The Prince Albert Arts Board is continuing an event aimed at helping local artists turn a hobby into a business with a networking opportunity, and several information sessions about how to grow a brand.
This year Parts For The Arts event is called Connections. Spokesperson Cara Stelmaschuk said the board went with that name because the informational sessions are aimed to help artists learn how to grow an audience, build a community, and connect with a community.
The event is free to attend and funded by the City of Prince Albert. Parts For The Arts will be held at the E.A. Rawlinson Centre on Jan. 30, where up to 30 people can attend in person due to public health measures. People can also watch a live stream of the event.
There will be a number of sessions for artists to watch including Introduction to Social Media with Adreanna Boucher, Introduction to Websites with Cara Stelmaschuk, Blogging Panel (moderated by Brooke Wozniak, featuring Cherise Arnesen, Carolyn Carleton, and Wilna Furstenberg), Email Marketing (Newsletters) with Jeffery Straker, and Bringing it All Together with Kayanna Wirtz.
The event will close off with a keynote address from Jeffery Straker called Building A Fanbase from The Grassroots Up.
Stelmaschuk said the arts board has always tried to help artists through various information sessions but also provide an opportunity to network with one another.
“Creativity is a thing that’s completely contagious and it can snowball and it can grow when you get a bunch of artists in a room,” she said.
Stelmaschuk added that with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, artists don’t have trade shows and other events to go to so they may start turning to other outlets to gain exposure such as personal websites.
She added this year’s event is online-focused.
“(It’s about the) best ways to use digital and social media to either grow an audience, build a community, connect with a community or just outright sell,” Stelmaschuk explained.
In-person attendees will wear masks and safely distance for the networking portion of the event.
Stelmaschuk said 12 people have already registered for the in-person event.
Local singer/songwriter LJ Tyson has attended the event in the past and said it’s a great opportunity for Prince Albert residents to interact with the arts compared to seeing it on social media or at select performances.
“They actually get to engage with the artists themselves and learn about what they’re doing” Tyson said.
He added that it’s also a great networking opportunity for other artists.
“For artists that go there, they learn a lot more about other people’s art forms and their own,” Tyson explained.
“I’m so engaged in music that I never really got to appreciate theatre for instance or visual arts and I learned a lot about those two forms through the Parts For The Arts the past few years,” Tyson added.
As for his own personal experience, Tyson said he learned that networking in your own in community is the “building blocks of a successful career as an artist.”
Tyson won’t be able to attend the event in-person but said he does plan to live stream it at home.
The Jan. 30 event will begin at 9:30 a.m. and the keynote speech starts at 4 p.m.
Registration forms and more information can be found at https://www.princealbertarts.ca/parts-for-the-arts
