Chestermere’s first creative showcase is set to shine the spotlight on some of the hidden talents that can be found in the community June 2.
“We want people to feel proud about what they do or what they create,” said showcase co-organizer Jay Bailey.
The idea for the show came out of wanting to be able to highlight all kinds of talents, not just performance ones.
“We came up with the idea a couple years ago of the talent show,” said Bailey, “then we decided that we didn’t just want it to be a talent show like a typical talent show at school.”
Rather than keeping the focus on just stage performance, Bailey said that the idea of the Creative showcase was to give both performers and artists a place to, “show off or display their visual talents.”
After being award the Dave Mikkelsen Award for Youth in December, Bailey along with co-organizer Shaun Fisk were finally able to set about realizing their dream for an all ages performance and art talent show.
With the Mikkelsen award providing start-up funding, the Creative Showcase was born.
In addition to the talent showcase, there will also be a silent auction with proceeds being donated to support Synergy and its work with youth in the community.
Both Bailey and Fisk have been involved with Synergy and decided that since they came up with the showcase idea when they were part of the program, that’s who they wanted to support with the showcase.
They have also been getting some help and guidance from Synergy staff members and other community mentors as they have organized the event.
Bailey said that she has organized and co-organized many events with synergy when she was a part of the YELL program that has since changed to be the youth council.
“Through synergy I’ve done many events through them,” said Bailey.
One of the first events that Bailey organized with Synergy was a peace walk in 2013.
The Creative Showcase has been a new experience for Bailey and Fisk since they have taken the lead organizing it mostly on their own with just support from Synergy.
Organizing the showcase has really shown how one little change can affect the entire event planning process.
“It’s more of a stressful thing to plan this than it was the other things because we had more of the help then we do now,” said Bailey.
One of the biggest stressors has been finding and getting people registered to perform or display their work for the showcase.
“I know Chestermere and Langdon are a very last-minute town so I’m trying not too much to stress out about that,” she said.
She said that she and Fisk have been hard at work promoting the event and trying to get the word out in the community.
“Right now, we only have a couple onstage performances, we’re hoping to get more, I’ve sent e-mails to like dance studios and the karate studios,” said Bailey.
They are still accepting registrations of artists and performers for the showcase.
They had more success attracting display artists with about a dozen so far.
With the Creative Showcase just days away, Bailey said that one thing she would do differently next time is to take more time organizing the event.
They started work in earnest in January, but Bailey said a couple more months would have been nice to have.
Despite the time crunch, Bailey said the showcase is shaping up to be a fun and successful afternoon.
“I just think giving people the chance to show off their skills or their talents that they have is just and awesome thing,” she said.
Performances will be running on stage throughout the event with the display items and silent auction arranged throughout the hall.
The showcase runs from 12 p.m. to about 6 p.m. June 2 in the main hall at the recreation centre.
Tickets are $2 with proceeds being donated to Synergy.
For more information, to register in the showcase, or donate to the silent auction go to their Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/creativeshowcasee.
