A long-time Canmore resident, professional photographer, and mother of two, Erika Mann has spent years trying to shield her kids from the mental and emotional toll of a world obsessed with screens and social media.

“We’ve gone from a creative culture to a consumption culture,” she says. “The average teenager spends 4.8 hours per day on their phone. That’s 1,748 hours a year. The statistics are downright terrifying.”

Erika believes the solution isn’t simply limiting screen time, it’s replacing it with something meaningful. She and her family have chosen to create a different kind of environment—one that makes creativity as accessible as the phone in your pocket. In the Mann house, it’s as simple as leaving a guitar in the living room. And it’s working.

At 15 years old, Erika’s son Timmy is the lead singer and guitarist for The Ducks, a local band he formed with friends Charlie Kestle and Ollie Robins. As Canmore’s youngest band, The Ducks have played multiple shows, including Canmore Folk Festival and a packed performance at artsPlace’s Festival of Art & Creativity in 2024.

The trio wrote their first original song, Happy Place, as participants in the Youth Arts Collective songwriting class at artsPlace. Now, they have three original tracks streaming on Spotify (listen to Happy Place on Spotify).

As a working artist herself, Erika is deeply aware of the ways technology—especially artificial intelligence—is changing the creative landscape, and how unsettling that can be for emerging artists like Timmy.

“He hears a song written by AI and feels disheartened. Because it’s good. And that makes him feel replaceable,” she says.

“But here’s what’s not replaceable: the human experience of making that art. The human experience of getting your hands muddy, while throwing a mug on the pottery wheel. The human experience of spending 30+ hours learning a guitar solo and losing yourself in the process. The human experience of crying during the most beautiful song. The human experience of feeling a poem in our heart. The human experience of collective effervescence, being in a room with 100 people, all listening to the same song, swaying in unison.” — Erika Mann

In a world obsessed with consumption, creating space for real human connection through the arts is, as Erika puts it, “a radical act of defiance.”

“These spaces must be protected and grown. Because if we don’t, they will be lost,” she says.

For Timmy, and countless other young people in the Bow Valley, those spaces start at artsPlace. Programs funded by the Discover Art Fund—like the Youth Arts Collective—offer more than just creative experiences. They offer meaningful alternatives to a digital world: safe spaces to explore identity, build confidence, and feel connection IRL (that’s in real life).

“The accessibility of the free pottery program means my daughter does pottery instead of scrolling her phone on Saturday mornings,” says Erika. “And instead of posting Instagram reels, Timmy practices his guitar and singing.”

By contributing to the fund, you’re not just investing in the arts—you’re making space for the kind of real, human experiences that can’t be replaced or replicated. And helping young people like Timmy log off, look up, and discover what they’re capable of.

Donate to the Discover Art Fund.