Council To Revisit Culture Funding
Toronto City Council’s Executive Committee frequently hears ardent deputations but last week’s entreaties on the subject of strategies for arts and culture funding were surely among the most heartfelt in recent sessions. In fact, Mayor Miller, commenting on remarks made by young Scarborough arts advocate Lakesha Bambury, above, noted that, “This is the first time in about eight Executive Committee meetings that the whole room has been silent for a deputant and that’s because of the power of what you said. So thank you.”
Bambury’s plea for continued and increased funding to grassroots local arts service organizations (LASOs) was sandwiched by impassioned remarks from actors Albert Schultz and R.H. Thomson, as well as from TIFF’s Cameron Bailey and the National Ballet’s Karen Kain, among others.
Jim Fleck, a representative of the business community, reminded Committee members that “having a significant cultural infrastructure [is] a way to attract and retain high tech people . . . these are highly mobile workers, Silicon Valley is after them, Austin, Texas, is after them and we can’t provide the same weather but at least we can try and provide the cultural amenities that are so important to the quality of life.”
“Money to the arts is not a gift,” concluded Fleck, “it’s an investment.”
BMR Makes Theatre More Affordable
The basement shown left did not exist when Young People’s Theatre (now Lorraine Kimsa Theatre for Young People) moved into a City-owned heritage building on Front Street East in 1977. Built in the 1870s, the property originally housed horses that pulled Toronto’s earliest streetcars; when electric power put the animals out to pasture the building was converted into a generating station. By the time YPT was invited to take over the space, the derelict building had stood empty for 30 years.
The basement was dug out and paid for by YPT, which, like several other local theatre companies, benefits from a long-standing City policy that provides below market rent (BMR) to qualifying not for profit arts groups. The City foregoes rent (in most cases the spaces are let for $2 per year) but the theatre company is responsible for upgrades and regular maintenance. It’s a win/win that in the case of Lorraine Kimsa Theatre provides theatrical and educational opportunities for as many as 80,000 youngsters each year, in addition to about 1,200 participants in year-round drama school.
“We were one of the first below market rent beneficiaries,” says LKTYP Artistic Director Allen MacInnis. “In fact, the City wouldn’t let us install permanent seats initially because they weren’t sure it was going to work. They wanted the space to be flexible in case they had to turn it into a community centre if the theatre didn’t fly. But within five years it was clear this was going to work and the city allowed us to pour concrete and install permanent seating.” READ MORE
