By Sarah Wallace

PACI to showcase talented students at Coffee House event

May 13, 2017 | 8:21 AM

Prince Albert Collegiate Institute (PACI) will host their second annual Coffee House Event this June to celebrate their performing arts students. 

Ryan Hughes, a teacher at PACI, said the event began in 2016 as a way to celebrate talented performing arts students and for the grand opening of PACI’s refurbished art studio.

“It’s just a really nice atmosphere just to start off June and celebrate our students here at the school,” Hughes said.

The free public event will feature PACI’s improv group, musicians and singers. Hughes said they have plenty of students who will show off a wide variety of their talents that night. 

There will also be visual art set up in the hallways while people walk around.

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This year’s event will focus again on students but will also celebrate the opening of PACI’s brand new state of the art recording studio and the school’s new weight room.

Hughes said the improvements are about promoting a healthy lifestyle in the school and highlighted the fact there are students exercising daily.

On the music side, Hughes said these new facilities only help to improve PACI’s already great music program because students now get to learn about things like sound engineering and radio dramas. He said the new art studio is amazing because it doesn’t have that classroom feel.

“[These facilities] benefit our kids in learning that there’s life beyond high school. It’s not just classrooms, we want to engage the students in learning about themselves and learning that there’s options after high school,” Hughes said. “It’s all about positive reinforcement and motivation for them.”

The upgrades and renovations to the art studio, recording studio and fitness room were all through fundraisers done by PACI’s alumni like Gary Anderson and the Saskatchewan Rivers Public School Division. Hughes said all three groups have been very supportive, along with members of the community.

“The Alumni Association for our school is so unbelievably strong, they’re very proud of what the school stands for, for them. We’ll often get alumni come through the school just to see the changes and they’re just amazed that the school they used to go to is upgrading all the time,” Hughes said.

Hughes doesn’t know what the next project will be for the school but there are a few ideas being tossed around.

The Coffee House Event will be free for the public to attend on June 8 and will begin at 7 p.m. at PACI. Dr. Java’s will be providing refreshments that evening.

swallace@panow.com

On Twitter: @sarahthesquid