Arts Everywhere: The SAA Podcast
Arts Everywhere: The SAA Podcast
Episode 13 - Arts Everywhere - Leadership, Dedication & Innovation with Breanne Harmon
Breanne Harmon is dedicated to a life in the arts, and her work has been rewarded with the prestigious recognition of the Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee Medal for work in the community. She'll be sharing her inspiring adventure from visual arts to theater, and her transition from Green Thumb Theater to her current role as the Executive Director of Persephone Theatre in Saskatoon. Breanne talks about her mentor, who foresaw her career path.
Breanne has led initiatives like the Balancing Act program and Playdate, designed to nurture a supportive community among arts workers and leaders. She shares her involvement in an arts leadership training program, and her love for the Ronald McDonald House and Saskatoon's food scene. Lastly, she shares her thoughts on the beauty of Saskatchewan and the cost of living in the province.
Links mentioned in this episode:
Green Thumb Theatre
Persephone Theatre
Belfry Theatre - Arts Leadership Training Program
Rising Tides
Thank you to SaskCulture, SKArts, and Sask Lotteries for your generous support.
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STARTING SEASON 2, THEME MUSIC PROVIDED BY:
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Kevin Power: http://www.kevinpower.net/ The Saskscapes Podcast: https://saskscapes.buzzsprout.com/
Your collective voice for the arts across Saskatchewan. This is Arts Everywhere the Saskatchewan Arts Alliance podcast. So who is your mentor? You know, that one person from your past or present, the person or maybe there's more than one mentor who played a significant role in shaping who and what you are today.
Speaker 1:Breanne Harmon is this episode's guest and she most certainly has a mentor and he predicted early on in Breanne's studies the direction she would eventually take in her life. And that path has led Breanne to a career in live performing arts, professional stage management, arts administration, advisory committees and spearheading programs and mentorship. So you know it kind of makes sense that Breanne should be chosen as a recipient of the Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee Medal for her contributions to the community, both nationally and within the province of Saskatchewan. Now Breanne is from British Columbia and she moved here with her family to Saskatoon because, while the timing was right for her to take on new roles which continue to further those contributions in our community, leading to her current role as executive director of Saskatoon's Persephone Theater. So the takeaway is don't forget to acknowledge the mentor, or mentors, in your life because of their encouragement they have played a huge role in who you are today and what you do. As always, please check the show notes. They contain links to information about some of the work Breanne is doing. Enjoy the episode.
Speaker 2:Happy to be here in Saskatoon on Treaty 6 territory at the paved audio studio. So shout out to paved for making this happen for us to have a really nice place to kind of hang out in and have a chat today. Welcome, breanne. Thank you so much for having me. Ann, yeah, really excited to talk to you today. You know our paths have intersected a little bit here in the last little while, just through some of the advocacy work that the SEA is doing around funding to the arts and audience development and audience re-entry retention and that sort of thing. But yeah, for those of you who might not know who you are, why don't you give us a little introduction?
Speaker 3:Thank you so much. My name is Breanne Harmon. I'm the executive director over at Persephone Theater, located in Saskatoon, where we currently are residing right now. I'm originally from British Columbia and made the move here just over a year ago with my family. So my husband, our two young children and we recently adopted a cat, who is the only born and raised a Saskatoonian in our family, and my background really spans live performing arts and visual arts. Growing up, I did a lot of theater, visual arts performing and a diploma in visual arts and then shifted over to theater production and design and got a bachelor of fine arts from the University of British Columbia and theater production design with the goal of being a stage manager, and I stage managed for a decade before making the move over to arts administration, and I've been in arts administration since 2016. I worked at Green Thumb Theater in Vancouver for a number of years, both as general manager and tour and education manager, and have been with Persephone Theater now for just over a year in my role as executive director.
Speaker 2:So yeah, I do have a lot of questions and things I want to talk about, but how one of the things I guess right off the top how did you make the decision to come to Saskatchewan? I'm always curious about that. As for someone who's kind of been from here my whole life, it's like, and someone who also, like I never also thought that I would stay here forever, for as long as I have not stayed, that I will stay forever necessarily. But you know it's an interesting place to decide to come.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it definitely is, and you are not the first person to ask that question and I am confident you will not be the last. There's a big cultural shift that has been happening since 2020 and I think that it was quietly taking place pre-2020 and big shift in our sector. There's a lot of really exciting and really challenging work being done, not just on stage, but really off stage administratively, with board of directors, with leadership and with staff, and I really wanted to be somewhere that challenged me and I really wanted to make my next administrative leap into somewhere where I could make a mark and have an impact with the team and the board of directors that I'm working with, and Persephone really spoke to me in that way. It's no secret that Persephone has undergone a lot of change in the past number of years, and I really admired the work that past leadership, the staff, the board of directors was doing in the organization in terms of transparency and community engagement and really opening the doors to the organization in a way I don't think has happened in the past, and so it was an exciting challenge and coupled with the quality of life here.
Speaker 3:I know the snow is a lot and we've survived our first winter and we're still here and we have two young children.
Speaker 3:My children are two and almost six and the timing was good for us.
Speaker 3:My son was just starting kindergarten, so he'd have a big change, regardless of where we were, and we thought it would be a fun adventure, and my husband was really game for an adventure and we hadn't spent much time in the Prairie provinces, specifically Saskatoon, and I was in Saskatoon in 2019 for the professional association of Canadian Theatres Conference and it was less than a week and I truly was amazed by the beauty of Saskatoon in the spring and was surprised.
Speaker 3:I was really surprised, because Saskatoon Saskatchewan in general gets a bit of a bad rap and I don't understand why. Now, having lived here for a year, it's a really beautiful place and I had a morning when I was walking to the conference, walking along the river, and I had a moment going, huh, I think I could live here one day, and that stayed with me for a number of years. And when the opportunity did arise to potentially move our family across the country and have an adventure, my husband and I were very quick to jump at the opportunity, and not to mention that the cost of living here is completely different than in British Columbia.
Speaker 2:I hesitate to say that, considering that things have definitely jumped in the last while. But I've had some similar conversations with some family that lives even in Calgary. The idea they're young our nieces and they're maybe just 30 and they're thinking about trying to see if they can even afford to get a home and it's almost like it'll never be a reality and I think at least here for some folks it's somewhat attainable.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think it's attainable in a different way especially. I mean it's all relative and I will say one of the really shining lights and big thing for us here was you can get anywhere in 20 to 25 minutes. 25 minutes is a long commute here and when I was living in BC and I was working right in Vancouver and my commute would be anywhere from an hour to an hour and 20 each way Living on the traffic on construction accidents so I'd be in the car sometimes three hours a day to get to and from work, which was a huge challenge because I had two young children and I basically would be home in the morning to give them breakfast, bring them to daycare and then pick them up and dinner and bed. And this has really been a game changer for us as a family just to have that quality time and really intentional time together. Yeah, that's amazing. Tell me a little bit about.
Speaker 2:Green Thumb.
Speaker 3:Yeah, green Thumb Theatre is a theatre-faring audience company and it was founded in 1975. It's a national organization and so, while it's based in Vancouver, the shows tour into schools and into communities regularly. That's their core activity and a lot of people in Saskatoon would actually have experienced Green Thumb shows, as Green Thumb shows have been at Persephone a number of times as well as at the Broadway Theatre, and the show is really focused on social issues and issues that youth are grappling with that may not be able to speak about them or have the tools to speak about them, and the shows are incredibly entertaining, relatable, not didactic. We never tell youth what to do and how to think, but they really show an experience and somebody else on stage and it's a really beautiful company and while I was really sad to leave, they're in great hands now and I'm really excited that as members of the professional association of Canadian theaters, we interact regularly and I'm always excited to see the new work coming out of GreenThumb.
Speaker 2:Yeah, amazing, that sounds like a really great place. I was kind of checking out prepping a little bit for this conversation. I was looking at your LinkedIn and different things just to kind of get an idea and I saw that you kind of moved through a bunch of different roles within GreenThumb and I think that's a really interesting kind of way to move throughout an organization and gain experience. And, yeah, would you mind speaking a little bit about kind of all the different things you've done? Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 3:I will say that one of the reasons why I moved into arts administration was really for sustainability, and my husband and I really wanted to start a family. Both of us are artists Okay, or I could say I was a former artist, I was a stage manager, my husband is an actor director and we hit a point where we went we want to have kids, and I was doing a lot of school touring as well and just touring and working in different provinces, and it was incredibly rewarding and amazing and I loved it, but I said I could not be the pregnant stage manager going to rural BC lugging in sound equipment with a big pregnant belly, and so we made the decision to do a little bit of a shift, and I was really excited by the prospect of being with one organization and growing with them over time, and so, as I said, I joined Green Thumb in 2016 as the tour and education manager, and my role there really was to work with the education system, work with the schools, work with the educators in a sales capacity, and so I met so many amazing educators, amazing people, and was able to bring work into communities that couldn't necessarily afford it or have access. So it was a really amazing experience just to even attend some of those shows and see the students just immersed in their school gym. They walk into the gym and it's completely transformed. It's a whole new world and it was a really, really great experience.
Speaker 3:And while I was working at Green Thumb I had two children and so my first maternity leave with my son I returned, moving into the role as general manager and it was a wild and incredible experience with a lot of support and mentorship. And I was in that role for four years before taking the big step and the big move over to the prairies and in my role as general manager of course supported the touring aspect and I still did a lot of work with the international US market and the national market for the larger shows and sales and, yeah, just really really enjoyed the mandate of the organization and Green Thumb's always going to have a very special place in my heart as a place that I really suck my teeth into arts administration and really found my home in this industry.
Speaker 2:Amazing. So I'm curious with your start maybe in visual arts and then your shift into interest in theater. Have you always had an interest in theater or how did that kind of evolve for yourself?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I actually was going to be a teacher. Okay, yeah, cool. My family is very musical and very art centered and so growing up it was just a given we did musical theater, we danced, I did gymnastics, I did cheerleading. My father's a musician and as one of his many jobs, and it's just, it was something inherent in my DNA my sister as well, really in our DNA and I always loved performing. I loved doing musical theater camps and doing the shows in high school and I knew that I wanted to have that in my life and in my career, but I didn't know what capacity and I know I didn't want to be a performer. I really enjoyed it, but that wasn't where my passion was and I hadn't quite figured it out. And in high school I assistant, stage, managed a show and went oh, this is interesting. I don't quite understand what this is, but it's interesting.
Speaker 3:And I did two years in visual arts at Langara College in Vancouver and my goal was to then transfer to the University of British Columbia and do a major in theater and a minor in visual arts and be an art and drama teacher in high school, and that was the goal. And then I met an incredible mentor, the late Jason McClain, who was instrumental in my career and in the choices that I made, and he is the reason why I am here doing what I am doing. In my first year, him and I talked a lot and as my mentor, he was my production teacher. He said so I know you want to be a teacher, you're not going to be a teacher. And I was like no, no, I'm going to be a teacher. He's like you're not going to be a teacher. He's like you're going to be a stage manager. And then your career is going to grow. And I said I've never stage managed before. And he's like yeah, this is what you're going to do. And I see it. And there was an opportunity to stage manage a show. And so I stage managed one and then I stage managed another.
Speaker 3:And then I quickly realized that that's what I wanted to do and I changed my degree. I basically added an F. I was doing a Bachelor of Arts initially, paid my money to add an F to my degree and then dropped the minor in visual arts and continued on with theater, production, design, with a really strong focus on stage management, and then scenic art and, as I said, continued on and stage managed for a decade and I had one point said OK, I'm going to give stage management a go. If I'm not getting work after a year, I am going to go. That was fun, and then I'm going to apply to school and get my B ed.
Speaker 3:That has not happened and yeah, and so I don't do as much visual arts as I would love to. Every once in a while I kind of peer into the stage and I see our team working away on the stage we have an incredible scenic artist, mark Erickson at Persephone, who is just an incredibly talented artist and see him working on stage in the shop and I always go. I wish I could just throw in my paint clothes and go downstairs and have an entire week of painting and maybe one day. And then, of course, I do a lot of art projects with my kids, which is not the same magnitude, but it still kind of keeps those tools sharp 100%.
Speaker 2:Yeah for sure. Oh, that's cool. Yeah, it's interesting how. That's definitely something I've spent a lot of time thinking about. Myself with a visual art background, how do you keep yourself kind of like in it? And I read it. There was a piece that University of Regina did on John Hampton from the Mackenzie Art Gallery and they asked him about their art practice and they said that it's on its own, it's on pause, and I was like that's an interesting way to think about it and it kind of gave me a bit of a reflection for it, because I've definitely found that within my role at the SAA is it's very difficult to carve out the time to be able to do anything of your own. And it's not that it's still in you, it's just it's hibernating a little bit.
Speaker 3:I like that. Hibernating on pause, I like that yeah totally so.
Speaker 2:we've talked a little bit about kind of where you came from. How's it going at the Persephone?
Speaker 3:It's going really well. It's. You know it was a big change moving from a non-venued school touring TYA organization into a beautiful space with a very robust staff, two spaces, rental halls. It's a really a hub in the downtown core of Saskatoon and, as I said, a lot of changes happening and a lot of really positive change, a lot of shifting in the way that we work, and not just at Persephone but in our sector. And it's really exciting to be a leader right now where we're placing so much importance on care and on people's mental wellness and health and well-being and taking that into consideration when we schedule, when we program, even when we talk to our stakeholders, really focusing on that aspect of we're people first and yes, we're arts workers but we're people before anything else. And we have a really fantastic team at Persephone. We have some long-standing people who have been with the organization for over 30 years and then we have a number of new faces in the organization, myself included, and it's just really exciting to be part of a regional theater at this time in Canada's cultural shift and being part of a Canadian theater ecology at this time and being able to contribute to the meaningful shift.
Speaker 3:I'm at one organization but as arts leaders, as arts workers, we all connect, we all talk and we all share. There's a lot of resource sharing, which I think is also such an important piece of the work that we do as arts workers and as arts leaders is if you have a win, you share it. We don't hide anything, we don't keep anything if we have an amazing policy or a statement. Persephone has recently rolled out a statement of care that we have spent the last year working on, which really puts an emphasis on people first, transparency, shared values and showing how we as an organization will care for the people we work with, both as contract artists, the students in our theater school, our permanent staff, our contract staff, our casual staff, anybody in the organization, if you interact with us.
Speaker 3:We have a statement now where we show these are the things that we do for you and if there are things that you need that are not listed here, come talk to us, because we want this to be an accessible and welcoming and great experience, and we're not the only ones that are doing work like this, and I think that it's just so important to be able, as I said, shared resources and to champion each other. When things go well, we champion each other. When things don't go well, we all hold hands, and even figuratively, from across the country, and we support each other, and I think that's a really beautiful thing. That's happening in Canadian theater right now is just that level of support and care that we show to each other.
Speaker 2:Yeah, how did you go about developing the statement of care? That's something I'm really interested in. I'm going to I'm going to bung you later too. I want to take a look at it for sure, because I think that that's something that's needed throughout the arts, especially after everything that everybody's been through all these past few years and the climate that we're operating in and kind of this heightened sense of impending doom. I always feel like it's not. Maybe not it's putting it a bit harshly, but sometimes it feels like that, I think, for a lot of people, and so I think being really open and transparent about how we're trying to work better with people and intentions like that is so important. So, yeah, I would love to hear a little bit more about that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we actually were part of a cohort through Theater Direct. They're based in Toronto and they have a program called Balancing Act. It's their level up program and so we worked really closely with them in their cohort over the last season developing this policy and really Balancing Act focuses on the aspect of caregiving and it focuses on so care for arts workers, care for people, care for caregivers, elder care, what that means, patron care, and so we had so much support from Balancing Act and the other organizations that participated in the program as well, and from this we actually created a number of programs. The other one that I can share, which is really awesome, is called Playdate, and we piloted it last season with our final show of our season, the Birds and the Bees. And Playdate what it does? It reduces barriers for caregivers to actually come out have a great day, experience live performing arts.
Speaker 3:As a parent, I can speak to this childcare.
Speaker 3:One is very hard to find, but two, it's also very costly, and if you want to go out and enjoy a night at the theater or a matinee at the theater or any live event, you're easily shelling out up to $200.
Speaker 3:After you pay for tickets. Maybe you want to have dinner, pay for parking, pay for babysitter or caregiver, and so what we've done is we have rolled out this program, playdate, where on our one of our accessibility shows so tickets are $25, we've, for the price of your ticket, you can sign up for a free theater school program for your child. And so you bring your child to the theater, you go, enjoy your show and your child gets to experience a theater school class in our space with our staff, and it's a fun experience for them and they get to try something, maybe different, maybe they're in theater school, maybe they've never done it before. And then the caregivers, parents, grandparents, leave the show, collect their child and head home, and so it's all included in the price of your ticket, and this is just a further way for us to reduce barriers of access for our patrons.
Speaker 2:Yeah, wow, what a fantastic idea, like even just thinking of it from a kid's perspective, like if you get to go to, you know, go do that every once in a while with you know that experience of going to theater school. I think one of the things that I'd like to talk about is some of the challenges that are faced right now by live performing arts organizations, and I think there's, you know, definitely some shared challenges that go across kind of go across disciplines. But I think, particularly right now, as we've talked about, there's some things that are very challenging for live performing arts and you know, in your year here at the Persephone kind of you know what are some of those things in particular that you've noticed or that we need to work towards trying to solve.
Speaker 3:I'm glad you asked that question because, I mean, I know we've talked about it, our colleagues talk about it. I don't think a day goes by where it's not discussed in some way, shape or form. There are a number of issues, but I think one of the biggest ones is bringing people back to live performing arts, whether it's theater, whether it's music, dance, opera, the symphony, it's just getting people re-engaged. There were basically four years of everyone being told stay home, stay home. It's not safe to gather, it's not safe to be together, do not congregate with more than five people, only be in your bubble. And even if people deep down know, oh, it's safe, we've been conditioned to go. I'm not going to go somewhere where there are a lot of people. I need to social distance. I need to.
Speaker 3:I've changed my habits and my priorities have changed, and with lockdown, you know a lot of companies, persephone Included, did go to a live streaming platform and do live work digitally.
Speaker 3:It's not the same, though, and with so much consumption and stuff available on online streaming platforms, our biggest competition now are the streaming services and the convenience of that it's I can go out or I can stay home and I have over a thousand titles to choose from, and I'm in the comfort of my own home, and so our biggest challenge and I know a lot of our peers and colleagues, their challenges too are how do we re-engage with our audiences, or engage audiences who weren't part of our community previously, and that's having a really dramatic impact on a lot of organizations Our ability to come back.
Speaker 3:We want to come back bigger, better, doing things in a better way, in a more sustainable way. That also costs money, and so, with the decline in return, I think we were all hopeful that doors are open, everyone can come back and everyone is just waiting to come back. But across the country, we're not experiencing that, and it's not like our expenses have gone down, if anything. Because of inflation, our expenses have skyrocketed, so the cost of lumber, for example, has gone up exponentially, so what we would spend on building a beautiful set, that price has increased so much for the exact same product. And so, with our expenses going up, inflation, cost of living and our audience is not returning at the level that everyone had hoped for and been excited about. It's definitely a challenge to be working in the live performing arts sector right now.
Speaker 2:And definitely I just want to make note too for anybody listening it's not just here, it's everywhere it's happening, and I think, at Persephone, though, you're doing some really interesting things around. You kind of talked about the Play Date program, but you have other initiatives and ideas that you're implementing to make what you're doing more accessible, so maybe if you could just talk about that a little bit, I think you're doing some really innovative stuff.
Speaker 3:Thank you. Yeah, we really took the time over the last few years and this was again before my arrival and then continuing on with my time at the company Really, as I said, opening our doors, and that means a lot of things to a lot of people. We have a really robust accessibility program. Play Date is part of that, but we also do ASL, interpretation, audio described performance, relaxed performance. We have a Pay what you Choose night for every show now and again, just breaking down those barriers of access and ensuring that everybody has the ability to attend the theater regardless of any barriers that they face. And so we have those programs. And another thing that we started doing and this was we heard the community. The community said we want access. We, you know, you have a beautiful space, you have resources, and so we've done that. And, just as past season alone, in the 22-23 season, we gifted more than $55,000 in space.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 3:Over 147 days to 33 different artists or arts groups. Yeah, and I look at that and I go. Well that you know that is a really meaningful way to give back to the community. And there are other community initiatives that we do throughout the year. We now have our Pomegranate Gallery up and running and it's a really beautiful place for visual artists to showcase their work.
Speaker 2:Okay, I've even heard of that. Yes, it's amazing.
Speaker 3:And we changed the exhibits with every single show, so they're curated to match all of our programming, and so we currently have some pieces on loan from the Ukrainian Museum of Canada that are up right now. They've just got installed and there are some gorgeous etchings and beautiful, beautiful work to be present during the first May Team man of Odessa, which opens at the end of next week, on October 13th, and so with that we have the Pomegranate Gallery. We also have a community sharing library, and so it's a David Edney community library, and it was formed with an initial donation from David Edney, and then members of the community really were so generous with their libraries and their collection of theater resource books, plays of any kind of play you're looking for. Chances are, we have something, and we recently expanded it as well, and so it's a free library and you can come, take a book, read it in our To-To Lounge, take it home. We just ask that you bring it back. And so those are just some of the initiatives that we're doing.
Speaker 3:We also have a really fun free event called First Monday, and Persephone and some theater host the event together, and it's the first Monday of every month. We launched the first one just this past Monday and it is a free play reading of a brand new Saskatchewan play oh amazing. And so local actors, local playwrights, local dramaturg and local directors and it's a really fun experience and the lobby is packed Cool. Yeah, we haven't had one so far where it's been quiet. It's people look forward to it and it's a really great again community building event just bringing people into the space and sharing the space.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'll have to plan some travel around the first Monday Sounds great. I also know that you're involved in another initiative and I think it's an arts leadership training program and I think I've talked with Tywo Afolabi a bit. Is this one the same? Yes, yeah, yeah, just, I'm interested in learning a little bit more about that Because it sounds really amazing and I think there's a huge need for arts management training, kind of here is Saskatchewan, for sure, and I'm sure kind of across the gamut, but definitely here. So I'm interested in hearing a little bit more about that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, the arts leadership training program was started by Tywo Afolabi, who was at the Bell Free Theater in Victoria, as now the University of Regina Center for Social Engaged Theater, and then Michael Shimada, who is the artistic director at the Bell Free, which is in Victoria, bc, and the two of them came together three years ago and it was a need from the community, specifically in Victoria, to have a training program and resources available for arts administrators from an IBP OC background. And the two of them took the community feedback and they started this program and they just continued to build and build and build and in its second year I joined them as a co-coordinator and so I'm now in my second year it's the third year of the cohort and it's a national program. It started off as a West focused and it's since grown to a more national lens and we have applicants who have an interest or some experience in arts administration, who are looking to increase their experience, their skills. And what's great about this program is that it's a two-pronged program.
Speaker 3:The first phase is seminar sessions, so with arts leaders, many of whom are IBP OC leaders, in the Canadian theater sector, but also just in the Canadian arts sector, so the program isn't limited to theater. It's for theater, visual arts, dance, opera, arts, arts or arts. So we have cohort members from every walk of life and we have 12 seminar sessions that are hosted over Zoom, because we have people in multiple time zones, in multiple provinces and we bring them together weekly for a curated session and it's really a space for them to learn and gain experience but also build connection and build that social capital that they need in order to have the ability to step into a leadership role, with tools and also resources and people to call upon. And then the second part of the program is a paid internship. So it's three months or the equivalent, so it could be a six-month part time, three months full time with an organization of their choice. And then, as co-coordinators, we work with the interns and the organizations to ensure that we can move forward with a really successful internship.
Speaker 2:Nice, have you had interns come and do any placements with you at the Persephone or has it we have before my time? Ok, cool.
Speaker 3:In the very first year of the program, persephone did have an intern, and they're a local. It was Melissa Campos, who has now just stepped into a role as general manager at GTNT.
Speaker 1:Right, yes.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so really incredible. Yeah, that's amazing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was thinking about way back in the day, like 10 years ago.
Speaker 2:There was a pilot program here in Saskatchewan called the Emerging Cultural Leaders Program and it ran for about a year I think, and it was just kind of a let's try it out and see what happens kind of thing, and it was a partnership between SAS culture and SAS Arts and maybe another organization or two, and I was lucky enough to be one of the people that participated in that program.
Speaker 2:I was thinking about it recently because I was having some of these conversations about the arts leadership training program that you've been involved in and it dawned on me that it's been about 10 years and I'm like that would be interesting. We should get that group together again and do a bit of a follow up, Because I've been touched with some of them through social media and things like that and man, some people, lots I think most people in that group have gone on to do amazing things, and so it would be neat to see how participating in that, how having that community around you kind of maybe propelled you or gave you the confidence or gave you the resources or gave you that sort of thing. I think it would be worth a second look for sure, as a bit of ammo to say these sorts of things are really needed and necessary and help people in their careers and their lives.
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely, and even I look back at my university training and it's nice to reconnect with a lot of those people and go well, who's still in theater? Yeah, who has gone on to something else. That is amazing and exciting, and the skills that you gained from and those resources and those people that you met have taken people onto incredible careers.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Something that I've been enjoying asking people is to give a shout out. Give a shout out to somebody, an organization, just something that you think like deserves a little bit extra, a little bit of extra attention, or something that you think is really great. Is there anybody or any organization that you'd like to give?
Speaker 3:a shout out to. Yes, it is not arts related, but one of my favorite organizations is the Ronald McDonald House. There's one in Saskatchewan, in Saskatoon here, and then of course we have the ones in BC and the UCLan as well. That is one of my favorite non-for-profit organizations. And I can speak a bit personally as well. My first pregnancy, my son came nine weeks early and he spent seven weeks in the neonatal intensive care unit and this was in BC and during that time I was incredibly supported by the Ronald McDonald House of BC and I'm forever grateful to the organization and I love the organization of everything it stands for and they're always my go-to in making a donation and we often ask around my son's birthday. We often ask people, in lieu of a gift, we'd love you to donate to either the Ronald McDonald House of Canada or to a variety of children who the NICU is supported by.
Speaker 2:Amazing.
Speaker 3:I was a preemie. Premies are amazing. Premies are. One of my best friends was a preemie as well, and preemies are resilient, in a way that, and very fierce, very intelligent, and I think it's a fighter flight. You come out and you're fighting the second you come out and yeah, I know from incredible preemies, so I'm glad that I know another one now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I'm fairly I'd have to double check. I'm fairly certain my mom was also supported by Ronald McDonald House at the time, so it's just really interesting to hear you say that yeah.
Speaker 2:You've been in Saskatoon now for about a year I'd say, right, just over a year. Yeah, what do you love about it? Or like it doesn't have to be arts related, but like I'm just curious. Like you know, coming into a new city, it's often interesting to hear what people maybe have a different, who have a different take on on a place that's maybe unfamiliar with it. Like, yeah, what do you, what are you really loving, or or what kind of grinds your gears about Saskatoon?
Speaker 3:I really, really love the food scene.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that has been something that there is no shortage of amazing places to eat and the quality of food here is outstanding.
Speaker 3:So I look forward to having guests, because I have like a list of all the places that either I have to take them or they have to go on their own. The food here is outstanding and I just love how, in the summer, how the city opens up in a way that is just so accessible to everybody. There are food festivals there, like there's just so much to do in the summer, and we haven't ventured out too far yet in terms of little road trips here and there, but even going over to Pine Lake you know that's just outside of the city and it is a beautiful spot, and so I feel like there's so many hidden gems. But what I love is that they're hidden gems but the people in the community are so excited to share them with you, so I feel like the hidden gems get a lot of airplay. Yeah, I mean, people are really excited to share those with you and just enhance your experience. So I feel like Saskatoon is an incredible summer place. Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 2:I've had the opportunity to spend a lot more time here than I have in the past and just you know, in my role at the SAA, wanting to come here and meet more people and be more involved in Saskatoon, because a lot of my network came from Regina, naturally, and then I was lucky enough to have family move here, so I have easy accommodations. But, yeah, it's a gorgeous city, especially in the summer. And, yeah, I agree, food scene top notch.
Speaker 3:Oh, yeah, for sure.
Speaker 2:Is there anything else you'd like to talk about or like to add?
Speaker 3:This was great. I mean honestly, it was really nice to sit down and chat and talk about theater, arts, economic recovery, food premies, yeah, Kind of hit all the topics. We run the gamut yeah.
Speaker 2:Well, yeah, it's maybe a little late, but welcome to Saskatchewan, Welcome to Saskatoon. It's been great to have a chance to get to know you a little bit better and, yeah, I look forward to seeing what you do over the next few years and what happens at the Persephone, and we'll work to support return to live performing arts as best as we can, because it's something we don't want to lose in our communities.
Speaker 3:Thank you and thank you to SAA for all the support and for really facilitating conversations on economic growth and moving towards that recovery. So we're really appreciative of the work that you're doing behind the scenes. Not everyone sees that. I think a lot of people think it just happens and it doesn't happen. There's a lot of live work and so incredibly appreciative for the work that you're doing behind the scenes and rallying live performance together to make a real impact and a real change.
Speaker 2:It's a collective effort, it's yeah, and we need to do it. Yes, awesome Well, thank you so much.
Speaker 3:Thank you so much, Anne.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:The next episode of Arts Everywhere is coming soon, so keep checking the Saskatchewan Arts Alliance website and their social media pages for more information and if you're listening to the podcast through your favorite podcasting app, don't forget to hit the subscribe button so you don't miss a single episode. The Arts Everywhere theme music is composed by Saskatchewan musician Patrick Moon Bird. Listen to Lo-Fi from his album entitled 2021. Check out the show notes for links to Patrick's music. The Saskatchewan Arts Alliance would like to thank our funders, Saskculture and SaskArts, both of whom benefit from lottery ticket sales through Sask lauderies. Proceeds from Sask lauderies fund cultural organizations all across the province, and we wouldn't be able to do the work we do without your support. See you next time.
