Culture Days is approaching, and for communities that haven’t yet hosted an event — or perhaps only done it once before — there is still a chance for sponsorship available.
Applications to the South West District for Recreation and Sport are open until Aug. 15, for a community seeking sponsorship to bring in a Saskatchewan artist to teach a free, hands-on cultural activity during the weekend of Culture Days on Sept. 27-29.
There are a wide range of event topics that could include: music, art, folk dance, heritage activities, and so on. The sponsorship is being offered through SaskCulture, which also has a number of free resources, workshops, and swag available to communities planning events for Culture Days.
Christie Saas, executive director for the South West District, encourages communities to put forth their event proposals, which can be submitted online. The committee chose to take applications rather than submit one community to SaskCulture for consideration for a specific reason.
“We wanted to see which communities were interested before we submitted the applications to SaskCulture to be selected,” said Saas. “We just want to encourage cultural exploration in our communities, in whatever way they want.”
Culture Days is on its 10th anniversary, and communities across Saskatchewan take part in the weekend to highlight the unique parts of their area with a number of different kinds of events.
SaskCulture outreach co-ordinator Dominga Robinson says the emphasis is on getting communities involved in what they themselves have to offer.
“It gives them an opportunity to come together as a community and explore people's different talents and abilities and to potentially get new people coming out to engage in these activities in the future,” said Robinson.
With simultaneous individual events planned across Canada, the Culture Days website is the best place to keep track of what to check out during the weekend feature.
Saskatchewan has film festivals, historic tours, art and music workshops, and more already planned in various places, all of which highlight the culture of their area and hope to engage their communities on a cultural level.
The hope is that successful events on this weekend could expand into more programs throughout the year.
