Over the last few months, the Sunshine Coast Arts Council has quietly begun a fundraising program to beat back the rising costs of arts delivery and to enliven its major jewel, the Sunshine Coast Arts Centre. Current Council president Norma Mercer says that the board feels the need to rejuvenate the image of the Arts Centre and its programs.
"We're sending in the cavalry," says volunteer Dick Harrison. "We've got a current operating deficit of $20,000."
A significant chunk of their income goes to supporting the Arts Centre, the gallery and performance building at the corner of Trail and Medusa in Sechelt. It takes $15,000 a year just to maintain the building, Harrison says. Some of that amount is drawn from grants such as the provincial government funding for B.C. Arts Councils, but, as a general rule, arts groups receive only a portion of what is actually needed from grant funding.
Last season, organizers decided to axe the annual art auction usually held in June because sales had fallen off and the various artists who donate their work were not seeing bids that matched the quality of the art. This August's Hackett Park Craft Fair upped its admission fee to $4 for adults. Some visitors questioned the higher fee but when told that the fee went towards local arts, no one refused and the fair was a success. Timing of the Arts Council's raffle has been impeccable. As gas prices rise, the raffle, entitled Art Is a Gas, will award certificates for hundreds of dollars towards gas at Shell Stations. Draw date is Dec. 4.
The process of raising funds needn't be tedious, in fact, one of their major cash building events, a gala evening, will have free admission.
"We wanted everyone to be able to come, not be held back by lack of cash," Mercer said.Directors plan to hold the soiree, A Gathering for the Arts, on Saturday, Sept. 24 at the Arts Centre at 7:30 p.m. It will feature musicians Ken Dalgleish on piano, Randy Rayment on sax, Boyd Norman on bass with Trudy Diening, vocalist. All are invited, but the council especially wants to thank previous donors and supporters for their contributions. Much of the money raised so far comes from direct phone appeals to past arts supporters. Organizers are also grappling with a tactful way of asking the other guests to please bring their cheque books.
The evening will assume a Vincent Van Gogh theme with images of the great artist and a special song by Diening on the subject. Food and drink will be excellent but the real reason for attending will be the major art sale. Collectors will be in their element, organizers say, in perusing and buying significant pieces of work by Coast artists, for example, a sculpture by the late Jack Harman, one of Patricia Richardson Logie's nude paintings and Raven's Tango by Mardi Ahmed. A preview of the works for sale can be seen on Coast Cable 11 the previous Monday.
At the gala evening, musicians will be joined by current MLA and past president of the Arts Council Nicholas Simons on cello. Surely, having a voice in Victoria through an MLA who is committed to the arts should help with fundraising. Harrison admits that it could come in handy.
Mercer and Harrison also feel that they've somehow moved out of sight of the municipal District of Sechelt's interest in the arts. They regret not co-ordinating with the Family Arts Festival in early August, they say. "Groups have to get closer together and share in such things as advertising," Mercer says.
They hope to launch this new season of the arts with a revitalized relationship.
The Arts Centre, under the co-curatorship of Alanna Wood and Carol Busse, is currently hosting a photography show featuring Vancouver artist Kiku Hawkes and Roberts Creek photographer Alan Sirulnikoff, last year's recipient of the Gillian Lowndes Award given to local artists who have shown significant achievement in their field.
But the Arts Centre is not only a gallery, Mercer stresses. It provides room and studio space for workshops and rehearsals, a venue for entertainment from musical evenings to a jam packed reading of the much loved A Christmas Carol last December. Plans are underway for a series of tasty musical events. In mid October, they will offer sausages and beer in the spirit of Oktoberfest, sherry and shortbread in late November or early December, champagne and chocolate in February and a March encore of a great cheese tasting event that took place last year. The possibilities are endless. One thing is for sure programs will go ahead this season on a new track that will keep the council operating at budget.
"I wouldn't have the gall to go out and ask for more donations if I didn't feel confident about the next seven years for the Arts Council," says Mercer.
