Harrison – Harrison Festival is still a ways off, but if the COVID situation persists, as some fear, what will be the status of the 42nd Annual Festival?
It is scheduled for July 10 to 19.
Bryan Cutler with the Society posted to the Harrison Festival Web page that the show is still on … for now.
Well this sucks… This is certainly an unprecedented time we’re in right now and we’re sure we don’t need to remind you of the severity of the situation. As with every other sector of society, arts organizations are wondering how they will be affected by this. We at the Harrison Festival Society are committed to providing performing arts experiences for our community, with accessibility and diversity being the core to our mission. We will endeavour to carry out this mission, even if over the coming months it ends up looking a little bit different than what we have been used to in previous years. Forty-two years of experience has taught us that art is resilient, community can overcome anything, and love is our greatest asset. We are rich in all three!
We have had to cancel/postpone our last two season shows, but since the Festival is in July, we are carrying on with our planning, in a cautious and measured way. We will of course be keeping an eye on the ever evolving situation and make informed decisions, with health and safety as our top priority, aware that we live in a community with a large population of seniors, who are the most adversely affected by COVID-19.
We have decided to delay our lineup announcement, which was slated for mid April. Because we have so many traveling artists each year, and the situation just keeps changing, we will postpone that announcement until early May.
We have temporarily closed the Ranger Station Art Gallery where our office is located, and the staff are all working from home. Should you have any questions, please email info@harrisonfestival.com and we will do our best to get back to you as soon as we can.
We’re a very creative bunch though, so look forward to some creative solutions coming your way.
In these stressful days of isolation ahead, we would like to encourage everyone to discover the artist in themselves. Go ahead and create something. Paint, sing, dance, learn a new song or learn a new instrument. The other side of this situation is going to look very different and we might not be able to control that, but what we CAN control is how we as a community of artists can come out of it with new skills, knowledge and passion for our creative selves. Henri Matisse once said, “An artist should never be a prisoner of himself, prisoner of style, prisoner of reputation, prisoner of success.” we’d like to revise that to include a ‘prisoner of isolation.’ Take that leap and just go for it!
