Creative youth program
The Creative Youth Program provides a paid opportunity for local youth exploring a creative discipline to contribute to the local creative sector. The successful artist showcases a piece of their creative discipline monthly in the City of Kelowna’s Cultural Services e-newsletter. The Creative Youth Program is intended to tap into the skills and perspectives that young people bring to cultural organizations and the community as artists, decision makers and volunteers.
If you are registered for the Arts & Culture E-updates, each month you will read a piece by a creative youth in Kelowna to share their talent, words and news about youth in our arts and culture community.
Are you a local creative youth or do you know one that you think would be good candidate for our Creative Youth Perspective program? Look for the next application session in Spring 2025!
Learn about the current youth creatives
For the next year we will be featuring 2 outstanding local youth creatives, Emily Armstrong and Lexy Loverenow, who will each contribute content as representatives for the Creative Youth Perspective program.
Introducing Emily Armstrong
Emily Armstrong is a self-taught Kelowna-based artist entering her Grade 12 year at École Okanagan Mission Secondary. Through multi-media visual art, her work explores themes of reflection, connectedness, identity, time, and her perception of the human experience.
Emily’s love for all things creative began at a young age and has continued to grow throughout her education, spanning various artistic programs and courses. Although she draws inspiration from all aspects of life, Emily’s work highlights her fascination with individuality and identity, honouring and recognizing the importance of each unique experience as part of the larger human condition. Additionally, her work focuses on the interconnectedness between humans and nature and the relationship fostered between them. Emily primarily practices visual art such as drawing and painting, but she also expresses her creativity across various artistic disciplines, including music. For years, she has played and performed both electric and acoustic guitar and has a deep-rooted love for music.
Emily is a dedicated high school student with a 98% grade average, and she is working towards a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology at the University of British Columbia. With the goal of becoming a psychiatrist, Emily plans to continue practicing her art and volunteering within the artistic community alongside her career in psychology.
Some of her recent opportunities include being a 2022-23 Rotary Centre for the Arts Youth Arts Council Member, which involved contributing to the @artistsofkelowna Instagram page and helping curate the "Artists of Kelowna: Recognition and Presence" exhibition. Emily’s work has also been featured in Kelowna Art Galleries’ student showcase and was sold as part of her high school fundraiser, Arts for Africa, in February 2024.
Introducing Lexy Loverenow
Lexy Loverenow is a fine artist based in Kelowna B.C. Her artistic journey began with painting on the walls as a toddler, to drawing in her school notebooks in middle school, to now having her work displayed in the Kelowna art gallery following the student art exhibitions, and getting to write an article for the Together We Learn Magazine last spring.
Lexy’s passion for the arts stems from her finding a pure delight in being able to create something beautiful from seemingly nothing. Painting allows her to transform emotion into a physical form, each one holding their own colorful sentiments.
Lexy is working on building her career as a freelance artist, and has moved on to large scale canvases that barely fit in the cozy little bedroom she paints in. She is always looking to be creative, whether that is through making her website www.lexymaria.com, or getting the chance to have her work exhibited at this year's Arts On The Avenue. With the stroke of a paintbrush, dab of imagination and a pinch of glitter she dreams to create works everyday to inspire and spread the beauty of creativity. While also sharing it with those who may enjoy seeing it.
Previous youth creatives
Born and raised in Kelowna, Dryden Bennett is a graduate of Rutland Senior Secondary School and has been playing the trombone with the Okanagan Youth Symphony Orchestra (OSYO) for 3 years. Dryden started composing music at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic to keep in touch with music while rehearsals were on hold.
When the OYSO resumed their season, Dryden joined their composition program. Rosemary Thomson, conductor for the Okanagan Symphony Orchestra (OSO), fell in love with one of Dryden's original compositions, Tangerine Trees. In the fall of 2021, the OSO performed Tangerine Trees live, its professional and public premiere.
After having multiple original pieces performed by both the OSO and the OYSO, Dryden was in April 2022 nominated for and named recipient of the Teen Honour in the Arts Award presented by the City of Kelowna.
Born and raised in Kelowna, Julia has always loved to sing but she only sang in secret until the age of 10. She first found her voice at an Elementary School talent show. Gaining confidence, she decided to try voice lessons. That lead her to classical singing with the group Candesca, under the direction of Alexandra Babbel. When she was 15, the group travelled to New York City and Julia saw her first Broadway play, Phantom of the Opera. Ever since that day, she was instantly hooked on musicals.
When she returned home, Julia successfully auditioned for the role of Maria in West Side Story at the Kelowna Actors Studio and so began her journey of musical theatre. She eventually returned to New York in 2018, this time as a drama major in the New Studio on Broadway at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts.
Now, Julia continues her drama studies in New York in method acting at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute, while also double majoring in journalism. She is honoured to have the opportunity to share part of her journey and her passion for storytelling with her hometown community.
John Forbes is a young professional photographer from Peachland,B.C. who now resides in Kelowna. John’s love of photography started as early as high school when he started hiking. He wanted to capture the views from each hike to show his friends and family and to remember the beauty. As he developed his skills, he started seeing photography as a form of art. It was from there he committed to further study digital media. John completed his Diploma in Digital Media in 2021, focusing on photography.
John now works as a freelance photographer shooting portraits, products, and dining/food. His passion lies in capturing the best that nature, people and commerce offers. Aside from landscapes, he enjoys photographing people by capturing a moment that can speak an entire story about them or simply an instance in their life. His latest project is photographing the talent of local band, “Broke Down Trucks”. Learn more about John and his practice at:johnforbesmedia.com.
Amelia Brooker is a young writer from Kelowna BC pursuing her passion for literature and artistic creativity. She is a student at the University of British Columbia, studying English Literature and Business Management. With a love for telling stories, Amelia has experience in multiple areas of work and a special interest in creative writing and theatre. In the past, she has written for the All Things Broadway blog, and has done dramaturgy work for MissionMainstage Theatre Company.
She is currently the senior editor for Motive, Word & Pen, a youth non-profit writing collective. She has also produced two short plays, at both the Goodwill Shakespeare Festival in 2019 and for the UBC Players’ Club in 2020. She draws her literary inspiration from her favourite books and plays, including Little Women, Macbeth, and Mother of the Maid. Amelia is excited to continue telling stories of youth in Kelowna who share her same passion for the arts.
Having completed her role as the Creative Youth, Amelia shares her testimony to the success of the program:
"Having grown up in Kelowna for the last ten years, I have developed and fostered a love for the arts through my experiences within the community. Being able to share that love back into the community as well as develop my professional skills has been a wonderful opportunity. As a young person trying to break into the professional world, chances to highlight youth experiences are few and far between. The opportunity to share my experience and uplift the stories of other local youth has been an amazing one.
I am very lucky to have had Cultural Services put their faith in me. Especially during the pandemic, artists of all ages have felt the effects of their artistic voices being suppressed. It really does mean a lot to have their support, and to know that my role in the community is valued. By showing the youth of Kelowna that their voices matter and their work is important, it uplifts us all and inspires us to continue our art."
Alex is an inspiring young musician who recently graduated from Okanagan Mission Secondary School. His love of music began 10 years ago by learning to play piano, then Alto Saxophone for the last 5 years.
He draws his musical experiences from all over. Playing in the school concert and jazz program, working with commercial music bands, managing marching bands, performing solo piano, and much more.
While struggling to find something to do during lockdown, he realized his ability to compose music. Since then, he has composed for Sea Cadets and the Kelowna Community Music School.
Alex has performed before concerts for the Okanagan Symphony Orchestra and volunteers his time in the community through his music. To recognize his talent and volunteer contributions, he was a finalist for the Teen Honour in the Arts Award with the City of Kelowna Civic and Community Awards in 2022.
Daisy is a West Kelowna based abstract artist, graphic designer, and transgender activist. She uses bold, geometric designs and light multi-media techniques to portray themes of love, friendship, healing, diversity, connectedness, and most of all, the culmination of all those things: humanity.
Daisy attends Mount Boucherie Secondary School and her inspiration lies in her love of music, comic books, technology, and the people around her. “I try to make my art a window into my mind and world view,” the young artist says, “when you look at my art, you’re looking at a reflection of myself.” Smith’s art is highly touched by her mental health journey and neurodiversity, and her artistic influences lie in Takashi Murakami, Jack Kirby, Jade Purple Brown, Maddy Thorson, and a variety of musical artists.
Daisy has done artwork for her school, the RCA Youth Arts Council, and the Kelowna Art Galleries’ student art showcase. Additionally, she placed 2nd in the Easter Seals AccessAbility Week Flag Design Contest.
Emily Brolund is a multidisciplinary artist and attended Studio 9 School of the Arts in Kelowna.
Growing up in West Kelowna, Emily enjoyed working in the arts but only considered taking it seriously once a friend suggested taking visual art classes. Since then, Emily has loved drawing and painting in her spare time. Most recently, she has been drawing inspiration from her favourite musicians and drawing live photos of them from concerts.
Through her school, Emily has opened up to many other artistic disciplines, such as theatre and music. She most recently played the role of Scuttle in The Little Mermaid Jr. Emily loves music, and she currently plays bass guitar, electric guitar and sings. Her musical inspirations consist of Måneskin, Haim, and Taylor Swift.
Emily was a 2022-23 Rotary Centre for the Arts Youth Arts Council member, working on the @artistsofkelowna Instagram project and co-curating and participating in the Artists of Kelowna: Recognition and Presence exhibition. She is also a candidate for the 2023-24 West Kelowna Youth Ambassadors Program.
The application process is closed until Spring 2025.
Yes! Any artform is able to participate in this program, including but not limited to, interdisciplinary art, social practice art, digital or electronic art, installation, visual art, performance art, music or literary arts.
Please note that along with providing photos of your work (if you are not a writer) you will be required to include a short write-up about the piece and your experience developing it as a youth in the Central Okanagan.
We are seeking a commitment of 6 months.
It is estimated that it would take the artist 2-3 hours per month to prepare their article.
Your article will be due on the 22nd of each month.
Payment is distributed by cheque and will be sent directly to your mailing address, as provided in the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU).
Applicants can expect to receive information about their submission one month after the application deadline
