'I feel a little sad I'm leaving because I put a lot of time into this place,' says Scott Marsden, the Yukon Arts Centre Art Gallery's curator.

Marsden has accepted a position in Nanaimo, B.C., and will leave the territory Feb. 2.

It's a position Marsden says he just couldn't turn down.

Currently undergoing a bit of a cultural revolution, Nanaimo has built a new performing arts centre and a museum.

The next item on its agenda is to bring together its two art galleries, which exist in the downtown core and at Malaspina University, into a single new building.

Marsden heard about the position over the Christmas holidays and made the pitch to the municipal gallery that he is the man to oversee the job.

The new facility should be a public gallery, built near the harbour and must maintain its connections to the university, he says he told them.

The art gallery should have the ability to attract tourists and artists from across the country and must provide opportunities for art education and public interpretation, he said.

The officials he met with liked his vision and agreed to give him the position of executive director.

'It's rare you get a chance to build a gallery from scratch,' Marsden says. 'It's pretty hard to turn down.'

Marsden will spend the next two years working with the community to plan the gallery, which he'll literally build from the ground up helping select the location, design the architecture and plan the opening exhibitions.

It's an opportunity, he said, not unlike the one he saw when he came to the Yukon from Toronto five years ago.

'I think my time here has made a difference,' he says.

When Marsden was hired, the gallery was at a point of change.

The hiring committee wanted someone to bring a new level of professionalism to the public space, he says. They also wanted someone with national connections.

'I was hired to make changes,' he says. 'I took the job to try to make a difference in the community.'

Marsden has overseen a lot of changes at the gallery since he took the job in 2002.

The physical space has changed immensely under his watch with carpeting removed, new lighting systems installed, a humidity system added and the entrance way revised.

He says he wanted to professionalize the space, but he also wanted to raise the bar in terms of excellence in quality and programming.

'My job is really to pull together the artists and the public and the gallery and I'm kind of the conduit between those three areas.'

But when Marsden started on the job, there wasn't an art education position, and he noticed there was a bit of a disconnect between the gallery and the community.

'I bring in exhibitions no one examined what the artist is doing.'

Marsden oversaw the establishment of a full-time art educator at the gallery to interpret the programs for the public.

He also worked on establishing partnerships in the community that include those with Blood Ties Four Directions, the Klondike Institute of Art and Culture, the MacBride Museum, the Canada Winter Games and first nations.

He firmly believes there should always be a Yukon presence in the gallery.

He says when he first arrived in Whitehorse, he found the same Yukon artists were given the opportunity to display their work in solo shows over and over again.

'I don't think that's healthy for the gallery,' he says. 'This is the only public art gallery in northern Canada. This is it. Everybody should have access to the gallery who's ready for an exhibition.'

Many of the Yukon artists shown in the gallery over the last five years had previously never been able to put up a solo show in the space before, he says.

'I wanted to give everybody an opportunity to show their work.'

He adds it is so important to provide first nations with the opportunity to show their work. During his time as curator, he moved to a pan-northern approach that included displaying work from the other two territories and Alaska.

'This is about the Yukon, this is about the past, this is about the present,' he says. 'This is the essence of the visual art legacy of the community.'

For the first time in 10 years, Marsden oversaw the gallery purchasing new pieces for its collection.

He also developed five travelling exhibits that got local artists out of the territory and into the south.

He organized international shows that started in the territory, drawing attention to the gallery.

'I'm leaving the gallery in better shape then when I got here,' he says.

Marsden says he has an interest in contemporary art and new media and tried to bring up exhibits that would push the envelope for Yukoners.

'You need to push the boundaries and show people new visions,' he says. 'It's about looking at the world through the eyes of the artist.'

He points to the Three Rivers exhibit and the Constructing the Alaska Highway show, that featured A.Y. Jackson as some of the more significant shows during his time.

The 2004 showing of Three Rivers took a long time to put together, he says, and was all about the Yukon and the North.

'It's looking at notions of place and identity. That was probably the most significant thing that's come out of this place for a long time.'

The show later toured across Canada.

The exhibit regarding the Alaska Highway was also important, he adds.

'There's sort of this fixation on the Gold Rush but this, I think, really made the Yukon the building of a highway,' he says. 'It's talking about a particular part of history and the Yukon was part of this development, part of this world event (the Second World War).'

Approximately 50 shows were in the gallery during Marsden's term as curator, but he believes one of the most important is yet to come.

Burning Cold will be opening on Feb. 23 as part of the Games' cultural component.

The exhibit, developed by Marsden, feature some of the country's most exceptional artists under 40 from the North and the South.

Selected during a two-day meeting of curators from across the country, five northern artists and five southern artists will be displayed to explore the possible juxtaposition between the regions in terms of separation and isolation.

The show will include Doug Smarch Jr. from the Yukon, as well as John Sabourin and Floyd Kuptana from the Northwest Territories and Shuvinai Ashoona and Annie Pootoogook from Nunavut.

Also included are BGL from Quebec City, Brian Jungen from Vancouver, Tania Kitchell from Toronto, Craig LeBlanc from Calgary, and Emily Vey Duke and Cooper Battersby from Halifax.

The exhibit will include an exploration of the weather's influence on the Canadian identity, first nations-style masks made out of items from Canadian popular culture, a giant athletic support and new media presentations.

'I think that's probably the most important show that I've done here,' says Marsden.

The show will initially host a private viewing for Governor General Micha'lle Jean, before opening to the public.

Four of the artists are expected to attend the opening of the exhibit, which is already booked to travel to galleries in Oakville and Windsor, Ont. following the Games.

Though Marsden will be leaving for his new job prior to the opening of Burning Cold, he will be returning to the territory for about a week on Feb. 19 to oversee the exhibit.

His work in the gallery will also continue to be seen for the next three years, with exhibits already booked until the spring of 2010.

Marsden says he's gained a lot during his time in the Yukon and it's experience he'll be taking with him.

'But I'm a steward when it comes to the collection,' he says. 'It's not about me. It's about the artists.'