Creative youth program
Creative Youth
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Showcase your art in the City’s Arts & Culture newsletter and get paid, and explore other opportunities for artists under 24.
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Meet the Creative Youth
For the 2025-2026 year, we’re spotlighting two standout local youth creatives as this year’s Creative Youth contributors. They’ll each bring their voice, ideas, and creative spark to the City’s Arts & Culture newsletter. Sign up now to follow their work.
Riley Gayford is a young composer from the Okanagan who loves using music to connect with his community. Over the past few years, Riley has arranged music for local theatre companies such as Pixie & Dot Productions and New Vintage Theatre, as well as musically directed youth productions that give young performers a chance to explore their creativity.
While Riley enjoys working with youth programs in town, his true passion lies in writing for musical theatre. He has written and directed original musicals through a local new work program and now collaborates with artists across the Okanagan to bring brand-new stories to the stage. These projects have not only helped him grow as a composer but also deepened his understanding of storytelling and collaboration.
Riley believes that live theatre has a unique ability to bring people together, and he hopes to one day compose professionally for the stage. Through his monthly pieces, Riley looks forward to sharing his journey as a young artist, and is so happy to have the opportunity to celebrate the music, the connections, and the moments that make creating art in the Okanagan so meaningful.
When asked to write about myself, I've always struggled to figure out what to say. Reflecting on it now, I think that says a lot about who I am. When I asked my loved ones how they would describe me, a common theme was that I'm thoughtful.
As someone with anxiety and OCD, thinking is all I do. I've been hyper-aware of everyone and everything for as long as I can remember. The arts have been my outlet, a means of self-expression. Although I have my struggles, my friends and family have consistently noted that I'm grounded and hardworking; this quality truly shines through in my art. I strive to be the best I can be, while still thinking of others and having fun. I'm lucky enough to have many people in my life who are inspiring and amazing role models to me.
Someday, I hope to inspire and be someone others can rely on. When I asked my friend, Abi, she said, “Mika is someone anyone can look up to.”
Apply to be the next Creative Youth
The Creative Youth program gives local youth ages 15–24 a paid opportunity to share their creative voice and contribute to Kelowna’s cultural sector. Selected artists showcase their work every two months in the City’s Arts & Culture newsletter and help bring fresh ideas, perspectives, and energy to our creative community.
Showcase your talent, inspire others, build a professional reference. Applications are accepted year‑round and close July 31 (extended) for the September 2026 to August 2027 program year.
- Paid creative experience ($100 per article)
- Professional exposure through City newsletters and website
- Reference letter available upon request
Approximately 2–3 hours per article, for six total articles over 12 months.
Each 300–500 word article highlights your creative process, experiences, or insights. Include a photo or link related to your work.
Examples:
- Describe how you created a painting and include an image.
- Share your experience volunteering at a creative event with a photo or link.
- Showcase a musical piece or performance with a YouTube link.
Join our Artist in Residence selection panel
Open until filled
Are you 15–24 living in Kelowna? Help us select the next Artist in Residence. Panel members review applications, discuss project ideas, and help identify artists whose work will engage and inspire the community.
We’re looking for curious, community-minded youth who are excited about arts, culture, and creative ideas in Kelowna. No panel experience is needed; training will be provided. Bring your perspective, listen to others, and help choose an artist whose work can inspire the community.
Gain insight into what makes a successful project proposal, build decision-making experience, and contribute your perspective to a real civic arts process. If this sounds exciting, we encourage you to apply.
View past Creative Youth
Emily Armstrong
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.
Lexy Maria
Lexy Loverenow is a fine artist based in Kelowna B.C. 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 room she paints in. She is always busy and looking to be creative, through her website www.lexymaria.com, a piece of art, or exhibiting her work at Arts On The Avenue. With the stroke of a paintbrush, dab of imagination and a pinch of glitter - Lexy creates works that inspire and spread the beauty of her creativity.
Alex Xiao
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.
Alex has performed in 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 Smith
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.
Emily Brolund
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.
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.
Dryden Bennett
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.
Julia Laurenne Chambers
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. Visit Julia's webpage to learn more.
John Forbes
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
Amelia Brooker is a young writer from Kelowna B.C. 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 Mission Mainstage Theatre Company.
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.”
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