The mission of the Okanagan Institute
is to contribute to
the quality of creative engagement in the Okanagan through publications and events.
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Kelowna BC Canada
Telephone 250.870.2690
Email: Click here
Click here to help us improve our programs.
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The Okanagan Institute is a group of creative professionals that have gathered around the goal of providing events, publications and services of interest to enquiring minds in the Okanagan. We partner with individuals, organizations, institutions and businesses to achieve optimal creative and social impact.
Our mission is to ignite cultural transformation, catalyze collaborative action, build networks and foster sustainable creative enterprises. We provide innovative consultation, facilitation, professional development and creative services.
The Creative Economy
In the broadest sense, the Creative Economy is the enterprises and people involved in the production and distribution of goods and services in which the aesthetic, intellectual, and emotional engagement of the consumer gives the product value in the marketplace.
It includes the individual artists that are the talent and source of creativity - for example, writers, photographers, painters, glass blowers, sculptors, furniture makers, filmmakers, architects, choreographers, chefs, and composers. These are the people who originate creative ideas and concepts.
It includes the nonprofit cultural institutions and commercial businesses that take the original ideas of individual artists and produce creative goods and services - for example, performing arts organizations, dance troupes, printing companies, recording studios, design studios and shops, advertising firms, film production companies, and architectural firms.
It includes the nonprofit and commercial institutions and commercial businesses that distribute the creative products to customers and the marketplace - for example, museums, libraries, art galleries, publishing companies, performing arts venues, and higher education arts facilities.
It includes institutions and commercial businesses that are not creative by design, but are dependent on creative talent and functions to survive - for example, technology companies that employ graphic artists or manufacturing companies that employ product designers.
It includes the support system that nurtures and sustains the creation, production, and distribution of creative products and services - for example, the public school system's art education programs; local, regional and state/province governments that create public policies and provide tax incentives that enable arts origination and production; local and community foundations that provide financial resources and support to individual artists and arts organizations; community-based and neighborhood cultural organizations that provide creative-learning opportunities for young people; and higher education institutions that help nurture creative talent.
Our events program features the weekly Express series of presentations and seminars at the Bohemian Café in downtown Kelowna. To which we have recently added biweekly sessions in Vernon at Okanagan College called Showcase, and in Penticton at Hooked on Books. called Outlook.
"Your gatherings have become very popular and instrumental in raising the profile of various endeavours in the community, as well as bringing forward issues worthy of note and discussion. " - Birgit Bennett, President of Ballet Kelowna.
"The best 2 bucks one can spend on any Thursday at 5pm." - Manny Pinsky
The Express series honours and promotes the activities of Project Literacy Kelowna. Today many people in the Okanagan have difficulty reading, writing and working with numbers. They have trouble writing letters, reading menus, making sense of newspapers, helping children with homework, filling out applications, doing their banking, taking advantage of training programs, and securing jobs. This limits their participation in our community and their control over their own lives and destinies.  Many of them want to improve their reading and writing and given the chance, they would. Project Literacy Kelowna provides literacy tutoring, and a variety of other services that address this problem. You can be part of this effort, by becoming a a volunteer tutor, helping with fundraising and public awareness efforts, or donating much-needed funds.For more information contact Project Literacy Kelowna here. |
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The Okanagan Institute is dedicated to the advancement of the art of writing and to outreach programs that bring creative thinking and written works of merit to under-served communities. The Institute is prepared to publish established writers and hitherto unpublished writers, as well as out-of-print work, collections of essays, and anthologies that spotlight and support other local arts organizations.
 
We are publishing a series of Okanagan Chapbooks - occasional compilations, short texts, tracts and pictorial materials of special interest to the principals of the Okanagan Institute - literary works of merit and distinction, history and heritage, the arts and crafts, leisure pastimes and fugitive enthusiasms - by Okanagan writers, and on topics of appeal to Okanagan readers.
Okanagan Chapbooks are printed in limited quantities and made available to friends of the publisher, at Okanagan Institute events, and through selected purveyors of fine publishing. Subscriptions are available to libraries and book collectors. Quantities are limited and only a few copies are expected to be made available.
Join Our Group
The directors of the Okanagan Institute are Robert MacDonald and Karin Wilson. Contributors include Karen Close, Doug Hodgkinson, Edward McLean, Neil McKay, Jan Kennett and Katie Brennan. We invite participation and collaboration by members of the Okanagan creative community. To find out what opportunities are available, click here.
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