The new cultural services manager in Langley Township is a local woman who found her love of arts close to home.
Annelisa Pedersen is taking over the post that was held by John Aldag, until he headed to Ottawa as Liberal MP for Cloverdale-Langley City after September’s election.
“I am thrilled that Annelisa Pedersen will be returning to Fort Langley and joining our team at the [Langley Centennial] Museum as we plan the move into a new arts, culture and heritage centre – Salishan Place by the River,” said Peter Tulumello, a Township director.
“Pedersen’s background in music and arts administration will add another dimension to arts and cultural services, programs, and events in the Township of Langley,” he said.
Pedersen developed her yen for arts and culture starting young, when she attended and graduated from Langley Fine Arts School in the Fort Langley.
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She then studied at the Vancouver Academy of Music, and at the Glenn Gould School of the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, following that up with a graduate certificate in arts administration and cultural management from Humber College. She would later add to her education with an MBA from Laurier and a master of public administration from Queen’s.
Pedersen returned to B.C. in 2006, where she was the general manager for musica intima, a Vancouver-based vocal ensemble.
Heading back to Ontario, she served as executive director for the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra, and was a chair of that city’s Arts Advisory Commission.
From 2018 she was director of cultural stewardship for the Niagara Parks Commission, working on new programming with local Indigenous leaders, and organizing the first Open Doors event for the Niagara Power Generation Station since the plant was decomissioned in 2006.
Pedersen begins work for the Township of Langley on January 4, 2022.