The Allied Arts Council and its member agencies will present a Candidates Forum on the Arts at the Albrecht-Kemper Museum of Art later this month.

The forum is free and open to the public and will focus on the role of arts and culture in the community.

Candidates running for Mayor and City Council in St. Joseph will present their positions to the voters in a question and answer format moderated by 680 KFEQ’s Barry Birr. Birr said the forum offers a chance to learn more about your candidates for public office.

“Even if you’re not overly concerned about, say, funding for the arts, you’re still going to hear your candidates think and talk on stage, they’re going to be answering questions so that you’ll see them in action, you’ll hear how they think about things, so you’ll learn about whether this one or that one seems to speak more for you or not,” Birr said. “And if you are concerned about the arts, either directly or indirectly, you should get a lot of information about that at this forum.”

Doors open at 6:30 p.m. with the opportunity for question submissions.

“They will have an opportunity to write their questions down on 3×5 index cards,” Birr said. “People will collect those cards and they’ll bring the cards up to me and if they decide that these questions are pertinent and if I decide that the questions are pertinent, those will go into the mix.”

The forum starts at 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday, January 23rd at the Albrecht-Kemper Museum of Art. The Allied Arts Council will host an informal reception for the audience and the candidates following the forum.

For more information or to RSVP by January 19, call (816) 233-0231.