This week’s Community Challenge guest: How this Spectrum Co-Founder created her own Media Organization

Check out Community Challenge host Sierra Lynne’s exclusive interview with this week’s Community Challenge guest below! 

Jessie Curell is the creator of Hands on Media, an organization dedicated to teaching media awareness and technology skills through interactive workshops. She has been leading Hands on Media since 2015. Before that in 2013, she was one of Spectrum Productions founding board members and was instrumental in developing Spectrum's social media strategy during her term. I got a moment to ask her about her work and where her passion for media education comes from. 

We can’t wait for her to join us this Thursday for Community Challenge #3. Alongside Andreas Kurz, she’ll teach us all of the basics of photography! ATTEND THE CHALLENGE TO WIN A PHONE TRIPOD! COMPLETE THE POST-EVENT ACTIVITY FOR A CHANCE TO HAVE YOUR PHOTOS ENLARGED AND PRINTED! 

All submissions will be featured on our website. The jury will select 4 WINNING photos which will be enlarged to the 20x24 format, printed, and sent to the photographer’s house. This way, if you win, you’ll get a physical copy of your work! Seeing your photos blown up and printed is a great way to bridge the gap between the digital and the physical medium!

Did you ever see yourself in the position you’re in now?

No, it never really occurred to me. I first worked as a media production teacher, and I was also working as a reporter for CBC Radio in Yukon, and teaching people. I loved talking with people there and liked what CBC stood for, an exciting, national, all reaching organization. I also worked for the National Film Board for similar reasons. In 2015 though the NFB cut my team and my resources, no longer providing media workshops. I realized I needed to continue media education as media consumption increased. I started taking business classes in Montreal and learned formally and from experience on how to run my own organization. It’s not something you’re typically taught in school and I started at 35 years old. By learning how to run a business with the goal of media literacy in mind, I started Hands On as a social cause, encouraging people to become thoughtful media citizens. It’s been a wild ride, and I don’t think I would’ve ever thought I’d be the head of an organization, but it suits my personality really well. It’s a dream come true! I can’t imagine switching careers, I’m on the path I’m supposed to be on! 

With teaching media, how do you keep yourself aware of all the rapid changes?

There’s so much diversity, excitement and evolution in the media education industry (if you can call it that) and it’s hard to keep up with, but I try my best. I am always learning new programs and software. I also keep my eyes open to Twitter, in the digital literacy community specifically, which is more research-based. There’s a lot of excitement around the latest software, games, and technology, but we’re trying to make sure it’s accessible to everyone, not some new, expensive media. Basically programs with no paywalls. Like with portrait photography you can just use your phone, not a fancy DSLR camera. We don’t assume that everyone has access to the technology we have. We do our best to make everyone feel included. We can’t even assume people have a reliable internet connection, so we always have our resources offline when we’re travelling. We’re getting into this whole world of open source content and technology, and it’s really exciting to me. It’s the better side of the internet! 

What was your inspiration for starting Hands On?

It was getting laid off! I had a burning passion to continue media education after the NFB closed the doors to that program, and I wanted to continue doing it! I had 6 months to develop the program while I had my severance pay. It was the best yet worst moment of my life, as I had to leave my team at NFB but I had the potential to start my own team. I bought 5 ipads, 5 tripods, a laptop and a lot of clay, and started to get the word of my organization around Canada. 

How did you get the word of your organization around?

I built a solid website and started posting on social media relentlessly! I don’t do that anymore, but I did it so much I started getting recognized by social media executives who thought we were way bigger than we really were. I was strategic about what conferences I went to, who I follow on twitter, and who I sent newsletters to.

You also had some involvement in getting Spectrum started early on, what was your favourite moment from that time?

I was invited by Dan and Liam to do a stop motion workshop out of Jimmy Bellemare’s warehouse with a bunch of random film gear. It was an unforgettable moment and I remember looking out at all the students who were really getting into it! Some were quietly focussed at their desks, while others were running around with props to gain inspiration! I really appreciated seeing an environment where everyone was able to express themselves freely. This attraction to creativity felt so sincere compared to creative works as an adult where everything’s so career-focussed. I really was inspired by this intentional space they had created for pure art. It was novel for the participants to be in a room creating with people like them. It’s why today I focus on making our workshops accessible. It really gives me a sense of pride to see how the participants I helped at Spectrum have grown today. For example Peter getting better at hosting every cooking video. Alex, who was at the workshop we did for a group at Galileo adult learning centre in Laval, he loved talking about his acting work, Owen McDonough working hard on his whale videos and rewatching them over and over again.  It’s hard to express the feeling of seeing someone grow over years, like at the Rialto seeing how everyone’s acting careers are evolving, It’s so heartwarming.

What are the fundamentals of your workshops?

The foundation of workshops are digital and media literacy skills. I help facilitate experiences for people to create and share something of their own. We want people to think about what they see on social media before they believe it, and especially before they share it. We want to encourage people to critically think about what they see online. We also want to promote self expression and being honest about who you are online. There’s such a therapeutic power in expressing yourself through these mediums. We also like to guide the students in creating something high quality that they’re proud of. We encourage original creation in all mediums, and we have a little film festival at the end of every workshop! 

Have you learned anything surprising from your participants?

Absolutely yes, I’m taught all the time by students! I’m consistently inspired and surprised by our students, no matter what age. The amount of intelligence, grace, wisdom, power and compassion that I see from the participants is so inspiring. I’ve worked with so many different groups, like a lot of indigenous communities and what they teach me about their involvement in their communities and nature is really inspiring! Also the neurodiverse participants who are multilingual and are involved in several communities and volunteer all the time! It's a beautiful thing. It’s a very rare thing to open that window for someone to just to solely express themselves, as creative people are the few types of people who get to talk about themselves. 

What kind of a future do you see for Hands-On Media?

I was in a webinar a week ago and the speaker was saying “If a teenager wants to drive, we give them driving lessons, if a kid wants to swim, we give them swimming lessons, for teenagers and students, why don’t we give them internet lessons before they get into it?” And that’s what we’re doing. We teach them practical and applicable lessons, all without making it seem like we’re teaching them. What I hope for the future is that more of us become digital citizens. That means using technology and the internet for powerful creation activities. We want to see increased dialogue to encourage empathy, and to reduce harm. We need to strike a difference between an online and offline world. Media can be used to encourage empathy around the world as we can learn from perspectives that are not often heard. That’s why I think Hands on Media and like minded organizations are so important for the future.

Want to attend Jessie’s photography challenge THIS THURSDAY with Andreas Kurz?