The Canadian Mountain Arts Foundation (CMAF) is planning to roll out a public consultation process in the coming months, seeking input on its proposed conceptual plan for Canmore’s arts centre.
In the meantime, before that occurs, the foundation is looking for volunteers willing to sit on the founding arts centre board or on one of five committees necessary to operate the Canmore Community Arts Centre: program and marketing development; facilities and building; administration; finance and fundraising.
Council approved turning the current Canmore Public Library building into an arts centre in early November of last year.
During that meeting, council also agreed the Town would develop a management and governance agreement with the CMAF, a society with registered non-profit status that has been operating in the community for 17 years overseeing events such as artsPeak and the Vic Lewis Band Festival.
“We’re looking for people interested in sharing their skills and interest and passion for the arts by volunteering to sit on the founding board and the committees that will be necessary to make the centre run,” CMAF board member Priscilla Janes said on Jan. 28. “It’s an opportunity to get in on the ground floor of creating Canmore’s first arts centre.”
The deadline to send an expression of interest to volunteer for the arts centre board or one of the committees is Feb. 18 at [email protected]
The goal, according to Janes and fellow CMAF board member Karen Antrobus, is to begin renovating the library building at the end of this year and open the arts centre in the fall of 2014.
According to Antrobus and Janes, CMAF is planning to seek public feedback in the coming months on the conceptual plan, which envisions a flexible, inspiring and useful space for the 7,728 square foot building that originally functioned as a liquor store and was later converted into the library and gallery.
The conceptual plan was developed after the community arts centre advisory committee consulted 500 people to set the priorities for the centre in terms of use and whether or not an arts centre would be a good use for that space. The advisory committee also looked at the operations of 26 arts centres across Canada.
“The building is there and in the interviews that the arts centre committee did, I think it was unanimous that (the arts centre) would be a good use of that building,” Janes said. “It would create an interesting balance in this town of having all the sports opportunities possible and then an opportunity to support people to experience the arts here and engage in arts and culture.”
The arts centre is designed to support all levels of skill and talent, not just professional artists.
“The word ‘community’ is an important part of our name. It’s a community arts centre and we’re about helping you create in whatever way you want to be creative,” Antrobus said.
Currently, as part of the conceptual plan which was developed using input from the consultation process, the front door would be moved slightly to the right of the current entrance. The doors would then open into a reception area and lounge. Beyond that would be a 1,600 sq. ft. gallery, exhibition and performance space, complete with stage, coat check and kitchen.
To the immediate east of the gallery/performance space are four proposed multi-purpose classrooms with retractable walls to create larger spaces.
West of the performance space, two studios would back onto the current washrooms.
Against the west wall of the building, where the Canmore Public Library Art Gallery is currently located, the conceptual plan is proposing a store room, a large wet/dirty room with steel-topped tables, sinks and an HVAC system for ventilation.
Three kilns and a glazing table would occupy a second wet/dirty room, located in the northwest corner of the building.
All told, both Antrobus and Janes said the conceptual plan has been designed to provide the greatest amount of flexibility so it can accommodate the widest range of activities possible.
“For us, really it is a place to be creative with whatever way you want to go. I would love to see kids building Lego robots. I would love to see building a community birchbark canoe. I would love to see big projects where the community could get involved with building that is of interest to the community, whatever that might be,” Antrobus said.
Ceramics is given top priority as the 500 respondents surveyed indicated pottery was their greatest interest. However, the rooms, designated as wet/dirty rooms, could also be used for stained glass, batik, wood burning, jewelry, felting, paper making; any art form that could be considered messy.
The multi-purpose rooms, meanwhile, are intended for classes or presentations or artists working in quilting, fabric making, jewelry, kids’ craft classes, writer’s circles or poetry readings.
The main gallery space doubles as a large workspace for big community-based projects that sit outside of the scope of what would normally fall into a gallery, exhibition or performance space, such as, Antrobus said.
“If all of that was happening in this 1,600 square foot space, the way the centre is designed you can’t get to your class without walking through this big inspirational gallery space in the centre,” Antrobus said.
Management and operation of the centre and its programs would fall to the arts centre board. Operations, including programming and staffing, would be phased in over three years, with full delivery by 2015.
CMAF is currently projecting a revenue and expenditure of $408,000 for each year of operations, with a commitment from council as part of that to support the centre financially for three years.
The Town has agreed to provide the centre with $180,000 annually for three years of operation beginning in 2015, along with $1.8 million to renovate and upgrade the building.
Council also dedicated $161,097 in the 2013 budget to develop a facility plan.
“The Town has committed to supporting three years of our operations to let us experiment and see is this something that Canmore wants? Can we make this work?” Antrobus said.
Programs are expected to raise $122,000 a year. However, much like the Town’s classes and courses, all courses at the art centre will have to be self-funding. Courses that do not have enough participants to cover the costs will not go ahead, Janes and Antrobus said.
As part of the annual budget, the arts centre would employ a small administrative staff of two full-time (executive director and program director) and two half-time employees (curator and gallery coordinator and administrative assistant), to ensure the facility is run well and open regular hours, they said.
“The Town of Canmore promoting arts and culture, that is one of the tourism selling points. I hesitate to say that it is going to attract a lot of tourists and visitors, but it could. It is really more for the town of Canmore to provide opportunity for kids, youth and adults to have arts and cultural experiences, classes, workshops, courses, programs, all of that. And place to foster the arts,” Janes said.
“In all of this, the opportunity is there and we need to create it and we need people and engagement by the public. This is not a closed group trying to make this happen. We want the community to make it happen,” Janes said.
