The New Brunswick Arts Board is an arm’s length arts funding agency with a legislated mandate to facilitate and promote the creation of art as well as administering funding programs for professional artists in the province.
Justine Koroscil, director of administration
Did you know that artsnb has a Youth Advisory Committee? Currently the committee is comprised of 8 young professional artists aged 18 to 35 who have an established art practice. There is a fair and diversified representation of the province’s geography, cultures and artistic disciplines within this group of artists. The commission was set up to:
Last year, I had the chance to go to a few conferences where the youth question was explored and challenged in various different ways within the arts. Too often, young artists are misrepresented, underrepresented, or lack representation in many committees, boards, organizations and government projects. Some young artists express challenges with connecting to their own community. One of the keynote speakers urged the young people participating in the conference to follow up on a national call- and advocate that there be a member of a youth group sitting on every board in Canada. Now that can take a while, but having youth advisory committees is a great first step in the right direction. The Fredericton Playhouse recently formed a youth committee and artsnb will soon be putting a renewed focus on our Youth Advisory Committee as well.
artsnb is going back to the drawing board with our youth committee. Many of our members are now professional artists with established art careers (Yay!). It can be difficult with travel requirements and time out of one’s practice or job to ensure everyone is at a committee meeting. We are in the process of re-structuring the committee and are calling out for a response from anyone interested in participating. We hope we can keep the committee’s structure of having a fair and diversified representation of the province’s geography and cultures while staying cost-effective. We are open to having a few students from high school sit on the committee. With the help of our chair, Saa Andrew, we have many projects dreamed up and need your help!
Saa Andrew is the current Executive Director of Battle of the Arts in Fredericton. A former refugee from Sierra Leone, Saa graduated from Saint Thomas University, majoring in Human Rights and World History. He then graduated with a Bachelor of Arts. Battle of the Arts went province wide in 2011 and since then Saa has been quite busy. He is a member of our Youth Commission and his goal is to use the arts to create change in community and beyond. He is also the president of the New Brunswick African Association. We are fortunate to have his support and guidance through our youth committee initiative.
If you are a young artists involved in your community or have an interest in artsnb please do not hesitate to contact me to apply to be included in our Youth Advisory Committee. Saa and I are eager to begin and we are in need of 12 committee members.
You can contact me at jkoroscil@artsnb.ca or Saa at sagefly@yahoo.ca with a CV or a link to online resources (your webpage/blog/etc.).
We look forward to hearing from you!
