Fanshawe alumna manages Dundas Place

Header image for Interrobang article CREDIT: LLIAM BUCKLEY
Savanah Sewell, a Fanshawe alumna, is the new manager for Dundas Place

Savanah Sewell, the newly appointed manager for Dundas Place, has a lot of history with London.

She said her time at Fanshawe College’s journalism and broadcasting program sparked the beginning of her career.

“I really got a chance when I was at Fanshawe to get the glimpse of the arts and entertainment world because I was put on the arts and entertainment beat. It was really eye-opening for me back then to get a really good feel of what was going on around the community. I ended up staying after graduation working in radio for a bit and then transitioned into event work,” Sewell said.

From there she began to dip her toes everywhere in London’s downtown, founding the hot music festival, Grickle Grass, and the Winter Spectacular, a winter special event to promote local talent. She also founded the London Girls Rock Camp, held in the summer to empower youths through music. Sewell mentioned that her list of activities continued on into smaller events and even some larger ones held outside the community.

“My work has been all over the place,” Sewell said, “It’s all been relative, but in the end, it all led back to London.”

As the manager for Dundas Place, Sewell is in charge of a number of events and future plans for the community downtown.

“The three main objectives of the position are security, activation and maintenance. Once we get these four blocks [the flex street] up and running, we’ll make sure that they are activated with events or parties, but also that they are tidy and have proper security for when it’s needed and keeping things looking nice. We’re just figuring out what all those things look like right now because of course we’re in the middle of construction so we’re figuring out what those policies are going to look like,” Sewell said.

As phase one of the construction wraps up in early next year, Sewell said that Dundas Place is planning ahead for future events that could take place in the area, and figuring out types of activities for the upcoming JUNOS hosted in London.

“I don’t have specifics because it is in its early days, but you can expect from large scale to small scale. Some days there will be buskers outside, some days there will be an opportunity to sit down and have lunch at a picnic table, maybe there will be music playing over a speaker or a person playing a guitar,” Sewell said.

Sewel is currently working on multiple assignments for Dundas Place and some side projects such as setting-up for the next Grickle Grass, which will be its 10th anniversary.

Sewell said she is excited for people to come check out the flex street when it’s done.

“We want it to be the most interesting place in the city so we are really working towards that.”

You can check out the current situation for the construction on the Dundas Place social media pages.