Finding Care, Kinship, and Confidence through Artistic Mentorships

Finding Care, Kinship, and Confidence through Artistic Mentorships

Interviews with Mallory Gemmel from BC Culture Days and the 2023 Ambassadors and Mentors

For many artists who are looking to pursue and advance their craft, the promise of being mentored by someone is a treasure. Oftentimes, acting as a mentee to a mentor provides a young creative with learning experiences that cannot be quantified, ‘taught,’ or ‘schooled’ in traditional educational environments. Regan Shrumm, the 2023 BC Culture Days ambassador in Victoria, expresses, “I have had many informal mentorships in my life, through work supervisors, facilitators with workshops, and friends. For me, mentorships are an important part of my education because they teach many things that I would have probably never learned in a university setting.”

The experience of mentorship, for both mentee and mentor, is not just an endeavour dedicated to learning and knowledge-sharing but also, an endeavour filled with generosity and gratitude. It is a mutually beneficial relationship built on kinship, shared objectives, curiosity, and admiration. As ambassador in Salt Spring, Tlanextli Coyotl says, “Having someone that is invested in supporting you…knowing that there is a person that is committed to that, really makes a difference.”

After five years of the BC Culture Days mentorship program, we have heard time and time again the swelling testimonies of care and appreciation sung from the reflections of numerous young artists and their mentors who have participated in the Ambassador and Mentorship programs. This year, our program paired ten ambassadors and ten mentors. For a period of six months, each duo met periodically, either in-person or via Zoom to work towards personal, artistic, and professional goals, like building confidence in an artistic craft, making strides in professional development, discussing tools for community engagement, and building social practice. This year’s ambassador event series aimed to support A/I/R (Accessibility, Inclusion, and Resilience), and our ambassadors offered free access-focused arts and culture events in their local communities. Many participants received guidance in preparing for their community events as their mentors provided advice on how to integrate access points and accessibility and inclusive practices into workshops. A number of neurodivergent-identifying ambassadors expressed that their mentors served as accessibility points for them—safe relationships where they felt they could freely express ideas and receive direction in thoughtful and hospitable ways.

As this year’s program came to its end, BC Culture Days connected with the mentorship pairs to ask the mentors and mentees to reflect on their experiences. Click on each ambassador and mentor’s name to learn what they had to say.

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CAMERON GELDERMAN and PATRICK LUNDEEN

SUMMER TYANCE and NORINE BRAUN

CHERIE CHAI and CLELIA SCALA

PEISEN DING and KAY SLATER

ERIN SHUTTLEWORTH and JEFFREY ELLIS

LINDSEY TYNE JOHNSON and MIRIAM LIBICKI

NATASHA LEPINE and PETER CORBETT

ANN K CHOU and TIM GOSLEY

TLANEXTLI COYOTL and SHAUNA DEVLIN

REGAN SHRUMM and STEPHANIE SPRINGGAY

The hero image at the top of the page shows Norine Braun and Summer Tyance smiling for the camera at Summer’s Culture Days Two-Spirit Hand Drum Song Workshop in Vancouver, which is situated on the unceded traditional territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.