The City of Lacombe is once again hosting the Encore Art Sale and this year they are celebrating their 20th anniversary.
“It is our 20th anniversary and our feature artist is Donna Spencer, who is a ceramicist who does very, very cool pottery,” Organizer Maureen MacKenzie said.
“We have more artists than usual since it is our 20th anniversary. We have quite a few new artists for people to shop from.”
The event runs Friday, April 26th until Saturday, April 27th and features many different new and returning opportunities.
“We have Sip n’ Shop from 6 p.m. until 9 p.m. Friday and at 7 p.m. on Friday we have our special event which is an Artist Paint-Off,” MacKenzie said. “We have five artists taking an hour to create a full painting and those paintings will got to auction with bids closing Saturday afternoon.”
The show will also have musical accompaniment throughout the weekend.
“We have some very talented local classical music students who will be providing music Friday and Saturday. From 6:30 p.m. until 8:30 p.m.,” she said. “Ryon Holmedal and Pete Christian will be providing will be providing music — they are very talented local musicians who were here last year and everyone loved them.”
MacKenzie said their show is something that has been embraced in Lacombe.
“We get artists applying because they get told by artists in the show that it is a great sale to come and be a part of it. It has been embraced by the artists and the community as a whole, which is nice,” she said, adding there is plenty of volunteer work behind the scenes going into the show.
“Our volunteers put a tremendous amount of work and pride into the Sale and we try to provide things that other sales don’t provide like our Artist’s Luncheon on Friday,” she said. “They get to start the Sale with a full tummy and we have booth relief for them, so they an can take a break if they need it. We try to have everyone you typically won’t see anymore.
“We like to treat our artists as special as we can so they can have a great weekend with us.”
The event also coincides with the Lacombe and District Chamber of Commerce’s Trade Show.
“We try to work with the Chamber so that we have both events on the same weekend. It improves attendance for both events and it gives more things for people to see and do in Lacombe, which is great,” she said
MacKenzie added, “AnnaMaria’s Cafe will be open Friday and Saturday, which is wonderful. We hope people come in and support their team because they are doing us a huge favour by opening the cafe for us.”
todd.vaughan@lacombeexpress.com
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