The University of the Fraser Valley is bidding a fond farewell to School of Creative Arts (SOCA) Director Heather Davis-Finch. Newly appointed to the position is McGill and University of Toronto theater graduate Dr. Shelley Liebembuk, who has been a part of SOCA since its creation four years ago.

Liebembuk sees Abbotsford’s culture scene as somewhere SOCA and the university can help grow what is missing. She wants to continue the work of all 30+ faculty of SOCA to give students a space to create and explore the meanings of their arts.

“I'm very lucky there's a great team of staff… I'm surrounded by people with a lot of know-how and a lot of willingness to work together,” Liebembuk says. “We have an amazing student drive. What's been exciting since I got here is the desire by students to be able to have a space where they can grow and create.”

With her new role, Liebembuk hopes to establish a strong connection with the Fraser Valley that she believes still has the mentality to push arts culture aside when it comes to prioritizing community needs.

“I think there is still a strong movement broadly that in a deficit, in crisis, the general mentality is, arts get deprioritized,” Liebembuk says. “The challenges and obstacles that we have is, we have pretty limited material conditions. We are figuring out how we advocate to get more financial support, and the other piece is trying to be creative and problem solve. Who are the community partners, who can we work with and what are low cost, low tech ways that we can engage community and creative practice.”

“Abbotsford is really lacking in a broad cultural scene," she added. "We have the Reach gallery, which is phenomenal, but then for instance we're also situated within Fraser Valley, which is a Bible belt. There isn't a large secular theater in Abbotsford. And as a liberal arts secular institution, part of our mandate is to partner with secular institutions that are going to be inclusive.”

SOCA is having their big draws for student recruitment and projects. Recently, the institution finished their Interpret Arts Festival in April, and Liebembuk has plans on being a part of the Climate Change Theatre Action plays, a global festival of short plays to do with the climate situation at the moment, for the third year in a row in the fall semester.

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