While the grand opening of the Weyburn Recreation and Culture Centre is still over two years away, the Weyburn Arts Council is planning a huge project for the first show in the new gallery. 

City Curator Regan Lanning said the inaugural show in the WRCC will feature the City's entire permanent art collection. The City of Weyburn has been collecting art for over 50 years and adds a few pieces to the collection every year by purchasing them. 

The art will be hung salon-style, which Lanning described as, "floor to ceiling" for every piece to be seen.

"All the art in the permanent collection has some relevance to Weyburn. Either the artist is from Weyburn, or the piece is somehow tied to Weyburn or the artist is from Saskatchewan," Lanning noted. "It's all very much collected with Weyburn, Saskatchewan in mind."

There are 84 artists represented in the collection with some having multiple items. One artist, Alice Miller, has seven pieces permanently stored. 

The other half of the big announcement from the Weyburn Arts Council is the undertaking of a project of cataloguing all the artwork in the permanent collection. A guidebook was originally done in 1984 with all the pieces and a small blurb about the work and the artist. Now, 35 years later, Lanning and the WAC will do a brand new version in time for the 2021 show.

"It's going to be a huge project and it's going to take Arts Council quite a while to accomplish and format. But it is such a worthwhile project," Lanning said.

The City is currently looking at adding to its permanent collection for this year but is not ready to announce the latest purchases.