This ain’t your grandpa’s party

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École Connaught turns 100, throws bitchin’ party

Paul Bogdan
A&C Editor

Hundredth birthdays are generally as worrisome as they are celebratory; something this far past its prime is bound to go at any second. Thankfully, École Connaught isn’t a living organism that runs the risk of croaking on its birthday. Even still, turning one hundred years old is no small feat, even for the non-living.

But, everyone knows the best part about birthdays is the party, and Connaught school is throwing one hell of a birthday party September 28 – 30, including (but not limited to) school yard games, barbeques, theatre, and live music from the likes of The Lazy MKs, The Local Onlyz, Jack Semple, Rah Rah, and many others.

“We’re running three stages and four art exhibitions. It’s going to be a pretty amazing event for a little school …The festival is in celebration of the one-hundredth anniversary of Connaught Community School, and we’re holding because it’s a pretty rare thing for a school to reach one hundred. It’s the oldest school in Regina and one of the first community schools,” said Trish Elliott chair of the École Connaught Centennial Committee.

The idea for a music and arts festival at the school began with local parents’ concern with the “decline in arts and culture in the school in recent years”.

“There’s been a much bigger focus on standardized testing and mathematics and literacy, but there wasn’t a lot of art coming home from the kids any more. So, we got talking about this and what we could do to help make it easier to bring back art into the school, and that’s where this idea came up … why don’t we do something artistic around the centennial?


"It’s a pretty rare thing for a school to reach one hundred. It’s the oldest school in Regina and one of the first community schools." – Trish Elliott


“We’ve been doing a whole year-and-a-half now of different art projects with students and the community to commemorate the school, and this festival is one of the highlights of it,” said Elliott.

With all of the events that have gone on at École Connaught over the past year, Elliott remarked that “it was the best year to be a kid at Connaught.” Moreover, though, Elliott also commented that the different artistic events that the Connaught Centennial Committee has worked on have addressed the issues that initiated its creation.

“A lot of these projects have been a real great outreach, and has brought art back into the school and created links with galleries and artists right in this neighbourhood, [and] I’m sure those links will last, and there’ll be lots more projects to come,” said Elliott.

And, hopefully, more projects do follow, as the school has deep roots in the community, but more specifically, the artistic community in Regina.

“The school has a really good musical history, going back to the ‘20s. We’ve had lots of graduates who have gone into music and the arts … most of these performers have some kind of connection to the school … so, we chose our centennial theme as ‘history through creative expression’,” said Elliott.

The party begins at 1:00 on Friday, Sept. 28 and continues until the pancake breakfast on Sunday, Sept. 30. For a full list of details, head over to connaught100.com.

1 comment

  1. Trish Elliott 1 October, 2012 at 13:26

    Thanks for the coverage. It was a sweet party! The bricks of that building have a strange chemistry that breeds great homegrown Regina talent.

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