Lacombe Encore Art Sale has been cancelled due to the rising number of COVID-19 cases in the area.

“To do events like these we need to be at step four. To host any kind of event at the LMC (Lacombe Memorial Centre) we can’t do it until we get hospitalizations down. Given that our numbers in Lacombe went from 66 to 77 over the weekend, we’re going in the wrong directions. We’re definitely going to cancel for 2021 and hoping for a big splash in 2022,” said Community Services Executive Assistant for the City of Lacombe Maureen MacKenzie.

 On April 19th, 87 active cases were reported in the City of Lacombe while 72 active cases were reported in the County of Lacombe.

The same art show was cancelled in 2020 due to the pandemic and later in 2020 the Under $100 Art Market also had to be cancelled due to the growing number of cases the province was facing during the second wave of the pandemic in December.

“Most of these artists have been building inventory for over a year now without having a place to sell it. It’s really hard on them for some of them it’s their primary source of income too,” said MacKenzie.

However, the students of the Ecole Lacombe Junior High School and the Ecole Lacombe Composite High School will still have the opportunity to show off their work.

“We will be accepting the artwork we will hang it in the hallways in the LMC and hopefully it will be open for people to see, but regardless, we wanted to have it so that we can still jury it and still give out those art awards,” explained Mackenzie.

In the future, the Arts Endowment Committee will be hosting a small fundraiser in order earn a bit of extra funding that young artists can look forward to.

“We’ll be doing a kids safety calendar in August, September, and October. Kids from when they can hold a pencil crayon up to 17 can submit a drawing of something safety related and then we’ll be putting them in a calendar. All the kids will get a free calendar and then we will be selling them for the Arts Endowment fund,” said MacKenzie.

MacKenzie is disappointed by the cancellation but she looks forward to hosting the 2022 Encore Art Sale once it is safe to do so.