set of students will put paint to brush.

The concert series will begin in July.