Covid- 19 has forced the Allied Arts Council to tweak their annual Mayor’s Celebration for Business and the Arts.
Instead of the traditional ticketed luncheon and awards celebration, there will be a free live performance, Thursday, Sept. 10 at 7 p.m., which will be broadcasted on Shaw Channel 9 as well as on Youtube.
“We’ve been forced to pivot,” said Allied Arts Council communications manager, Kelaine Devine.
“So we’re going to be having live performances by Troy Emery-Triggs, dancers Claire Lint and Catherine McLaughlin and local musician Gabe Thaine. This year we also have John Wort Hannam. They’ll be performing live from different spaces in Casa and they’ll be interspersed with the awards videos, She enthused.
“Troy is a dancer, performer and visual artist (He has created several of his own shows including ‘They Shoot Buffalo’ Don’t They?’. He’s from Fort Macleod who usually performs all over the world, but he hasn’t been able to because of Covid. So I’m really excited to see him. He works a lot with Treaty 7 and he performed at the Lt. Governor’s celebrations a few years ago,” she said.
Community relations manager and event organizer Dawn Leite is excited, because all of the performances will feature original music, as the Shaw broadcast requires original copyrighted works.
“We asked why would people tune in to this broadcast. Usually the program is an 20 minutes long, with people eating and then they have to leave because it is in the middle of their work day. So we decided to turn this event into a local artists showcase,” said Leite, who will be busy co-ordinating three different camera crews all over Casa, Sept. 10.
The dancers have also arranged for original music.