Lana Michelin, the Red Deer Advocate’s entertainment reporter, will be guest speaker at the lecture series Let’s Talk About the Arts on Feb. 2.
Michelin’s topic “Scrambling for an Audience in a Hockey Town” is about the difficulty that artists, musicians and actors have finding appropriate and affordable venues, and a sizeable audience, in a city geared towards sports.
Michelin, who is also an artist, said she realized the competition between culture and sports events in 2009 when she went from writing about health and the environment to arts and culture.
She said she soon discovered that the local culture scene could stand some boosting in a city strongly focused on sports.
“Do we want some culture along with our sports? And what’s needed to make our cultural scene more vibrant and viable?” Michelin said.
The lecture series is presented by Friends of the Red Deer Public Library, a volunteer group that raises funds for the initiative at the library.
Board member Lionel Lustgarten said Michelin’s lecture is an opportunity to hear a broad perspective on the Red Deer arts scene from someone who is intimately familiar with all its players and venues.
Tickets are $10 each and available at all three branches of of the library — Downtown, Dawe and Timberlands. The event runs from 7 to 8:15 p.m. at the Snell Auditorium in the Downtown Branch.
For more information go to rdpl.org