Barrie Theatre is a Go!

Tonight, Barrie City Council ratified it’s vote of last week, thus giving final approval to the revitalization of our Downtown Community Theatre at Five Points! The support was very strong with all Councillors backing it – only Mayor Aspden voted against.

Thank you to Council for its commitment. Thank you to City staff for working for us all. And thank you to the community for proving the need and demonstrating our support for this redevelopment.

Work is expected to begin soon as the timeline is tight. Check back here for updates.

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admin, March 29th 2010 | Posted in Funding, News, Theatre

Investing in Culture in Barrie

An Open Letter, 29 March 2010

Dear Member of Parliament, Mayor and Councillors

Tonight, when City Council votes Yes for a new Downtown Community Theatre, we will be only one year away from completing a project that has already had a significant impact on the arts community, the downtown, and indeed our city as a whole.

The federal government, through Heritage’s Cultural Spaces program, is investing the most in this redevelopment. For every dollar they spend on arts and culture, they earn back more than two. Thank you to MP Patrick Brown for his diligence in securing this funding.

Though the City of Barrie is contributing somewhat less than the feds in this round, our city is the largest investor in this project as it purchased the old bank and paid for interim renovations. Council deserves our gratitude for the vision it has pursued, and for understanding the economic as well as social importance of the arts.

The current Downtown Community Theatre has had a clear and appreciable impact on our downtown, both economically as it stimulated businesses in the area, and socially as it has given all of us a place to express ourselves. What we have is a good start, but the community needs and backs this revitalization.

Despite the economic climate, when the Theatre reopens next year, the GDP downtown is expected to rise by at least three million dollars in the first year alone. This will increase commercial tax revenues and thus reduce the burden on residential taxpayers. Not bad for a two million dollar investment that builds community, and makes Barrie more attractive to professionals, like doctors.

You have set a new standard of investment in arts and culture in Barrie. You have proven that arts are not a frill but a vibrant sector of our economy and a vital expression of who we are and what we strive to achieve.

On behalf of Barrie Arts and those we represent, thank you for investing us all in and with arts and culture.

damian lopes
chair

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admin, March 29th 2010 | Posted in Funding, Theatre

Council Approves Downtown Community Theatre

In council chambers filled with supporters, Barrie City Council voted Yes to the Downtown Community Theatre (for details on the debate, see The Barrie Examiner article below). Thank you to everyone who took the time to send a letter – we heard from councillors that their boxes were filling up with support.

The final vote is next Monday night, 29 March. At that meeting, those opposed to the Theatre will have a chance to present to Council. By attending this one last vote, you can demonstrate that our community wants and needs this theatre. With a passing vote, construction will begin. Please attend on 29 March!

Lastly, please take a moment to thank City Council and MP Patrick Brown for their support of this essential project.

Subject: Thank You for Supporting Arts and Culture

Dear Mayor, Councillors and Member of Parliament

As your constituent, I would like to thank you for your continued support of arts and culture in our city. Every dollar you invest in the Downtown Community Theatre will stimulate the economy and improve the quality of life for all. Thank you for demonstrating that you understand that the arts are not a frill, but a vibrant sector of our economy and a vital expression of who we are and what we strive to achieve. I am counting on you to vote Yes on Monday, March 29, to rebuilding our Downtown Community Theatre.

Thank you

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From The Barrie Examiner
Council approves theatre project
Posted By BOB BRUTON

The curtain is going up on Barrie’s new Downtown Community Theatre.

City councillors gave initial approval Monday to the $6.1-million facility, at the former Scotiabank building located at the Five Points.

But not before the theatre’s operating and fundraising plans were revamped, and some assurances on building costs were given.

“This facility needs a more self-sustaining funding model,” said downtown Coun. Jeff Lehman.

He introduced a plan to use volunteers at the theatre’s box office and concession stand, and reducing staff numbers to three from seven, to save $60,000 annually. Fundraising of $40,000 a year and adding a facility fee of $1.50 per ticket would raise an additional $20,000 annually.

These measures were approved, and could cut the annual operating costs from about $250,000 to $130,000.

“When the capital costs are paid off (in a decade), we will have a self-sustaining facility,” said Lehman.

Another control is that should capital costs increase, Barrie taxpayers will not have to foot the bill. Savings would have to be found elsewhere in the project, or elsewhere in the city’s capital budget.

The city will also sell naming rights for the theatre, and Coun. Michael Prowse wants it to be a minimum of $650,000.

“I hope it comes in at more than that,” he said. “We have to have a number.”

“Staff will be looking for the largest possible amount for the naming rights,” said Rudi Quammie Williams, the city’s culture director.

This facility needs to be built quickly, in order to qualify for $2.5 million in federal funding.

“The risk is being driven by the time line by the federal government,” said Lehman. “We have to get it done by March 31, 2011.”

“As long as the project is substantially complete, the (federal) money will remain in whole,” said Coun. Alex Nuttall.

Council has already approved funding, in its 2010 budget, to reconstruct the theatre at 1 and 5 Dunlop St. East, at the Five Points.

This new motion includes funding details — $2.9 million from the city, $2.5 million in federal Cultural Spaces program money — and that demolition of the former Scotiabank building be approved.

About $2.5 million of the city’s portion would be borrowed during a 10-year period, and the debt financing charges would be $732,778. The city’s portion could be reduced by the naming rights fees, and additional fundraising.

Planned fundraising of $600,000 during the next three years will offset the theatre’s capital costs.

The Downtown Community Theatre will have 175-plus seats in theatre configuration and as many as 300 seats in a banquet style setting.

It is expected to generate an economic spinoff of an estimated $4 million annually.

The Downtown Community Theatre is expected to be a key component of the area’s revitalization.

Final approval of the theatre project will be considered by city council March 29.

http://www.thebarrieexaminer.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2502738

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admin, March 23rd 2010 | Posted in Funding, Public Meetings, Theatre

ACT NOW – Tell Council to Vote YES for a Downtown Community Theatre

This is it! We are one year away from a professional performance space in Barrie if Council says YES on Monday, March 22.

That’s why we need your help in the next few days to send a strong message of support to Barrie City Council to encourage them to vote YES on Monday,
March 22 to build a new Downtown Community Theatre at 1 & 5 Dunlop Street.

What you can do right now:

* Click on over to send your letter of support,  literally three clicks and you are done.
* Join our Facebook Page www.facebook.com/barrieartscouncil and write your support on our wall. Upload your performance videos, pictures, art, and show off. Record a video to share what this means to you.
* Encourage everyone you know to send a letter
* Come out, and bring everyone you know, to Barrie City Council chambers on Monday, March 22 starting at 7 p.m. – don’t just watch it on TV

Be creative. Show them we want this now.

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admin, March 19th 2010 | Posted in Events, Funding, Public Meetings, Theatre

Rally the ‘Troupes’

Thank you to all of you who have written in support of funding Barrie Community Theatre in the upcoming 2010 Capital Budget. Council appears to be listening, but we must remain vigilant and continue to demonstrate our community’s support.

On Monday 18 January, Council will begin debate on the budget, entitled ‘Doing What Matters Most,’ at 7pm. If at all possible, please attend  – we need to pack the Council chamber.

So rally your ‘troupes’! Dress artistically (we’ll leave that open to your interpretation) or carry a sign of support for arts and culture. We want Councillors to know we are there. Together we can make sure Council puts our community and our economy first by doing what matters most: funding our theatre now.

If you have not yet written to Council, it’s not too late to ask them for their support. Remember we want to persuade, not provoke. For more details and a sample letter, please see our post What Matters Most.

Please help us spread the word by forwarding this to your colleagues and friends. And check here at BarrieArts.ca for updates.

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admin, January 16th 2010 | Posted in Funding, Public Meetings, Theatre

What Matters Most

Our current City Council has supported arts and culture in our city like no other before it. They adopted culture as an economic driver as one of their priorities, and showed clear vision in purchasing the old Scotia Bank at Five Points for our first Theatre. Repeatedly, this Council has stepped up to the plate for arts and culture because they understand its importance to the people, our city and our economy.

Council’s attitudes and actions have buoyed artists and arts groups. It is easier to pour yourself into your work and to make the financial sacrifices so many artists make when you feel appreciated, when you feel the backing of your city. The community has stepped up too, donating time and equipment to our Theatre, and through use and attendance. Since it opened, our only community-centred performance space has been well and innovatively used, and has prompted new series like Six Strings at Five Points.

So when staff presented a draft budget entitled ‘Doing What Matters Most’ in which they chose to leave out funding for our Theatre, thus jeopardizing a time sensitive multi-million dollar federal grant and our city’s reputation, the arts community was surprised and more than a little apprehensive. The draft budget, it appears, not only ignores one of Council’s stated priorities, but reflects an old misperception that arts and culture are a frill, a ‘nice to have.’

This idea that we ‘subsidize’ the arts while we ‘invest’ in other sectors of the economy is not new. In the recessions of the 1980s and 90s, and with Mike Harris’s Common Sense Revolution, arts and culture budgets were slashed and a huge part of our economy reeled, with parts of it collapsing. Many small and medium sized businesses – the ones that employ the people and drive our economy – went under or downsized significantly.

The reality is that in this land of drawers of water and hewers of wood, culture represents twice the economic clout of agriculture and forestry together.  Culture far outstrips the auto sector which has recently been subsidized with billions of tax dollars. Indeed, culture is equal to gas and oil extraction and mining combined. Ontario receives $2.20 for every dollar the province invests in the arts. The federal government claims higher still. If only our RRSPs performed so well.

Barrie was very fortunate to receive the offer of a grant from the federal Cultural Spaces program. Grants, at least in the arts, are not easy to get, and the idea of rejecting one is unheard of and may damage all future applications. This infrastructure money is now proclaimed by a federal funding billboard, just like the road work and other stimulus funding our city has received. The federal government is offering this investment because they understand that they will get out more than they put in. Likewise, according to our City’s own numbers, our investment of $2.5 million will result in a $4 million boost to GDP downtown in the first year alone.

Despite the fact that the numbers are on our side, the arts community is worried that culture will once again fall victim to short-sighted, bottom-line thinking based on old misperceptions. This is felt all the more acutely because our community has felt some real support from this Council. The community is concerned that if the renovation does not proceed this year, we will lose the federal funding and the revitalization will never occur. Without profession facilities, we will continue to lose our young talent and we will fail to capitalize on the economic opportunities for growth within our grasp.

The arts community commends Council for the support it has shown, and the measurable impact on the arts and downtown revitalization that have resulted. It is unfortunate that we must rally for our city’s share of funding for a project that will boost our economy when little is said about spending far, far more on recreation facilities or police and fire service infrastructure. But the arts community is resilient and committed. More than that, we remain hopeful that Council will stay the course and see this vital community project through.

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admin, January 13th 2010 | Posted in Funding, News, Theatre

Our Theatre Needs Your Help

A Call to Action – Please Read, Act and Forward

Dear Friends

Barrie’s Downtown Community Theatre needs your help, and it needs it now. If we do not step forward and speak up, the revitalization of our Downtown Community Theatre could be delayed, or cancelled altogether. Please take five minutes right now to write to your city Councillor, or Council as a whole, to make sure our Theatre gets funded this year. Contact information and a sample letter to aid you can be found here.

At the direction of Council last year, the city applied for funding to renovate our Theatre through the federal Cultural Spaces program. The application process was complex, staff worked diligently to bring it together, and our MP Patrick Brown worked hard to see it through. Barrie was very fortunate to receive an offer of $2.5 million to renovate our Theatre! But Barrie has not yet accepted the funding. It cannot accept it unless and until Council commits our share in the Capital Budget.

On Monday, the Capital Budget process began, and it does NOT currently include funding for our Theatre. Council needs to continue to demonstrate its support of arts and culture by putting this project into the Budget. We need you to ask them to do just that.

Some things to consider:
- Council has made culture a priority, though our Cultural Plan, the establishment of the Department of Culture, adopting culture as an economic driver and as part of downtown revitalization
- Council has wisely invested close to $1.5 million in this project already, and has reaped the benefits of an increasingly vibrant downtown
- The renovations will further boost downtown revitalization and further increase the downtown tax base
- The $2.5 million in funding will vanish if the work is not completed in the next eighteen months – that means this budget
- Arts funding is not like a bank loan – just because we qualified for this grant does not mean funding will be available later; indeed, turning down a grant will stain every future application
- If we can’t find $2.5 million this year, will we really find $5 million next? Or will the renovation die?
- Our theatre is our only community performance space
- Our community has demonstrated commitment through use, attendance, sweat equity, donations and fundraising
- Professional performance requires professional infrastructure
- Our community has waited long enough: we need this now

If we pass on this funding, we will miss a vital opportunity, hinder the arts in our city, and make it more difficult for the artists of tomorrow. Please write to City Council, write letters to the editor, talk to your friends, and help us spread the word.

Check back here for updates.

Thank you for supporting arts and culture in our city.

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admin, January 6th 2010 | Posted in Funding, News, Theatre

Theatre Letter to Council

9 December 2009

Mayor and  Councillors
City of Barrie
70 Collier Street
Barrie ON L4M 4T5

Dear Sirs and Madam

The Barrie Arts Council is compelled to express profound concern about the newspaper article “Theatre competes for cash” (Barrie Advance, 3 December 2009, page 1). Not to fund our Downtown Community Theatre revitalization is not only unacceptable from a community perspective and irresponsible financially, but runs counter to Council’s commitments to downtown revitalization and culture as an economic driver. We trust from your continuing support of arts and culture that this article does not represent the direction of Council.

Since the doors opened on our first Community Theatre, the community has embraced the space, the opportunities it affords and the potential it represents. The community has taken ownership not only in utilizing the space for rehearsal and performance, but through collaborations, sweat-equity, fundraisers and donations. New series, like Six Strings at Five Points, have started because the venue exists. It is being used in creative ways. The community remains committed, recently rallying to a call for volunteers to consult with the city and planners on the revitalization.

Stimulus funding is predicated on keeping people working through the slowdown building infrastructure required for growth in the recovery. Our Community Theatre is a prime example of vital infrastructure that will have a clear and determinable impact on the economy. Our Theatre has already had a significant impact on the downtown. Today the revenue spinoff helps pay for road work and keeps businesses downtown and vibrant, thus increasing the tax base and revitalizing the core.

We are fortunate to have a vibrant and burgeoning arts community in our city, a sector that is providing a healthy economic return and shows clear potential for substantial growth. Like other business sectors, it requires sufficient infrastructure to flourish and to realize that growth potential.

Barrie has one arts space on a community scale, our Downtown Community Theatre. It is our one space for all performing arts, an incubator for our youth and hometown talent. The community is grateful for our Theatre, but it is as serviceable as a road full of pot holes. It works, and is better than no road at all. But smaller communities, including Orillia and Alliston, far exceed us in infrastructure. We can do better, and we must to meet Council’s priorities.

The renovation of our Theatre is the next logical step and it is necessary now for our community. This is not just our opinion: funding from the Cultural Spaces program confirms this. Barrie was fortunate to receive this funding. If this work is not done now, it will cost taxpayers far more later. Unnecessarily.

It is illogical to turn down $2.5 million from the federal government – funding secured with the support of the community – particularly for a project that will boost the downtown economy by $4 million a year. Investment in this public asset will provide a very real and healthy financial return – it is a sound financial decision.

More important than money, our city motto proclaims ‘The people are the city.’ The people are defined by their culture. Art is the expression of that culture. We are not immersed in culture. We, the people of Barrie, are our culture. Far from being a frill, culture is the city.

In the body politic that forms our culture, City Hall might well be the head, the citizens its life-blood, but the arts are our voice. To deny ourselves a suitable place for that expression is to deny ourselves, to limit who we are and what we can be, and to hinder creativity, innovation and advancement.

Without a professional grade facility, development of the arts in Barrie will be hindered, and we will continue to lose our talent to other communities. And with them goes our audience, our economy, our quality of life, our ability to attract doctors and other professionals, and, most importantly, there goes a part of who we are.

Like our Community Theatre, we are at a crossroads as a city, as a people, as a culture. Sometimes crossroads make us pause and reconsider our path. But this is not one of those times. Council has been clear in its support of downtown revitalization and culture as an economic driver. With the federal funding already secured, the renovation of the Downtown Community Theatre is key to realizing both of your priorities.

Thank you for your uninterrupted support of arts and culture in our city.

On behalf of Barrie Arts,

damian lopes

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admin, December 9th 2009 | Posted in Funding, Theatre

Province invests in Barrie’s arts, culture

From The Barrie Examiner

The Ontario government has made yet another investment in Barrie’s arts and theatre scene.

Two new festivals created by the MacLaren Art Centre and Theatre by the Bay had the province scrambling for its cheque book, recently.

The province is investing $27,975 to support the MacLaren’s four-day festival, Carnegie Days, and $30,000 goes to Theatre by the Bay’s Summer Theatre Festival 2009. The two grants were given out as part of the government’s Celebrate Ontario tourism initiative, which is providing $11 million to 224 festivals and events across Ontario this year.

Barrie MPP Aileen Carroll was on hand to share the good news.

“This is about your successful (grant) applications and the good amount of money you’ve received to help with your two marvellous projects,” said Carroll, who is also minister of culture and minister responsible for seniors. “This initiative helps to feed the creative economy, which is extremely important. (The funding) makes us a destination within ourselves.”

Carolyn Bell Farrell was ecstatic about the grant. She said Carnegie Days is a nod to the history of the gallery’s building, and a way to attract more tourists to Barrie.

“This is the first time the MacLaren’s ever received funding from Celebrate Ontario, and we’re deeply appreciative,” said Bell Farrell, the MacLaren’s executive director. “We’re just so grateful because running this festival wouldn’t be possible without it.

“We are housed in what was once called a Carnegie library, so that’s partly why we’re doing this festival,” she added. “There will be exhibits with workshops and speakers at the gallery. Some activities are happening at the Barrie Public Library and there’s an author’s reading at the Robert Simpson Brewery.”

Bell Farrell said the grant will cover about 30 per cent of the festival costs.

Theatre by the Bay was just as happy to receive its $30,000 grant.

“This funding is huge for us. It will go directly towards our production of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night,” said associate producer Erica Angus. “It’s part of our summer theatre and it has a cast of a lot of famous actors from big Canadian theatres. The grant will pay to hire them.”

Angus said part of the grant will allow Theatre by the Bay to offer hearing devices for audience members who are hearing impaired, so they can still enjoy the show.

More money for tourism-related events made Kathleen Trainor’s day yesterday. She said she’s pleased the gallery and theatre group were chosen for funding.

“It’s a very competitive process, and groups have to meet all the government’s criteria,” said Trainor, of Tourism Barrie. “We praise the MacLaren and Theatre by the Bay for giving the province another reason to invest more money in tourism and culture.”

ncruickshank

@ thebarrieexaminer.com

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admin, June 12th 2009 | Posted in Funding