When I tiptoed through the front doors of the Station Gallery in Whitby on February 1st, I must say that it felt a little bit like a kid on the first day of school. I was super excited and I’ll admit, I was a little nervous about reinventing myself and beginning on this new career path as the SG’s new CEO.
I was immediately welcomed by the amazing team at the gallery with a hand-made, beautifully illustrated welcome banner, flowers and a card with lovely personalized messages.
Right away the team took me for a full tour of the gallery and studios and I felt like a kid in a candy store. As we explored every nook and cranny I was thinking, “wow, I get to come to work every day at this incredible gallery, and be surrounded by art, artists, the amazing SG Team, AND the wonderful studios full of all of the tools necessary to GET CREATIVE!”
Later that day I had a chance to meet with our Curator, Olexander, and I will always remember what he said to me. He said in his most sincere way: “Welcome home, Kerri”
I have long been inspired by creativity. Over the years, I have worn many hats, but my mission has always remained the same – to connect people and celebrate creativity.
On my second week at the Gallery, I had the chance to meet local exhibiting artist Georgia Fullerton. We immediately connected, and she agreed to offer a talk as part of Black History Month celebrations at a special reception that was being planned to welcome me to the gallery as the new CEO.
This past Monday we hosted a Tour + Tea event and were surprised and delighted by the overwhelming response – we had well over a hundred people for a tea party on a Monday afternoon! How cool is that?
We were joined by our Mayor, Don Mitchell, and a wonderful group of community leaders, artists, members and our dear friends and family.
I believe that there has never been a more exciting time to be the creative sector – or what I call “the creativity business”.
As you know, the world is changing at a really incredible pace right now. I’m not a historian, but there are many who say right now is a time of totally unprecedented change. Miracles are happening all around us as people continue to use creativity to solve the world’s great problems.
I’m incredibly excited and inspired by it all. Companies like Tesla are making self-driving cars powered by electricity.
Companies like Google are making the entire shared knowledge of humanity available for us to browse on an amazing array of devices. Huge advancements in medical technology are healing and eradicating disease for some of the most marginalized people on Earth. And there’s one force driving all of this: CREATIVITY.
Creativity is helping to connect people like never before, adding dimension to traditional economies and birthing so much opportunity for so many.
That’s what gets me excited to jump up every morning and come work with the team at Station Gallery – creativity. The gallery is a creative hub and by virtue of that we are helping to build connections and reveal new possibilities for thousands of people each day. I’m so thrilled to be a part of that.