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Video series focuses on people behind Salmon Arm’s big ideas

Pandemic opens opportunity for Salmon Arm Arts Centre to focus on internet content creation
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Mirella Ramsey (left) and Kate Fagervik, manager of visitor experience with the Salmon Arm Arts Centre, discuss the Mirella Project in a new video conversation series featuring the people behind Salmon Arm’s big ideas. (Salmon Arm Arts Centre image)

What are Salmon Arm’s big ideas?

Inspired by the city’s brand, Small City, Big Ideas, the Salmon Arm Arts Centre has released the first of a planned series of video interviews featuring the people behind some of those big ideas.

“I think it’s such a fantastic tag line for our community and it’s one that inspires curiosity…,” explained the Arts Centre’s manager of visitor experience, Kate Fagervik. “What are these big ideas? It makes me want to know what’s happening…

“We have some really cool interviews coming up with quite famous local artists… and I’m excited to see where this series goes. It can kind of be anything at this point.”

Fagervik said the series will focus on ideas, arts and culture. In the first episode, available to view on the Salmon Arm Arts Centre’s Youtube channel, Fagervik conducts a casual constructive conversation over the internet with Mirella Ramsey, co-founder of the Mirella Project.

“That initial interview with Mirella was exciting because she was also our Family Saturday guest that week, so we did a whole Mirella week where the Mirella Project put together tips we shared on Instagram, eco-tips, and she was our guest for Family Saturday that’s on our Facebook page,” said Fagervik, referring to the Family Saturday program at the Salmon Arm Art Gallery that was moved online due to COVID-19 restrictions.

Fagervik explained the pandemic has forced a programming shift not just at the Salmon Arm Arts Centre, but at galleries, museums and other cultural institutions across the province. Part of that shift includes an increased focus on the creation of internet content.

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The Salmon Arm Arts Centre has been adapting to this shift, releasing a variety of video content on Facebook and Youtube. Among them are the Small City, Big Ideas series, another series called Bird Conversations, as well as numerous instructional videos created with local families for Family Saturdays.

Looking ahead, Fagervik said the gallery is planning to reopen in August with its new exhibition, The Forecast, featuring eight multi-media artists who explore evidence for climate change through photography. She said video content will be created featuring some of the artists involved.

“We’ve been informed by Arts BC that we need to be planning online content for at least the next two years,” Fagervik explained. “I think it should be integrated into everybody’s business plan at this point, so we certainly are looking ahead right now towards the winter, what we’ll be putting online – and to the future as well. I think this is going to be a part of our plan and our programming that doesn’t disappear.”

Fagervik said she’s always looking for families to make art with her for Family Saturdays, and while she has a list of prospective interviewees for the Small City, Big Ideas series, she invited residents who might wish to participate to contact her at the Arts Centre and pitch their big ideas.

”Highlighting change makers in Salmon Arm is what we do best at the Arts Centre, and having a new platform to go deeper in to what’s happening locally excites us,” said Fagervik. “Stay tuned as we continue to explore big ideas, and meet the locals who think them.”

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21818765_web1_copy_200617-SAA-big-ideas-video-series-mirella_1
Mirella Ramsey (left) and Kate Fagervik, manager of visitor experience with the Salmon Arm Arts Centre, discuss the Mirella Project in a new video conversation series featuring the people behind Salmon Arm’s big ideas. (Salmon Arm Arts Centre image)