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In August 2011, four artists and writers of Color founded Surrey Muse to respond to the City’s need for an arts presentation stage that welcomed writers and artists of all ethnicities, disciplines and descriptions. Surrey Muse presented its first event in November 2011 at the City Centre branch of Surrey Libraries- where it still happens on the fourth Saturday of each month except December. Perceived as an interdisciplinary art and literature presentation group, it continues to present a featured author, poet, artist/performer, two across discipline emerging artists, a vibrant Open Mic and a strong discussion component in its gatherings.

In 2017, Surrey Muse carried out an internal self-evaluation of its performance and work, and found that it had featured over 150 writers and artists, and that the six organizing members spent approximately 1150 hours and $800 cash per year to organize and present the eleven gatherings.

To celebrate the Fifth Anniversary of Surrey Muse, the core organizing group initiated two projects, Surrey Muse Writers and Surrey Muse At large (SMAL). Surrey Muse Writers, a drop-in critique group, had a successful three-month trial run in 2016, and is now beginning again with a set of six writing workshops in 2024. The SMAL is a collaborative effort bringing a shorter form of Surrey Muse programming to the communities that may not be able to otherwise access it. SMAL has presented three successful Summer series in South and North Surrey in 2017, 2018 and 2019.

At the end of 2018, it became apparent that a more formal structure was needed, prompting nonprofit society registration as Surrey Muse Arts Society.

In 2021, to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Surrey Muse, the Society announced Surrey Muse Art & Literature Awards. The five awards are: Joy Kogawa Award for Fiction, Faith Nolan Award for Music, Susan Crean Award for Nonfiction, Vera Manuel Award for Poetry, and Norval Morrisseau Award for Visual Arts. The purpose is to recognize excellence and to bring forth the diversity and scope of Canadian art and literature. This allows SMAS to fulfill our mandate of nurturing art and literature by encouraging an inclusive, fair, and equal cultural environment.

We are grateful to the City of Surrey’s Cultural Grants Program for a capacity building grant that allowed us to offer small honorarium to our presenters since 2019; to the Arts Across Canada program of the Canada Council for the Arts (CCA) in 2022; Vancouver Foundation (VF) for a Small Neighbourhood Grant via Oak Avenue Neighbourhood Society to present Garden Plot Reading Series in collaboration with the Plot Sharing Garden during the Summer of 2019, and then to present the Awards Ceremony in 2023; and, to Surrey Libraries for their ongoing support since 2011.

Surrey Muse Arts Society (SMAS) came into existence because of the confidence given to Surrey Muse by the authors, poets, artists and performers who shared their art works without honorarium for seven years, the support provided by Surrey Libraries and by the staff and employees of the City Centre branch, the engaged interaction of our participants, and the contributions of volunteer work made by Fauzia Rafique, Mariam Zohra D, Randeep, Sana Janjua, Sonja Grgar, Helga Parekh, David Macilwain, and, by the Literary Advisers Joanne Arnott, Valerie b.-Taylor and Nefertiti SheLa Morrisson. View the following pages:
Organizers
Directors

Surrey Muse Arts Society deeply appreciates the work done by our staff and volunteers for different projects, please visit the following links to view respective pages.
Surrey Muse gatherings
https://surreymuse.wordpress.com/about/
Surrey Muse Art & Literature Awards
https://surreymuseawards.wordpress.com/about/
Women Who Named the Unnamed
https://pakistanswomenheroes.wordpress.com/about/credits/
Surrey Muse Writers
https://surreymusewriters.wordpress.com/schedule/
Surrey Muse At Large (SMAL)
https://surreymuseatlarge.wordpress.com/about/
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Surrey Muse Arts Society operates from
the unceded Coast Salish territories of
the Semiahmoo, Katzie, Kwikwetlem, Kwantlen,
Qayqayt, Tsawwassen, Musqueam,
Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations.

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