By Stephanie Froese

Culture Days to take over Downtown

Sep 29, 2011 | 11:52 AM

Prince Albert is joining communities coast-to-coast to celebrate arts and culture in a weekend of Culture Days.

At various locations in the city, performances, workshops, shows and activities are being held to showcase local culture. Many of the events are at little or no cost.

This is the second year for Culture Days being celebrated across the country and the first year Prince Albert has actively participated.

James Banman, manager of the Prince Albert Downtown Improvement District Association (PADIDA), said they were approached by SaskCulture to see what kinds of things Prince Albert was doing to be involved.

“Downtown seems to be kind of the culture hub of Prince Albert,” Banman said.

Safety first

Safety concerns and tips surrounding discarded needles in P.A.

5h ago

Liquor stores must change hours

Prince Albert limits liquor store hours

8h ago

skin care +

LUXE22 Clinic : Elevating Beauty with Expert Treatments

9h ago

“Between all of the different venues and arts related programs we thought, hey, let’s promote that and let’s get people onboard and make downtown a place where people can come and visit and see the arts that we have here in Prince Albert.”

Kicking off Culture Days is the firth Annual 2 Story Café. The Indigenous Peoples Artist Collective is putting on the three-evening event which combines music, visual and performing arts. Today at 7 p.m. the café will be held at the Mann Art Gallery of Prince Albert.

On Friday and Saturday the café will be held on the second floor of the Prince Albert Arts Centre.

Fran Karakochuk is the recreational programmer at the Prince Albert Arts Centre. While she hasn’t lived in Prince Albert a full year yet, she said she is already impressed by the arts scene in the city.

“I have a background in art and music and to come here and just be in the atmosphere of it is very inspiring and makes me enthusiastic.” Karakochuck said.

She said for anyone who wants to get involved in Culture Days there are quite a few smaller things going on at the Art Centre, the library and at other locations.

“We’ll have the pottery studio open as well and people are welcome to come in and give it a try, working with the clay and experiencing what that’s like,” Karakochuck said.

“I am just embracing it all, just really looking forward to some interesting things that people can come and learn from.”

During Culture Days on Friday the Prince Albert Historical museum won’t just be showing off what’s on display, but the museum will be giving a glimpse into the even larger stock of photos and artifacts that are in storage.

Other events include an urban art display and workshop will take place at the Mann Art Gallery and a “How to Audition” workshop will take place at the E. A. Rawlinson Centre on Sunday.

sfroese@panow.com