Art's a big deal in Portage la Prairie, and Portage's Public Art Committee chair Roberta Christianson is embracing her role with her organization for the promotion of art in our city.

"I've been here probably almost a year now," says Roberta Christianson. "I think it was since September. It's been a learning curve. When you step into anything that really is in its infancy, it's a case of figuring out, not only how it works according to bylaws and things like that, but then how it actually does work."

She notes over the winter they held strategic planning sessions, and plan to clean up routine elements of governance so they can move forward into some action planning. Once that's completed, Christianson adds you'll be able to keep their agenda on hand to know what's coming up.

The Public Art Committee will never actually do any projects, but engages other parts of the community to want to do public art events. Christianson says their job is to keep an inventory of it as well as facilitate those efforts. She notes the committee doesn't have a vision of public art, per se. She says it's the difference between a house and a home. When you buy a house it needs all the correct plumbing and rooms. What you do to turn it into a home that you fondly will remember in the future is the personal touch put into it. Christianson explains Portagers put the personal stamp on the city by things like the murals, etc., to make it a home. She says the people who live in the house change, and that changes what's required to make it home for everyone. She says the committee doesn't decide what the projects are, but rather the community does.