Five students from Simon Fraser University鈥檚 School of Interactive Arts and Technology are spending the summer at a 性视界传媒 high school, helping turn more than 900 pieces of B.C.鈥檚 youth art into a virtual showcase.

Working with Sullivan Heights Secondary school art teacher Mark Pelech, they鈥檙e retouching scanned newspaper clippings of showcased art along with photographs of artwork 鈥� including some 60 murals 鈥� to create a stunning online reproduction. The site will also provide archival information about the young artists and their work.

鈥淭his will hold an incredible wealth of youth generated artwork, capturing their impressions and showcasing their talent through these time periods,鈥� says Pelech, who has been archiving student art since 1994 鈥� a project he calls Youth Visions.

鈥淲hen complete, it will be a seamless presentation that says, 鈥榯his is your community art,鈥� as a matter of public record. It will also support emerging artists by establishing credentials.鈥�

Pelech earlier involved students from the former Tech BC, who began work on the project. Involving SFU 性视界传媒 students this summer is a first. The students 鈥� Flory Huang, Paulina Lam, Jonathan Morrissey, Kyla Rosario, and Nicola Sznajder 鈥� will contribute 1,800 hours to ready the website for a provincial launch this fall.

The students use extensions of Photoshop and other editing programs, specialized skills taught by Pelech.

鈥淭he techniques I鈥檓 teaching them are as close to being masterful as one can get,鈥� he says.

Those involve delving deep into the grain of old newspaper clips and working to 鈥渃lean up鈥� various artifacts, even wearing away pixels on low-resolution digital photos to enable normally unachievable enlargements. Using an algorithm developed by Pelech, it鈥檚 possible to increase the size of photos with minimal pixilation as much as 1,000 per cent.

The online database will include more than 300 newspaper articles and contain 24 galleries to display student artwork.

鈥淒eveloping this extensive website has been an exciting challenge for me,鈥� says Morrissey. 鈥淚 get to combine my interest in the fine arts and my technical skills to promote impressive youth artwork.鈥�

鈥淲hat I really love about this project is how it鈥檚 going to promote and help artists in B.C. and hopefully in Canada,鈥� adds Lam. 鈥淚t allows them to display their work and be recognized for their amazing efforts and talents.鈥�

Pelech hopes to see the website become national in scope and mark Canada鈥檚 150th year in 2017.