By Ethan Ready

PG Art Scene

Creative minds for reimagined times; PG Art Scene lives on

Sep 29, 2020 | 4:09 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – The arts are alive and well in the Northern Capital according to the Executive Director of the Community Arts Council of Prince George and District.

“In an odd way, demand for art and culture, and hands-on participatory in arts and culture, has never been this high,” stated Sean Farrell, Executive Director fo the Community Arts Council.

Farrell says they’re seeing people buying tickets to events that they never had any intention in attending, but are wanting to support local.

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“I think a big goal for Prince George’s thriving arts and culture and entertainment community is to preserve this year,” said Farrell. “There’s a real effort right now, let’s get through to the other side and make sure what we had going into the pandemic and the shutdown gets through to the other side. It’s really interesting to see how many organizations like ours are reimagining how they can do things.”

Right now, the Prince George Symphony Orchestra is putting on small concerts. Theatre NorthWest is doing stage readings until such time that they’re able to put on full productions again. Two Rivers Gallery has exhibits open and has been holding classes as well.

“It’s been interesting to see how the arts community, I would say we’re amongst one of the really early adapters to how we can make our offerings and preserve what we have, doing it a little bit differently and do it in a safe fashion.”

For the Community Arts Council, their feature gallery at Studio 2880 underwent some much-awaited renovations over the summer, benefitting in a sense from the closures mandated early on in the COVID-19 pandemic.

A once crowded gift shop is now an opened up gallery and gift shop where just about everything is for sale.

Farrell says the shutdown from the pandemic gave the Community Arts Council the time to get themselves in another sense of design mode, as they also made further plans for their future downtown location.