March 6, 2017 – Showcasing the regional diversity of a country as vast as Canada can be a daunting task. But two presenters in Camrose, Alberta, took upon themselve to prove it’s not unsurmountable.
The Jeanne & Peter Lougheed Performing Arts Centre united forces with the Bailey Theatre to program and co-present a series to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Confederation. The Passport Across Canada series will be presented in the two theatres under a single branding and packaging. The series includes 10 performances from 8 provinces and 3 territories. Impressive, isn’t it? It defies both the laws of physics, and the laws of mathematics.
The two theatres also collaborated, along with dozens of other community groups lead by the City, for the design, printing and distribution of a large brochure. A guide to Canada 150 celebrations all year long in Camrose was distributed in every single home of the 18,500-resident municipality.
“We also worked with the City and a majority of our community organisations. Truthfully it has been very hard to do all that we have done. But it’s been worth it so far and there has been a lot of desire in our community to continue this high level of collaboration in the future,” said Nick Beach, General Manager at the Jeanne & Peter Lougheed Performing Arts Centre.
Two concerts have already been presented in the series, one of which involved a special collaboration. For the January 27 performance of the New North Collective, the University of Alberta, UAlberta North and Augustana Campus commissioned of a song on reconciliation. The premiere of the song was performed by the Augustana Choir and the New North Collective at the Lougheed Performing Arts Centre. In addition, there was a workshop as part of a Reconciliation Series by the University of Alberta, Augustana Campus with about 75 faculty and students and community. New North Collective, led by Diyet, talked about the writing of the song back in June in Burwash Landing on the traditional territory of the Kluane First Nation, and how they wrestled with the topic as indigenous and non-indigenous northern artists.
Recent and Related News
Movie Attendance is Declining: Is This a Good or a Bad News for the Performing Arts?
