Flin Flon Culture Days is rounding the corner into its third scheduled week, with a crowded schedule of arts, crafts and community events in the works.
While the event is getting close to its finale, which will take place next week, there are still plenty of cultural programs left on the slate.
The main events during the week will be the Superstar program, a series of events taking place in local schools. The big fun happens Oct. 4, when students will be able to take part in a wide variety of events - seven of them, each happening at the Flin Flon Community Hall throughout the day.
Accomplished playwright and theatre performer Raphael Saray, known locally for his time as an announcer on 102.9 CFAR, will host a theatre and acting workshop at the hall, while a professional juggler will host a juggling workshop for students. Other workshops include learning how to make balloon animals with Puff the Clown, as well as workshops for soapstone carving, birch bark biting, mask making and air dry clay sculpting. Another workshop will take place at the Rotary Wheel and Flin Flon Station Museum, consisting of dance, outdoor education and history.
Another birch bark biting workshop will be held throughout the day at Flin Flon City Hall, with the event happening in council chambers.
The North Star Quilt Guild will also host an open house for the club on both Oct. 4-5, running from 1 p.m.-4 p.m. at the Northminster Memorial United Church. The Hooter will also host Culture Shock, a musical event, from about 8 p.m.-10 p.m. Oct. 4.
The former Hudson Bay Mining and Smelting staff house will be the location for a Magic: The Gathering tournament Oct. 5, starting at noon and running into the evening.
Once night falls Saturday, the main event will be the Wild Rice Cabaret, taking place at the R.H. Channing Auditorium starting at 7 p.m. The show will feature local artists, both with music and visual artists from the NorVA Centre, who will be creating a piece live during the show.
Before the cabaret begins, the Uptown Emporium will host an event starting at 6:30 p.m. - a formal unveiling of an art piece at the Emporium, named “Drift”.
More events will follow Oct. 6, including a trio of local interest films at the Dorothy Ash Theatre at Hapnot Collegiate. The films will start at 2 p.m. with a screening of an original documentary about Flin Flon. The documentary, commissioned by the City of Flin Flon last spring, has been shown at different events, including the Blueberry Jam Music Gathering last summer, and is available to see online. The film details Flin Flon’s history, the arts and culture within it, the Bombers and other local subjects.
The local premiere of a film by a pair of local artists will come at 2:30 p.m. The film, called We Haven’t Yet Said Thanks, was created by Hilary McDonald and Kristy Janvier. According to the Culture Days website, the film “finds common ground in the nuances of living (and benefitting) in a beautiful landscape made rich by resource extraction and, in turn, asks if projects examining this abundance can be abstract and poetic.”
Afterward will be a film showing the various trips and travels of the Flin Flon Community Choir, including the group’s trip to New York City and performance at Carnegie Hall last year. That film will begin at 3 p.m.
At the same time, starting at 1 p.m., Winnipeg-based artist Jessie Jannuska will host an artist’s talk at the NorVA Centre. Jannuska’s exhibition Akiktonz’a S’ni - “not forgotten” in Dakota” is currently housed at the centre and features pieces in different media, ranging from beading and hide to other materials, to address trauma and intergenerational impacts from Canada’s residential school system.
