“Engaging in creative activities is invaluable for one’s well-being and sense of belonging. As a board member I hope to increase awareness of SCAC programming and to bring enriching, accessible arts opportunities to all members of our community,” said Petra Holler who joined the board in spring 2021.
Petra is a member-at-large of the executive committee and serves on the art gallery, fundraising, membership, and marketing and publicity committees. She brings skill sets in social media promotion, website maintenance and archives, and database management to the arts board along with experience in co-organizing diverse community and fundraising events in the Okanagan and in Montreal. Her extensive background in volunteering and working with non-profit arts organizations includes the Penticton Art Gallery, the Sanctuary for Independent Media in Troy, New York, and the Ethnocultural Art Histories Research Group in Montreal, QC. Her academic studies largely focused on post-colonial theory, Indigenous studies, and museology. In 2020, Petra graduated from the Bachelor of Fine Arts program at Concordia University in Montreal.
Born in Summerland, Petra’s personal creative activities are as an interdisciplinary artist and poet working in painting, drawing, fibre arts and bookmaking. By self-admission, she is obsessed with everyday archives, such as family photographs, vintage magazines, thrift store objects, and the stories that they tell about life and labour in previous times.
Appointed administrator of the Summerland Museum in spring 2021, Petra wants to focus on virtual formats to bring what the museum has to offer to the community.