Early on the morning of Friday, July 5, some never before photographed views were recorded for posterity, and for a new website coming soon.
From the basket of a lift provided by Sky-Tech Equipment of North Battleford, photographer Paul Sayers captured north, west, east and south views from above the roof of Battleford Town Hall. The lift, operated by Brody Halewich, was raised to the level of a viewing area spectators will eventually be able to reach by stairs or elevator within a tower to be built onto Town Hall. The tower is part of the overall Historic Battleford Opera House Gallery project and will provide access to and augment programming at the venue currently under refurbishment.
The 360 degree view photos by Sayers will be used on a website to be developed for the Opera House project.
The top storey of Town Hall accommodated school plays, graduations, dances, live theatre, musical talent nights, Christmas concerts and more from 1912 to 1965, when a fire caused the Opera House to be closed. In recent years, reinstating the Opera House as a community focal point has become an official project of the Town of Battleford, spearheaded by now-former mayor Chris Odishaw.
Battleford town council has artist and former City of North Battleford galleries director Dean Bauche contracted to act as consultant to its Opera House project. Bauche has been working with the steering committee and Town Hall to establish a clear mission, vision and goals that reflect the Town's and the cultural community's vision for the project. The transition from steering committee to a board governance structure is currently underway.
Board chair Odishaw sees the steering committee/board's biggest challenges and responsibilities as being threefold: assisting in planning the cultural component of the Opera House Gallery, legacy tower and capital project; undertaking a communications fundraising campaign for the capital culture component; and preparing strong community-based program and operational plans with respect to the ongoing operations of the facility.
