Sarah Simison takes position as executive director of Cultural Centre

For the past 12 years, Sarah Simison has worked out of the Moose Jaw Cultural Centre (MJCC) as part of the Festival of Words team — now, she’s in charge of the whole building following her appointment as executive director by the MJCC board of directors.

Simison has been the executive director of the Saskatchewan Festival of Words since 2015. In April of this year, she agreed to help the MJCC as acting executive director — but it wasn’t supposed to be permanent.

“I didn’t plan on staying, I didn’t start with that in mind,” Simison laughed. “It developed along the way.”

Simison formally started the position on June 6. She continues to act as the managing artistic director for the Festival of Words. Amanda Farnel, who has been with the Festival full-time since 2015 — and part-time for several years before that — will take the top spot.

“I’m still going to be doing strategic oversight and looking after some of the bigger stakeholders and continuing mentorship with Amanda,” Simison said. “When I was on parental leave last year, she was the interim executive director, so she’s perfectly poised to step in.”

Simison has worked in the MJCC for many years, so she already knows all the staff and is familiar with the programs and some of the inner workings of running a cultural centre. Combined with her experience at the Festival and her skills in leadership, strategy, public relations, marketing, grant writing, and communications, she is adapting quickly.

“I’ve worked in the building since 2010, and I’ve been close with all the staff here over the years,” she said, “so that was easy, there was no having to get to know each other, really. We had to get to know each in the way that we’re now working together more closely. We’re not just friendly building-mates anymore.”

Theatre bookings for the next year are already full, so there isn’t much for Simison to do on that front.

“The theatre has been quite busy over the years; the previous director did a lot of work in terms of developing relationships with promoters and things like that. … Which is fine, because I’m going to be able to learn that side of it as I go along.”

That leaves Simison some room to pursue her ambitions to fill the building with local art programs and community organizations. She wants to open the MJCC up beyond the Mae Wilson Theatre.

“This building is … unbelievably huge. Running the (Mae Wilson Theatre) is a full-time job, so that’s what been manageable for some of the previous directors,” she explained. “We’re doing some re-structuring internally in terms of staffing, and really hoping to build our capacity that way.

“A lot of (the MJCC) is empty right now. I really want to get more tenants into the building and get more artists and arts programs running … and get some of the spaces renovated to better suit the needs of the community.”