The COVID-19 pandemic had affected all of the Estevan Arts Council’s programming for the current season.
They had to cancel all of their remaining concerts, art classes, spring art camp and films scheduled until the end of the 2019-20 season, but they hope that they will be able to make all their plans come true when the appropriate time comes.
Through the Estevan Concert Series, they had singer Terry Barber who was supposed to be in Estevan at the end of April a performance of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s music. Melanie Memory, the administrative secretary for the Estevan Arts Council, explained how they plan to readjust.
“We are hoping to get him in February of the next year because he wants to come and fulfill his commitment to our community. And we would like him here as a performer in one of our series’ concerts. We are hoping that this can happen.”
In Koncerts for Kids, the Hip-Hop Hoop Dance scheduled for April 4 had to be cancelled as well, but the hope is to still bring the performers to Estevan.
“We are hoping that in the 2021 series we can have them come and replace a different performer that we are going, maybe, to substitute Hip-Hop Hoop in for, and that should hopefully be happening in the same timeframe as Terry Barber in February 2021,” said Memory.
The Estevan Arts Council’s governing body, the Organization of Saskatchewan Arts Councils (OSAC), organizes concerts and negotiates dates, times and other details with the performers. OSAC is currently working on re-arranging the plans for the next season. And while this season ended earlier, the Arts Council proceeded with making new plans.
“We have scheduled our whole 2020 and 2021 season for all of our concerts. So we are planning on fulfilling that season and everything hopefully goes as planned provided with what we can,” said Memory.
The 2020-21 season will start in September and will go to March or April for the Estevan Concert Series, which was developed for an adult audience and usually includes about six concerts. The Koncerts for Kids series was developed for children and usually consists of three or four concerts. Koncerts for Kids series will open with the popular Missoula Children Theatre that is set for Sept. 21.
All visual arts classes also had to be cancelled.
“We had a full mixed schedule and we were pretty excited to go ahead with all of those,” said Memory.
They are now going to work with the instructors and try to postpone the scheduled classes to have them in the future when they can get back to their normal routine.
“It probably won’t be till the fall. We’ll just play it by ear,” said Memory.
At this point, no programs are planned to be moved to summer.
The pandemic affected plans for an Easter break art action camp as well.
“When I did one in February, we had a lot of comments from parents asking if we would consider doing that. So we were going to do that and we had teachers and everything else lined up, the rooms were booked and the pool, and everything. And I was just starting to roll all that out and then this happened, so we had to cancel everything,” said Memory.
The Energy City Film Circuit that is facilitated with the Arts Council also cancelled their films. They are currently in the process of deciding what they are going to do next season.
“They meet as a group and they pick their films. And they have a contact person that they use at the Toronto International Film Festival that guides them along,” explained Memory.
At this time the Leisure Centre might be closed, but the Arts Council staff still has plenty of work. Memory said that on top of reschedulling and bookkeeping she is also trying to stay ahead of what’s happening in the arts and culture world, so they could later bring it to the Estevan community.
To ensure future plans can still happen, Memory also applied for some regular funding, but the global situation is changing now, so nobody can tell when decisions will be made and what those decisions will bring.
“If your program doesn’t happen, then you don’t get the money. Or they decide they are going to grant it to you … it’s just hard to say, there is so many ‘what ifs,’” said Memory.
While the leisure centre is on lockdown, people can follow the Arts Council Facebook page for the latest updates and news. With any inquiries, people can email estevanartscouncil@sasktel.net.
