Who We Are
The Seldovia Arts Council is a nonprofit organization under the auspices of the City of Seldovia. It is our mission to provide quality arts events and arts education through performances, workshops and educational opportunities for all ages.
The Board
Suzie Stranik
Chair
907-440-2213
Suzie is the mother of three children and a summer resident of Seldovia. She and her husband Jerry first came to Seldovia in 1976, establishing a dental clinic. She also ran a catering company, Gourmet Fleurs, and a B&B in Anchorage. Suzie also worked with the 1% for Art program for 20 years before retiring to Seldovia in 2007. She opened a garden nursery and gift shop, Thyme on the Boardwalk in May of 2011. Suzie is an active member of the Chamber of Commerce; she wants to see a thriving arts culture and promotes the town’s community gardens.
Valisa Higman
Vice Chair
Valisa proudly supports the arts in Seldovia as a member of the Seldovia Arts Council board and the Seldovia Recreational Service Area board.
As a visual artist, she feels it is important to give people access to a variety of experiences, and she also enjoys sharing the community she loves with visitors, and seeing the spark of creativity grow from that experience.
Valisa's primary medium is cut-paper and she is inspired by a deep connection to both her natural surroundings and her community.
Starting with a sheet of black paper, Valisa carves away at the background using an Xacto knife, and her images are revealed in an intricate lacework of lines. Using the black as her foreground, she fills the negative space with layers of paper in vibrant colors and textures. As a finishing touch, she adds the last details and shading with watercolor and other paints.
Valisa was born and raised in Seldovia, where she began developing her technique in high school. She left Seldovia to attend college, and spent time traveling and living in different places, collecting experiences and inspiration.
In 2012 Valisa moved back to Seldovia, opening a studio in her dad’s old wood-shop on the bay. She commutes the short distance from town by rowboat, making friends with the resident otters and seeing something new and interesting every day.
Marguerite McCord
Board Member
Margie has been in Seldovia for the past 14 years with her husband Byron building and having fun gardening and puttering around on the water in their kayaks or sailboat. Although we are not year round residents, we spend a good 6 months immersing ourselves in the community enjoying the activities, people, and the Seldovia Arts Council where I have been a member since 2012. I love the commitment of the members on this small board because we accomplish a lot during the whole year and it’s totally due to wanting the best for Seldovia and to show it off to the rest of the world! “Festival time” is the most exciting , and stressful time for the Council, but we all pitch in together and pull off and amazing performances of different genres that get better each year!
Melody Hall
Board Member
Jennifer Gordon
Board Member
Jennifer and Bruce fell in love with Seldovia when they first visited in 2004. It was a blustery, sideways rain sort of day when Jen and her husband and two kids under aged 4 arrived on the ferry with a Klepper in giant canvas bags and their 80-pound "Girdwood mut." After assembling the klepper and loading up all four humans and one canine, they paddled a mile up the bay to their friend Joe's cabin - to see if it was one they would like to purchase. The answer was a resounding YES, and for the years that followed Jen and her small family stayed every summer and became more and more entrenched in the Seldovia community.
Jen has always loved Seldovia's emphasis on the arts, reverence for nature, and tight knit community. She and her young children started exploring the waters and mountains of Seldovia, learned how to throw pots with DeeDee, and danced every year at the Summer Solstice Festival. Jen is in awe of the dedication of so many volunteers who make the festival happen, and has been involved by helping with set up and clean up, teaching yoga, and helping launch the first outdoor festival in 2023. Over time, she has been asked to serve on the board, and in 2023 she felt it was finally time to be behind the scenes and not just on the dance floor.
Jen is honored to be included as a member of the SAC board, and hopes to bring her years of experience organizing events, coordinating volunteers, marketing and developing website and IT solutions and operating a small business to the table. Although partially based in Anchorage, where she is the co-owner of Blue Market AK, an "old world grocer with a zero-waste refillery model," she and Bruce are working toward full-time residency in Seldovia and hope to see that become a reality in the next few years.
Rosie
Board Member
Tania Spurkland
Co-Secretary
Born in Cordova, AK and raised on a homestead in Homer, AK Tania is an avid science educator and outdoor enthusiast. She and husband, Tobben, came to Seldovia in 2000, first as part-timers and then moved here full-time in 2012. As a co-secretary Tania has served on the SAC board for many years and loves to help bring a diversity of arts and science to Seldovia.
Ashley Keithley
Board Member
Ashley grew up in Seattle and after years of moving around WA, CA and ID stumbled upon Seldovia and fell in love. She and her husband Chris made Seldovia their home in 2022 and own Seldovia Fishing Adventures and House on the Rock B&B.
Ashley has spend her life as an artist athlete using the human body to tell stories. She has been a professional figure skater, coach and choreographer since 2005
. It excites Ashley that being a member of the SAC board allows her to create opportunities for Seldovians of all ages; to find their inner artist and experience the magic of creativity from artists all over the world. She is also the treasurer of the Seldovia Chamber of Commerce and serves on the Seldovia City Council.
Susan Mumma
Historian & Guide
Susan Mumma, has been part of the Seldovia Arts Council since it’s inception in the 1980’s and even beforehand. She moved to Seldovia in 1976. She now lives mostly in California.
Her many hats have included being an Arts and theater director, a K-12 multi-subject instructor for Seldovia, Cooper Landing and Kenai, Alaska, an avid supporter of the arts in many professional organizations including being a Conference Co-ordinator of the Alaska Arts in Education Association (hosted right here in Seldovia) and an Alaskan Delegate to The NATIONAL Arts Education Organization conferences in Dallas and New Orleans.
Susan earned her Masters Degree in Arts and Education from the University of Oregon.
She taught Seldovia’s young people for 23 years.
She was on the original board of Directors and asurer of Far West Folk Alliance Region West, an affiliate of the National Folk Alliance.
She is credited with hosting the first bed and breakfast on the Kenai, Seldovia Rowing Club , which operated until just last year (2022).
She was a Kenai Peninsula Borough Planning Director for Seldovia for 15 years.
Her pride and joy and the love of her life was the Seldovia Summer Solstice Music Festival which she created and Directed. The currant festival is a direct descendent.
She is now acting as historian and guide on the side for Seldovia Arts Council.
Liz Diament
Board Member
Mary Anne Wilson
Treasurer & Co-Secretary
Mary Anne has lived in Seldovia since her retirement in 2007. This is her 2nd term on the Arts Council. She believes that music connects us all & is striving to do this on the Council. She took piano lessons from an early age and won 2 MN state piano competitions in her youth. She played for weddings & funerals at church, frequently accompanied by her Father’s baritone voice. She sang women’s barbershop with Anchorage Sound Celebration for many years and again with the Palm Creek Chorus. She is an avid hiker, reader, gardener and exerciser.