Who are your personal heroes? What is our responsibility to the planet? What is your earliest memory? How do you connect with your culture? We asked, and students across Canada answered with remarkable creations inspired by the nation’s greatest artists. Now in its fourth year, the ACI student challenge received submissions from young makers in Grades 7 through 12 from coast to coast. They looked to the work of visionaries like Edward Burtynsky (b.1955), Helen McNicoll (1879-1915), and Karen Tam (b.1977), engaging with themes of community, courage, and connection that promise to resonate across generations. The work featured here is a testament to the remarkable ingenuity of young Canadians—and the invaluable contributions of visual arts teachers who mentor and cultivate the artistic talent of tomorrow.
The Art Canada Institute gratefully acknowledges Canadian Geographic as the media sponsor for this year’s student challenge.
The 2023 Canadian Art Inspiration 
The 2022 Canadian Art Inspiration 
Autumn Tigers
The 2021 Canadian Art Inspiration
Mastery in Metal
Through the Lens of C.D. Hoy
The Measure of Nature: 
Artist and Abolitionist
Shuvinai Ashoona: Mapping Worlds
Early Snow: Michael Snow 1947-1962
Harold Town: Art of Evolution
William Kurelek’s Art of Rapture and Reminiscence
Prudence Heward’s Modern Women
Paul-Émile Borduas’s Abstract Revolution
Norval Morrisseau’s Spiritual Vision
Alex Colville: An Everyday Order
Shared History: The Drawings of Pitseolak Ashoona
Personal, Local, and National: Greg Curnoe’s Vision
Art of Perception: Jack Chambers’s Inner Vision
Jock Macdonald: The Search for New Forms of Beauty