Arts Grants Keeping Talent in Kelowna

BC Arts Council has given out its yearly grants, and two have been sent to Kelowna.

The Kelowna Museums Society has received a $25,000 grant for Early Career Development in the Studio Arts while local author Ashley Little has received a $6,000 scholarship.

The Kelowna Museums Society is using the grant to engage a highly qualified volunteer, Nikki Bose, to work full-time for a year in their Ursula Surtees Regional Conservation Lab. Bose, who has a degree in archaeology and a diploma in collections, conservation, and management, moved from Cranbrook to volunteer in the state-of-the-art conservation lab.

View of the Okanagan Heritage Museum on a sunny October day. (Photo Credit: KelownaNow)

Bose began volunteering in May after hearing about the opportunity. Now that she has the grant, however, she can focus more on her work at the lab rather than stressing out about paying rent and making car payments. Previously she was working part-time to support herself while volunteering. “Because I am new starting out in the field, it's provided me with the opportunity get experience,” says Bose. “For a lot of people fresh out of school, that's their big stumbling block.”

The conservation lab is a big entity for Kelowna museums as these labs relatively rare across Canada, especially in smaller museums. Down in the basement of the Okanagan Heritage Museum, the lab allows the museum to treat old photos and objects to prolong their life. However, before Bose came the museum had a huge backlog on items. She's been busy ever since with workshops, cleaning up items for exhibits, and building covers for old books to keep them safe.

The other grant recipient, author Ashley Little, received her funds as a scholarship to help her pay tuition at UBC's Okanagan campus while she finishes her Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing. This grant allows her to focus more on her thesis, which is an upcoming novel called Niagara Motel.

Local author Ashley Little. (Photo Credit: UBC Okanagan)

“Niagara Motel is narrated by Tucker Malone, an eleven year old boy who lives in a run-down motel with his mother, Gina, an exotic dancer, in Niagara Falls, Ontario,” says Little. “Tucker and his friend, Meredith, a sixteen year old pregnant street-prostitute, hitch-hike to Los Angeles, California to find the man Tucker believes to be his father, Sam Malone from the television sitcom, Cheers. The two friends arrive in South Central Los Angeles on April 29, 1992, and bear witness to the chaotic and violent beginnings of the 1992 Los Angeles Riots, the most serious incidence of civil unrest in U.S. history.”

Little is an emerging author in the province who had an unprecedented dual win at the BC Book Prizes. Recently, one of her books was shortlisted for the City of Vancouver Book Award, which will be announced on Tuesday.

“Grants like this are very important for the community because they allow individuals who would have otherwise left,” says Bose, who was looking at moving to Edmonton for better opportunities. “The grants keep educated and talented individuals in B.C.”

Close to $2.48 million was given to B.C. artists and organizations in the latest round of BC Arts Council grants.