Arts Activities Newsletter 2007 - 2008
Local
Kids on Stage
Our annual bursary fundraiser was a great success as over 120 kids
tried out for the Missoula Children’s Theatre’s production of “Jack and the Bean Stalk”. The tour team arrived in town with the set,
lights, costumes, props and make-up – everything it took to put on the
production – except for the cast. 60
local students were chosen from the open auditions. The show was rehearsed throughout the week
and 2 weekend performances were presented.
Also included in the residency were three enrichment workshops provided
to the high school drama department. MCT's mission is the
development of lifeskills in children through
participation in the performing arts. Creativity, social skills, goal
achievement, communication skills and self-esteem are all characteristics that can
be attained
through the participation in this unique, educational project.
It was amazing to watch the
tour team manage a large open audition, handle 60 kids ranging in age from 6-17yrs
in rehearsals all week, and then put on a great performance - all within 6 days
– quite a feat!
Missoula Children’s Theatre
has provided this unique experience in Smithers twice
before and it has always been very well received. The directors of the BVCAC did investigate
Canadian options for this type of touring theatre, but unfortunately could not
find any.
Thanks to the directors who
filmed and produced a DVD of the audition, rehearsals and performance. This
provided a great memento for the families of participants, as well as an
additional fundraising opportunity. Thanks to Sue Brooks for the long volunteer
hours she put into editing the DVD.
$$$$$$$$$$$$$
Thanks again to our core funders,
the BC Arts Council, The Town of Smithers and The
Regional District of Bulkley Valley Nechako. Their continued support is crucial for our
survival!
Grants:
The BVCAC awarded over $2,000 to various local
dance students to attend provincial/international dance competitions and provincial
workshops. Congratulations to our local
instructors and their talented students whose hard work and commitment continues
to take them far beyond our community’s borders.
A grant was also awarded to a local student to attend
the local strings workshop. Instructors
from outside of the community were brought in for an intense weekend of
instruction and performance - a great
experienced for all who attended.
The BVCAC also awarded a grant to our member
group, the Smithers
Art Gallery,
for their program to bring in four artists in residence over the 2008-2009
year, including a local first nations artist.
A grant was also awarded to a local artist to
assist in the creation of a colourful mural for the senior citizens at the Bulkley Lodge assisted living facility.
Grants were also awarded to a local Latin
influenced band to produce their first CD, the Northwest Community College
adult literacy program to produce a Zine, and to a
local artist to mount a peace art project in conjunction with the Smithers Art Gallery and local high school.
Arts Education Bursary
Congratulations to this year’s bursary
recipient, Nina von Seydlitz. She will receive $1,500
to continue her education in the arts.
Special thanks
to Harvey Tremblay from Hi-Tech drilling - he has committed to matching funding for the
BVCAC bursary award in the future.
Therefore, next year we will be in a position to award $3,000! As education costs are continuing to rise,
this commitment is extremely important to insuring our bursary program continues
to help meet the needs of our local students.
What
Members have been telling us.
22 members strong, our varied membership ranges from a
local publishing house to a belly dancing instructor, with many other artistic
traditions represented in between. Our community
has such a rich and diverse arts community that sometimes our only complaint is
that too much is happening at once.
But, where are all the volunteers? With so many arts organizations and other clubs/teams
and non-profit societies in our community we are stretched thin. Some of our membership has told us that if
they can’t find more volunteers who can put in the long term, behind the scenes
time and energy with expertise to plan, organize, write grants and keep
financials, then they may not be in a position to continue. Executive positions (particularly the
treasure position) are becoming harder and harder to fill. Want to volunteer, but not sure how? Contact us, we’ll
set you up with an arts organization that matches your interests.
Some highlights
from our membership this year:
The Cuba
Choir - who have been practising diligently for over a year finally made
their pilgrimage to a choir fest in Cuba in mid November; a great eye-opening experience
for all.
A new children’s choir “Vivace” has 24 participants for this
year. Each student signed a contract to
show their commitment to the choir.
The Bulkley Valley Folk
Music Society celebrated the 25th
year of the Mid-Summer Music Festival.
After having to change venues last year due to serious spring flooding
the organizers were happy to have the Fall Fair Grounds and camping back this
year. With an infusion of new executive
members and volunteers along with a generous “BC 150” grant the 25th
anniversary was a success, despite the cool weather.
Local dancers again did well in regional and
provincial competitions. Congratulations
to all the dancers who represented themselves and our community so well!
The Library Society and the Smithers Art Gallery
are continuing to work on finding a space where they can coexist. Unfortunately a promising funding source fell
through, so they are back to the proverbial drawing board.
Strings
Workshop: The
BV Classical Strings Society in association with the Valley Youth Fiddlers
hosted a strings workshop that brought in instructors from outside of the
community and musicians from all over the region attended.
Paperwork/Policies
and other fun stuff
All that behind the scenes work………
Our granting and bursary policies need a
makeover. With our community changing
and with more individuals and groups applying for larger and larger amounts of
money the directors feel that our policies need to be revised. The process can sometimes feel arbitrary and subjective and so criteria and
guidelines need to be more clearly articulated – however the directors don’t
want to be stifled by strict policies that limit our ability to respond to the
community’s needs. Several new drafts
are being worked on and discussed at director’s meeting, it’s a long process,
but we’re working on it!!
A local lawyer has been working (pro bono) with one of
our directors to draft a Loan Agreement that clearly stipulates the
responsibilities of the BVCAC and those that we lend money to. All this paperwork seems daunting, but as we
grow and the amounts we lend increase, so must our accountability.
Thanks to some careful money management, we have some
restricted use term deposits that provide us with interest funds each
year. In the past we have always
reinvested this interest income, however we are now looking at using this
interest income to either increase the annual bursary award, or to increase the
amount of affordable recreation grants we can provide to community members each
year. We’re still working out the
details.
Showing
our appreciation
Accountants
Rock!!
Thanks again to Brian Edmison
and Mary from the Edmison Mehr
accounting firm for auditing our financials again this year at no cost. Without the generous donation of their time
and expertise we would be unable to apply for BC Arts Council funding – our
core source of funds.
Mountain Eagle Books celebrated their 20th
anniversary this year, and the directors felt it was important to recognize the
role the store and its proprietor Janet Walford have
played in supporting arts and culture in the community. Thanks to Janet and her staff for continually
playing locally produced music in the store, selling local CD’s, providing an
outlet for event ticket sales, maintaining a calendar of local arts events and
being an inclusive meeting spot for all these years. As a token of our appreciation the BVCAC
presented Janet with a small gift at the 20th anniversary celebrations.
Our SMART award
is changing. In the past we have used the SMART award to
honour art teachers and instructors who have shown long term commitment to arts
and culture in the Bulkley Valley. However, it has become apparent that other
community members need to be recognized as well, so the SMART award definition
has expanded to include non-teachers who have shown this long term commitment.
Do the volunteers who donate thousands of hours to
arts and culture projects every year ever get enough credit? We don’t think so! That’s why we’re working
on a volunteer appreciation page as part of our website. Let us know who you think should be included.
Putting
the community in community arts council
Community Piano: The old community piano was
just plain worn out! So, along with Valentinos the
BVCAC provided funds to purchase a new one. This portable keyboard is available
to musicians for practice and performances, and is almost constantly in
use. Thanks to Gail and Richard Jenne for being the keepers of the piano.
DVD replicator: The community CD replicator
(that was purchased by the BVCAC for community use) has been invaluable to
local artists in helping to keep their CD production cost low. With this in mind and with the huge increase
in local film making, we are looking into purchasing a DVD replicator
for community use a well.
Farmers market/arts: A local environmental non
profit society has contacted us with regards to investigating the possibility
of creating partnerships with local arts organizations to create an outdoor
covered performance space to go along with a permanent farmers market venue. The non-profit has proposed using their
downtown property for this market area. What a great combination - food
security and arts and culture awareness. We look forward to working with them
in the future to make this concept a reality.
Official Community Plan: Directors
represented the arts community at a full day OCP planning workshop along with
evening consultations on the downtown charette
concept. Community surveys commissioned
by the OCP planning initiative have identified arts and culture as an important
aspect of what makes Smithers a great place to
live.
Della Herman
Upgrades: In
partnership with Live Sites 2010, the BVCAC and School
District #54 invested in new lighting and sound equipment for the
Della Herman Theatre, the first new equipment in 17 years! The Live Sites application and reporting
processes turned out to be very arduous, including the necessity of an expensive audit
of how funds were dispersed.
Events Calendar
Web links: In
consultation with the Town of Smithers Recreation co-ordinator
we are attempting to link various venue calendars to the Town’s tourism website. Hopefully this will help eliminate overlap of
event bookings and will let
visitors in on our great community arts scene!
What
else have we been up to?
The BVCAC renewed their membership to the Assembly
of BC Arts Councils – each year this membership allows us to apply for “BC Arts
and Culture” week funding. This year the
funding was used for our local “shorts” film festival which was a great
success.
Directors
attended the annual Town Council’s Grant in Aid night where all local
associations applying for municipal funding present their requests. This night illustrates just how many
organizations compete for municipal funding and what a valuable resource all
the highly committed volunteers are to the community.
After hearing some concerns regarding the
rental process for the Della Herman Theatre, our president approached the School District to look for solutions. The bookings are a hassle for the school
district staff, and the venue can’t be booked further ahead than the start of
the school year, as school activities and events take precedence. This makes it difficult to book quality
performers as they often book more than a year in advance. Along with the school music and drama
teachers we are looking at trying to address some of these issues.
A BVCAC representative continues to attend 2010
committee meetings; at a recent meeting the 2010 funders
said that our community was one of the only to have been awarded more funds to
arts and culture than other projects.
Getting philosophical: The Old Church committee is revamping their
renting policy; they are thinking of giving Arts Council members or arts groups
a discount. With this in mind they asked us the big
question. What is art? A hard question to answer, but we are trying
to help them come up with a rental policy that will benefit art groups in the
community.
A director attended a day long board governance
workshop funded by the local Credit Union.
The workshop was very informative – many of the activities the
facilitator recommended for good board governance are already done by the BVCAC
- albeit not necessarily as structured as they could be. A key recommendation was to evaluate board
performance on an annual or biannual basis to maintain effective practices.
A director is working with local artisans to host an
“artisans” booth at the local farmers market.
This booth will provide demonstrations and will provide a non
threatening environment where local artisans can collaborate. BVCAC and member initiatives will also be
displayed. This partnership with artisans will hopefully increase awareness
about the BVCAC, as well as, the multitude of different artisans working in our
community - from instrument makers to spinners and weavers- and everything in
between. Artisans can be a shy bunch, so
this has been an extended process to get the artisans to “buy in” to the idea.
Directors attended a focus group hosted by the Ominica Beetle coalition regarding issues around the downturn in
traditional northern economies: What makes communities attractive to citizens
and how to attract and retain new citizens?
Smithers has been identified as a community
that has been able to attract new citizens who are not involved in the
traditional northern economies and Arts and Culture has been identified as a key attraction to the
community. Collated data from these focus groups will be passed on to Mayors of
the North.
Directors are pursuing the idea of providing local
artist profiles on our webpage on a rotating basis. This will be a great way to highlight the
huge variety of artistic traditions represented including first nations artists
who traditionally have not been as well represented outside of their own small
communities.
Arts Councils’ collaborating:
Thanks to the Terrace and District Arts Council
and the “Shutter 2 Think” Film Festival for their assistance with our mini Film
Festival celebrating BC Arts and Culture Week.
Sharing their experience and some National Film Board shorts enabled us
to mount a “Shorts” film festival of our own.
Local amateur film makers showcased their own shorts – a wide variety of
films from claymation to Moricetown First Nations youth perspectives. With so many local contributions and the
popularity of the event, the BVCAC is hoping to mount a larger film festival in
the future with workshops and longer film screenings
A BVCAC director is now liaising with the
Terrace and District Arts Council – film subcommittee to keep up to date on
what is happening in this area.
Final
food for thought – technology:
the double edged sword
Web pages, new developments in sound and lighting
equipment – these can all assist us in getting our message out and helping to
improve the experience for artists and the public – but it all takes time,
money and ever increasing levels of expertise.
How do we keep up? This is
becoming more and more of a challenge as volunteer hours and funds are squeezed
to their limit.
The Bulkley Valley
Community Arts Council is a non-profit organization constituted to increase
awareness of, and access to, the arts for residents of the Bulkley Valley.
Bulkley Valley Arts Council, Box 3971, Smithers,
BC, V0J 2N0
info@bvartscouncil.com
