Mayor Pat delivers a big ol' lump-o-coal to the Creative City Centre
Hey everyone! I hope everyone is getting in the Christmas spirit! I'm currently in "finals routine", and I've got a few new blog ideas kicking around to punch out when I get bored of studying (as in, stay tuned for more posts in the next few weeks). Today, I want to talk about how the Regina City Council is choosing to withholding much needed funding from the Creative City Centre.
So the Prairie Dog posted a blog yesterday about Regina City Council's decision to withhold funding from the Creative City Centre. Although I don't usually read the PD's articles on Provincial and Federal matters due to their obvious left-wing partisan opinions that tend to rear their ugly head, the bi-weekly does a good job of covering arts and culture in our city.
To summarize the scenario, the Regina Arts Advisory Committee receives $800,000 annually to dish out to organizations in the city. Right off the bat, two-thirds of that funding goes to the Mackenzie Art Gallery, the Globe Theatre and the Regina Symphony Orchestra, which are all deserving organizations. The CCC was looking for $30,000 to cover admin expenses and supplement staff for the renovation work that was done to renovate the formerly dilapidated and empty space above Loggies shoes downtown. Even after viewing the Centre's complete business plan, the Committee decided not to award them their funding and dispersed a good portion of the remaining funds left to the Mackenzie and Globe. Feel free to read the PD's blog for a more detailed explanation.
Being both a musician and a business student, perhaps I can provide some unique perspectives and insight on this issue.
As a musician, the experience and services that the Centre provides are a rarity in the Canadian arts scene. Having played approximately 100 shows over the past two years in various bars/art galleries/restaurants/houses/you name it across Canada, I can honestly say that the musical experience offered by the CCC is probably one of the best anywhere. This facility is the envy of other cities, and consistently packs the house for broke/weary/talented traveling musicians with a built in crowd and a warm, cozy atmosphere to perform in.
The owner of the CCC is Marian Donnelly, who has an MBA in Arts Administration. Seeing as the facility has experienced excellent attendance in its first few months, the potential for the Centre to profit definitely exists. However, for musical performances the CCC only takes 25% of door sales, and leaves the remaining 75% for touring musicians. Marian believes in rewarding Canadian artists for their hard work, and this is a refreshing change from many other venue owners that I have had the misfortune of working with that take a huge cut of the revenue earned by musicians for their own profit. The CCC is rapidly becoming a premiere arts destination for both Canadian musicians and the citizens of Regina, and is directly incubating our diverse/growing arts scene. City Council doesn't believe this is worth funding?
Approaching this from a business standpoint, I yield the same opinion. We all know that City Council has been attempting to push major condo developments (such as Capital Pointe) as viable and exciting options for our citizens. However, in order to to sell these $200,000-$1,000,000 housing units, you need to create an exciting downtown core with a wider variety of food/entertainment options. Being close to your workplace isn't going to be a strong enough incentive for people to consider these new developments in a city where people can drive anywhere in under 20 minutes. The state of Regina's downtown is far from being attractive to young couple that have experienced downtown living in other Canadian cities, and it has been one of the biggest criticisms from people visiting our city. The CCC is a top-rate facility, in a high density area, which can only raise the profile of our downtown core.
In addition, the Creative City Centre facilitates a fashion collective, art studios, and various workshops. Marian and other artistically renown workshop leaders work with interested artists to teach them creative skills such as songwriting and important entrepreneurial skills such as how to properly market products. This organization is helping to empower our artists with the tools they need to become successful entrepreneurs, which SHOULD coincide with the city's vision of promoting and fostering local entrepreneurs.
Denying this organization funding completely contradicts our Municipal vision. We are talking about good people that have poured their blood, sweat and tears into renovating a dilapidated, historic building in downtown Regina for the purpose of bringing people into an underutilized downtown core and promoting entrepreneurship.
Life will likely go on due to the hard work of volunteers without the help of the City. It would just be nice for our City Council to recognize the value of having a premiere institution such as the Creative City Centre in our downtown core. At the very least, I would be interested in hearing the Council's reason for denying them funding.
Nick.
PS - The Arts Advisory Committee is meeting Dec. 6 at 5:30 p.m. in the Larry Schneider Board Room (City Hall). I'm gonna try and show up, and I hope you guys do too!
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