Towards the end of last week, a local artist-run initiative known as the Outdoor Artist Collective held a screening of a pair of episodes of their Creative Voices of Change series at the Skeena Diversity Building in Terrace.
The episodes profiled a pair of artists living in the Northern area named Amanda Hugon and Marie-Christine Claveau and looked at the respective processes and inspirations behind their artwork.
The Co-Founders of the Collective also spoke about how the idea for this series was thought of in addition to what some of what they enjoyed most when making this series.
“So we work, like we’re saying with this wintertime festival and this January will be the 4th one and it happens every January and it is really focused on building some community during the darkest moments of the year and bringing some focus to artists that are already working at this intersection between environmental social action and so because we’re connected with so many of those artists, there was an opportunity to highlight their work in a more substantial way or different way to really talk about and be able to show what they’re doing in the region” - Taylor Dilley, Outdoor Artist Collective Co-Founder
“I would say just seeing and feeling the trust that these people have had in us in sharing this space, their process, their ideas, their concepts and I feel like a lot of people really opened up and it was very impressive to see the lengths to which they go to build community around here and so yeah, I just felt really really lucky to be there and be able to have them open up to me so much, well to us yeah” - Anne Isabelle Leonard, Outdoor Artist Collective Co-Founder
The first two episodes of the series that aired earlier in July saw one focus on Taylor Dilley’s art and featured the Skeena Climbing Society while the other profiled the 2024 edition of the Sima Festival, which celebrates Art, Community & Environment.
And the last two episodes are set to be played in the same building on August 14th from 7 PM to 9 PM with the subjects that time being artists Kari Morgan and Stan Bevan.
The Collective also made it known that they’re willing to collaborate with any other local artists who are looking to tell their own story.