Sask. arts industry reflects on cultural impact of pandemic 5 years after it began

Liam O'Connor · CBC News

· Posted: Mar 12, 2025 6:22 PM EDT | Last Updated: 8 minutes ago

COVID-19 took a toll connected the arts that inactive lingers 5 years aft the pandemic began, according to organizations crossed Saskatchewan.

The World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a planetary pandemic connected March 11, 2020. Lenore Maier, enforcement manager of the Broadway Theatre successful Saskatoon, said it's been a "tumultuous" and "unpredictable" situation for the unrecorded events manufacture ever since.

With a 430-seat capacity, the brushed cedar show abstraction hosts everything from films to euphony to comedy. Maier said it's getting harder to archer however galore of those seats are going to beryllium filled.

She utilized a circumstantial drama amusement arsenic an example. It did good astatine the theatre, but erstwhile it came backmost later, it got fractional arsenic galore attendees.

"I deliberation it's an indicator that radical are being conscionable much cautious with the wealth that they have," Maier said.

"When, you know, the mean user wants to instrumentality successful immoderate euphony oregon wage for groceries, sometimes the groceries travel successful archetypal place, arsenic they should."

Maier said the assemblage owned and operated theatre had to shut down and lay-off unit erstwhile the pandemic hit.

It wasn't until alleviation funding came through from national and provincial governments that the theatre was capable to get backmost connected its feet.

Once unrecorded events started up again, that "life-saver" backing dried up. Maier said it near organizations similar the Broadway to fend for themselves successful a caller environment, with nary supports.

Maier said there should beryllium much agelong word nationalist concern successful the arts.

In the meantime, the theatre has learned to bash much with less.

"I deliberation that it's surely astatine a constituent present wherever we can't proceed to keep, benignant of, cutting the abdominous away," she said.

"There's truly not overmuch near [other] than conscionable bones astatine this point."

Jazz festival 'just coming back'

Just astir everything has changed for the Saskatchewan Jazz Festival, according to its enforcement director Shannon Josdal, who said the enactment is "just coming back."

The yearly Saskatoon lawsuit has a caller staff, determination and concern model.

"The unit that near astatine the opening of COVID and the unit that brought the enactment backmost retired of COVID are 2 wholly antithetic groups of people," Josdal said.

For astir 30 years the festival was chiefly based astatine the Delta Bessborough Hotel, but it has present moved to Victoria Park successful the King George neighbourhood.

Another large change, Josdal said, is the mode the festival sells tickets.

"We utilized to person a nationalist facing bureau that you could travel and visit. We don't bash that anymore. We usage the Broadway."

Other changes see shuttle buses to marque accessibility easier and tiny pop-up shows astatine section businesses to make much of a beingness successful communities.

"It has taken a agelong clip to travel back. I would accidental we're conscionable starting now, 5 years out, to spot that comeback, to spot the enactment grow," the enforcement director said.

"We're perfectly inactive seeing the repercussions of the pandemic, not conscionable successful music, but successful each taste organizations."

Like Maier, Josdal pointed to economical realities similar the rising outgo of living. She said the jazz fest's free 2023 Canada Day amusement had a grounds attendance of astir 5,000 people, but it took the enactment until 2024 to merchantability retired a ticketed event.

Josdal stressed the value of the industry, citing caller information released by the Canadian Live Music Association that indicates the combined interaction of emotion euphony cognition and associated tourism spending successful 2023 contributed much than $10 cardinal to the county's GDP.

Young radical entering the workforce

When the pandemic struck, Regina's Globe Theatre had conscionable announced astir $45 cardinal successful renovations implicit the people of 3 years. Five years later, the operation is inactive underway.

Jennifer Brewin, the Globe's creator director, said the pandemic changed everything, including proviso chains, costs and expenses.

Similar to the Broadway Theatre and Saskatchewan Jazz Festival, the Globe besides had a staffing turnover — thing Brewin said was owed to radical wanting much security.

"A batch of our elder radical and mediate absorption people, our mid-level artists and administrators and producers, they moved connected to different things."

While Brewin said the manufacture arsenic a full mislaid galore people, it didn't suffer the young radical coming retired of theatre school.

"All these young radical had to measurement up into these positions that they, you know, were astir apt 5 to 10 years distant from stepping into, but they had to larn really, truly fast."

Brewin said she believes audiences are starting to travel backmost now, particularly arsenic an alternate to "endless streaming and endless scrolling."