The city's arts scene will soon have a higher profile on television.
Local artist Michael Kast has been tapped to host a new show called Arts North that will be seen on Shaw TV's all-local Spotlight series. Kast is well positioned to host a series of this nature, being one of the Community Arts Council's recent artists-in-residence, one of the managers at arts and office supply store Mills and a host at community radio station CFIS. He is a multimedia artist who incorporates painting, photography and digital elements to his work.
"It's not going to focus just on visual arts, it will also conclude things like spoken word, music, theatre, and it will look at the people and the events in the local arts scene," he said, then clarified, "regional - regional arts scene. We aren't restricting ourselves just to the main city of Prince George. There are many artists in the wider area who are involved in our arts scene and they aren't as known, so this will help raise those profiles."
The inaugural show will focus on a well known painter with an arts show underway now at the Community Arts Council feature gallery. Cliff Mann is the first special guest. As host, Kast will interview him and intersperse the discussion with scenes of Mann's paintings and artistic process.
Kast can do the editing work himself with the digital splicing and effects software (Adobe Premiere) he already has for his other artistic endeavours.
He has the connections, he has the background, he has the equipment, but it was nonetheless a surprise to get the invitation to think about hosting the segment.
The suggestion came from Shaw Cable program director Jonathan Valoroso.
"I was approached about doing a documentary of my journey through the arts, and I said yes, let's do that, and through that process I saw some opportunities to volunteer for Shaw Spotlight, which I want to do because I am interested in supporting the arts in any way I can, so I talked to Jonathan Valoroso who is amazing to work with, and this was what we came up with together," said Kast. He encouraged anyone interested in volunteering for local community television to contact Valoroso for any potential opportunities.
New segments will be released on a monthly basis, to begin with. They will air on Shaw's Prince George home channel at times still to be determined and also on YouTube and Kast's own Take 5 Media website.
Kast is also busy with his many other ongoing arts endeavours. Hosting a TV program is "just another stop in the long strange trip, man," he said. "I'm already gearing up for Art Battle in September, I have some commissions to do, I'm doing some digital stuff, I'm getting ready for an exhibition down in Quesnel - some abstract art for the Quesnel Art Gallery - and it seems everything you do leads to more, so I know I'm not going to be bored."
Mills Office Productivity's window art display, a public display Kast curates, is currently showing the works of Bonnie Tremblay, Sharon Nicolas and Ester Finch up until end of the month.
