Hi, my name’s Anouchka. I am a cofounder and Executive Director of the Similkameen
Artist Residency. I was part of a team that developed and launched SAR as an artist-in-
residence space in the late summer of 2022. The residency operates out of a log home
on a sage-covered slope that overlooks the Similkameen River, just on the outskirts of
Keremeos, BC, on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded land of the Syilx Okanagan
people.
We’ve been learning as we go, dedicated to the principle of making something that
artist’s need: a welcoming space that can house small groups for creative work,
re-calibration, discovery and connection.
Of the teams I’ve been a part of, this is my favourite. I’ve seldom seen such hopeful
optimism for the impact of a project, and a level of commitment shared between staff,
advisors, stakeholders, and foundational partners.
I hold a graduate degree in art history, and have worked in museums and galleries in
Canada and abroad. My go-to artistic media are paper, pencil and pen. I’ve studied
creative writing for the last ten years, and am super slowly drafting out an eco-fiction
graphic novel.
My name is Alexandra Bischoff, but you can call me Ali. I am a prairie-born settler currently based in syilx-Okanagan territory. As a durational performance artist and writer (BFA: ECUAD, 2015; MFA: Concordia University, 2021), I am interested in cultivating intimacy and researching archives. I moved to Keremeos in December, 2022 to be the second Long-Term Artist in Residence at SAR, and have spent the intervening time building out my role as Residency Manager. For the past decade, I’ve worked for various artists, arts organizations, and universities (Artspeak; Concordia University; PAARC; the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery; Rennie Museum), through which I have honed a skillset in administration and project management. Working for SAR has tasked me with with facilitating over 70 residencies; this includes encouraging artists to rest, supporting them as they take creative risks, and coordinating professional development opportunities such as exhibitions, artist talks, community workshops, and an onsite sculpture garden.
I recently joined SAR as the Communications & Programs Manager and am so thankful to become part of a team as amazing as this one! I’ve lived in and around the Okanagan for over a decade, and have a background in Administration as well as my own artist practice of digital art and painting.
Working with SAR combined my passion for the Arts as well as utilizing my skills and education as an admin. It’s like my two worlds collided and landed me with this wonderful opportunity with SAR!
Rosie the cat is sweet and shy. She stays with her humans in the Long-Term Artist in Residence half of SAR’s log house, but has been known to drop in on group meals if the piano room door is left ajar. Some of Rosie’s favourite moments are spent on her front patio in a barrel of dirt and cat grass. In the mornings, she can be readily found loafed around, following sunbeams as they crawl across the kitchen floor.