Powell River’s arts community events continue to grow and flourish, City of Powell River’s committee of the whole was told recently.
One councillor, however, suggested the Powell River Council for Arts, Culture and Heritage, look further afield than local government for funding.
Providing an update on arts council activities at the committee’s January 15 meeting, arts council representative Ann Nelson said her group has been in a close relationship with the city since 2009 when it signed its first service agreement with city.
“We have been entrusted with the responsibility of disbursing the in-kind use-specific properties to the arts community and a cash amount each year as well,” she said. “I thought it was time you heard what we do.”
Councillor Jim Palm said, however, one thing he’s going to be looking at, in his city parks and recreation portfolio, is what is happening in terms of revenue. He said an example raising money was the presentation that had been made to the committee moments before Nelson’s by Arthur Arnold, Pacific Region International Summer Music Academy music director, whose organization collects significant funds through events it sponsors. International Choral Kathaumixw also raises money, the councillor said.
“With arts and culture I can see from the balance sheet we are a little strapped for cash,” Palm said. “It’s good to come to the city because we are going to support you in every way we can to make things happen. Maybe I’m reading it wrong but we need a little bit more effort put into the approaching of local sponsorship.”
Palm said he knows businesses are hit up all of the time but if they see a well-managed event, they will get behind it.
“I know that from when I run my little Banff Mountain Film Festival,” he said. “I wish there was more of a push from the arts community to get donations and sponsorship, so it isn’t always coming from the same source; the regional district and the city.”
Nelson said all of the events the arts council has created have become “pretty much self-sustaining.”
“Arts Alive in the Park and the celebration of cultural diversity have become self-sustaining,” she said. “It was seed money that we provided. We are going to be the active sponsor for the Aurora Festival because it isn’t appropriate for Tourism Powell River trying to carry on trying to grow it to a self-sustaining entity. We are not providing sustaining funds. We are here to provide catalyst and seed money to get events up and running.”
Nelson said the arts council’s purpose is not to be just the city’s agent in distributing money. The council also has a role to be an active advocate working with the city and Powell River Regional District with all member groups to make sure “we don’t spin our wheels or waste volunteer or financial resources.
“Anything that has to do with the arts community and community at large is integrated to get most bang for the buck in every sense,” she said.
Since the first allocation of money from the city in 2010, the arts council has received $87,000. That has primarily been distributed through community grants. The arts council has also provided insurance so grant recipients have ability to put on events on civic properties. Nelson said the premiums for community groups can be onerous.
In general, what the arts council has noticed over the years is requests for cash support predominantly from visual arts groups, followed by music, then literary, dance, film and then multimedia.
Nelson said one of the things her organization has been able to focus on with the money earned from administering the program, and also from the money it earns through other sources, is the creation of or participation in some important festivals.
“Arts Alive in the Park has grown into a substantial draw for tourists who make their plans around it every year,” she said. “It’s an active showcase for local musicians, artists and writers. It just gets bigger and better every year.
“We love being one of the founders of the celebration of cultural diversity.”
Nelson said her organization looks forward to using the reputation that they’ve built to provide a means for leveraging some of the funds they’ve received from the city and raised themselves so they can work toward bigger projects such as the upgrade of Willingdon Beach Rotary Pavilion, Powell River Public Library, and other such endeavours.
