April 24, 2018

Welcome to our New Program Manager, Leah Horlick!

Please join us in welcoming Leah Horlick to the ArtStarts team as our new Program Manager for the Gallery and Infusion Professional Development. To help you get to know Leah a little better, we asked her a few questions. 

What are three words that best describe you?

Professional tea-obsessed bookworm.

Tell us a bit about yourself.

I'm a settler from Treaty Six Cree territory in Saskatoon, but grew up all over north-east Saskatchewan. I have a BA in Languages & Linguistics from the University of Saskatchewan. This will be my seventh year living on unceded Coast Salish territories. I completed my MFA in Creative Writing at UBC in 2013; from 2012-2017, I co-curated REVERB, Vancouver’s only anti-oppressive reading series for LGBTQ artists. I have a multidisciplinary arts background, but my main creative practice is writing - I’ve written two books of poetry with a third on the way. In 2016, I was awarded the Dayne Ogilvie Prize for Emerging LGBT Writers and my second book, For Your Own Good, was named a Stonewall Honor Book by the American Library Association. You can learn more about my past creative work here. I'm thrilled to join the ArtStarts team as Program Manager!

What is your role at ArtStarts?

As the Program Manager, I’m responsible for curation of the ArtStarts gallery and leading professional development workshops for artists and educators. More broadly, I look forward to supporting emerging and professional artists and teachers working in community with one another, and increasing familiarity with the new BC curriculum across a wide variety of arts communities!

Where did art start for you?

I’m grateful to committed arts teachers in public schools who encouraged me to develop a creative practice in rural environments with limited resources. I’m also grateful to my parents, who regularly drove long distances to ensure that my brother and I had access to low-cost arts programming through organizations like the Saskatoon Public Library and former Mendel Art Gallery.

Tell us something about yourself that might surprise us.

Last year, I embarked on a road trip across Romania and Moldova for writing and research. I’ve had my drivers’ license for years, but it turns out it’s almost impossible to take an automatic vehicle into Moldova -- I only had time to take one standard-transmission driving lesson before my flight. Thankfully, there’s a lot of road to practice on in Eastern Europe. Perhaps even a little too much road.

What is the most important thing you have learned in the last five years?

Working with a small group of close friends on a project like REVERB in a city where the arts are constantly affected by gentrification and scarcity taught me so much. One of the big lessons for me was that sustainable change really comes out of genuine relationships between people. I’m so looking forward to building new relationships at ArtStarts and am grateful to Elfred Matining, my predecessor in this role, for his supportive introduction to this community!  

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