State of the arts in Okotoks

By Tamara Neely
Staff Reporter

At budget time, Okotoks town council had to make a judgment about the value of arts within the lives of the public. The new 2008 budget shows that the arts are a higher priority within council than they have been in the past.
This is good news for the arts community. For years that community has been wondering when town council would start to throw some support towards the arts.
An investigation into the role of the arts within life in Okotoks is the focus of a three-part series called State of the Arts, beginning this week. Over three weeks the question of where the arts sit within town council’s list of priorities, what kind of exposure youth have to the arts within the school systems and how an education in the arts can lead to viable careers will be addressed.
Artists believe the arts feed the soul and that the presence of the arts strengthen the community, adding to its vibrancy and a giving people more reason to love where they live.
Okotoks could do with more of that. The small town feel has been a prized element of life in Okotoks – but that is being threatened by rapid growth.
Heading out and soaking up the homemade arts in Okotoks can do a lot to connect with the community, because the numerous artists in the community offer up their creations, songs, performances for our enjoyment as well as their own.
If strengthening the arts community is important, then the artists and the public need to step up to the plate, not just the budget makers.
It takes more than a fleet of buildings for a strong arts community. It takes artists to come out from their quiet places of creation with ideas to engage the imagination of the public, and for the public to bundle up and come to show up and check it out.
And that is a very nice thing to do because passion and soul are at the core of creating art.
No, it’s the people doing things that engage the imagination of the public and their peers.
If everybody wants it, it’ll happen.

Time for arts to take centre stage

By Tamara Neely
Staff Reporter

Okotoks town councillor Ed Sands checks out the Rotary Performing Arts Centre which is scheduled to re-open March 1. photo by Lyle Aspinall

Within the arts community in Okotoks there have been rumblings regarding the amount of money being funneled into sports facilities. Their concern is what is left to support art and culture?
Okotoks artist Joan Moore questions whether the Town of Okotoks values its artists. Given the number of young families in the community she recognizes the need for sports facilities, but also feels the arts are important as well.
“Over a period of years it’s been consistently sports, sports, sports,” said Moore. “There needs to be a balance and I’m not sure if (the Town) is reaching that balance.”
The Town’s support for recreation can be seen in the funding committed to the development of sports facilities. The Town invested more than $23 million into facilities including the Okotoks Recreation Centre, Centennial Arena and Seaman Stadium.
However, with a new town council art and culture may be taking centre stage.
Mayor Bill McAlpine said he believes culture, including art, is one of the many elements that make a complete community, and that it’s time to look into how to strengthen that aspect of life in Okotoks.
“Yes, it has become a higher priority than in the past. We have some very young people here and recreation was quite a focus,” said McAlpine. “Now art has jumped way up there in my mind.”
McAlpine acknowledged that the arts community is a strong group and that council has accepted that supporting the arts is “one more thing we need to make this the best town in Southern Alberta.”
A new performing arts facility is one of the top priorities for council and what is being discussed is a new performing arts centre that could accommodate an audience of 300 to 350 and serve the needs of dance, theatre, performing arts and other ventures.
“I think it’s number two on the list of things to do,” said McAlpine. “First is the bridge across the river. Number two is to build a proper performing arts centre in the community. Number three is an indoor soccer dome – but soccer might be number two for overall council.”
Councillors Beth Kish and Ed Sands have both shown support for the arts, and for them it comes from the heart. For Kish, art and design forms her daily endeavours as an interior designer and Sands is the technical director of the Dewdney Players, a local theatre group.
Kish said council heard ideas suggested by local artist Cheryl Taylor, who sits on the Okotoks Arts Council, and is considering allocating space in a new downtown plaza to display local art.
Of the October election campaign Sands said that, “every one of us (on council) to the last person had performing arts centre as one of our platform issues, including Mayor McAlpine.”
“Right now, providing arts facilities is a high priority for council.”
With the release of the Town of Okotoks 2008 Budget, Sands feels council has made a big step towards a commitment to the arts: $140,000 has been approved for repairs to Rotary Performing Arts Centre (RPAC) and $195,000 has been designated as capital reserve to get the ball rolling for a new performing arts centre.
“(The arts) are much more of a priority,” said Sands. “We’ve focused so much on sports and recreation in the last 25 years. We need sport for fitness and health, but we also need the calming of the soul from art, theatre, dance.”
The Station, the Heritage House Museum and the RPAC, which will re-open March 1, are the municipally funded hubs of visual art, culture and performing art. According to Cathy Masterson, cultural and historical services team leader, the 2008 budget for these facilities is the same as last year with an increase for utilities and an increase for new staffing.
Masterson sees the increase for staffing as a significant enhancement to the cultural and historical services budget, and as a show of support from council.
“For a municipality of this size to support three venues is outstanding, and really quite significant,” said Masterson. “In general, the Town puts a lot of support behind culture, compared to other municipalities.”
Shirley Paradis, president of the Okotoks Arts Council, agrees that the status of the arts as a Town priority has improved.
“I think that it’s progressed, it’s going in the right direction,” said Paradis. “I think people on council know we need an ongoing, thriving arts community.”
The strength of the arts in Okotoks depends not only on support from the municipal government, but it also depends on collaboration with artists and the public.
Paradis said educating the public through exposure to all types of art through classes and attending events will expand public appreciation for the arts – something that would benefit both the public and the artists.
Her advice is to take advantage of what Okotoks has to offer: there are classes to take, recitals to watch, openings to attend, art to see.
“Slow down, smell the roses and get cultured,” advised Paradis.
Ashley Gaboury, who organized a show at The Station in February, was pleasantly surprised by the interest from the public, and she has a rosy view of Town support for art and artists.
“There’s so much going on in Okotoks, I’m just floored by how Okotoks embraces artists,” said Gaboury. “The ability to come in here and curate a show – other places, larger centres, you wouldn’t have the same opportunity. “I’ve lived in a lot of communities that have a large artist base, but don’t embrace them and treat them like family.”
However, Moore’s experience with putting on art shows has been less than complimentary.
Three years ago their sandwich boards to promote a sale were confiscated by Town staff from outside the location of their exhibit - the Centennial Centre.
“I always feel so helpless when we want to advertise,” said Moore. “Realtors and small businesses can put out signs, but as artists we can’t.”
Moore feels that the Town could show artists more support through making rent financially accessible for artists to exhibit in the basement of the Rotary Performing Arts Centre and by including them in more Town events. This would, she said, make artists feel like their inclusion is not a token gesture, but rather that the arts are an important component of life in Okotoks.
Moore compared the treatment of artists in Okotoks with how Medicine Hat treats their artists.
“In Medicine Hat festivals will include the artists, they’ll have competitions, invite artists to participate in events. It’s a different mentality. They consider the arts to be an integral part, so they’re included in everything,” said Moore. “Here I feel like there’s a token will, and that comes out at election time.”
In September artist Jack Rooney voiced his frustration with promoting art in Okotoks when he and Moore hosted a show in their homes because the venues in Okotoks were so limited. What it came down to, for Rooney, is that the Town of Okotoks was not very active in supporting the arts.
For example, although The Station is dedicated to showcasing artwork, Rooney said the lighting and hanging of art needs to be improved. Artists who regularly show their work and command big ticket prices have expectations of how the work is shown. Although The Station is a beautiful facility, he said money needs to be spent to improve the lighting and exhibit walls to feature the art better.
There is a shift in town council’s stance on the role of the arts in the community, but the arts community still questions, is it enough?

Rotary Performing Arts Centre re-birth

By Tamara Neely
Staff Reporter

Okotoks has just come through the Christmas season, which may be one of the busiest seasons for performance, without a venue to showcase it. Music and chorale concerts, end-of-the-year dance recitals and even dramatic performances exploded in December, all without a venue designed to carry sound and lift performers before the eyes of an audience. Some groups made do with the Foothills Centennial Centre or school stages, and some simply cancelled their events.
There is good news for performers and the public alike: repairs are underway on the Rotary Performance Arts Centre (RPAC), which such groups have relied on, and the doors will reopen in March. There is more good news: a new performing arts centre may be on the horizon for Okotoks.
The RPAC is currently the one venue in Okotoks dedicated to theatre and music, and while it can only accommodate small performance groups and a small audience, it is beloved for its acoustics, charm and history.
Some members of Okotoks town council do not support spending significant funds of the cultural budget on the RPAC since its capacity is limited and significant repairs are still needed. However, council does support the initiative of providing adequate space for performance to take place in Okotoks and establishing the Future Cultural Facility Reserve Fund to work towards this goal.
Last year, $115,000 was committed to the fund and this year another $195,000 has been committed.
This fund is both the primary source of financing for the first phase of repairs to the RPAC, which is budgeted at $140,000, and the source of seed money for a new performing arts facility.
In July 2006, the Town closed the RPAC because it was structurally unsafe. The building was closed for a year and a half while council assessed the structural needs, made the decision to commit funds to the first phase of repair and searched for a contractor to complete the work.
The first phase, projected to be completed by March 1, is to stabilize roof trusses in order to take the strain off the walls, which are bowing under its pressure.
The second phase of repairs have been defined, but council has not yet come to a decision on whether they will commit to them. Phase two would be a complete refurbishment, including replacement of the bell tower and foundation and repairs to brickwork damage caused by the bowing of the walls. The estimated cost is $1.2 million.
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It’s this price tag that concerns Coun. Ralph Wilson. While he agrees that Okotoks is in need of a space for performances, he feels that the usefulness of the RPAC is limited and $1.2 million could better be used towards a new facility.
The RPAC is known for it’s quality acoustics, and with a capacity of 180 people, it offers an intimate atmosphere and serves the needs of small theatre companies, amateur performers and provides meeting space for groups.
Coun. Ed Sands supports allocating funds to repairing the RPAC.
“Once it’s open it’ll be busy all the time,” said Sands. “Approximately 22 groups per month have had to find somewhere else to go (since it’s been closed).
“Some people would love to see it bulldozed so no more money gets spent on it and we could sell that land and put the money into a newer facility. That would leave a void for a number of years.”
Sands feels destroying the 100-year-old building isn’t beneficial because while council works towards securing funding for a new performance space, those small meeting rooms with “awesome acoustics” would be lost and Okotoks would be left without any performance venue for an indefinite period of time.
Cathy Masterson, cultural and historical services team leader with the Town of Okotoks, supports refurbishing the RPAC because of its heritage value and as a venue for performance.
“I think we have to recognize our town is in need of maintaining the heritage buildings that we have here. We’ve already started down that path; I think we should complete the process.
“The heritage aspect is just as significant as the quality of music that is produced there,” said Masterson.
Wilson, however, questions maintaining the building for its historical value.
“You always have to weigh the heritage aspect with whether it is taxpayer money well-spent. That’s a matter of opinion,” said Wilson.
While council members argue performing arts groups add to the culture of Okotoks, they are divided on how to best spend money towards facilities for arts and culture.
“It’s been proven over and over again that there’s a huge need for a performing arts centre,” said Wilson. “Everyone realizes that, it’s a matter of collecting money to be put towards it and do a study on where it would be built.”
The concept for a new performing arts centre is a space that could accommodate the needs of dance, theatre, music shows and possibly even visual art. The process of designing the space has not yet begun, council would look for input to ensure a new centre meets the needs of the community, but the initial vision includes a centre two-to-three times as large as RPAC, with sloped seating to accommodate 300 to 350 people and multiple side rooms suited for set production and holding rehearsals, freeing up the main stage for more frequent performances. Estimates for a new facility are approximately $10 million.
To raise the $10 million council would look, in addition to their own coffers, to provincial and federal grants, corporate sponsorship and community fundraising.
“Councillor Sands has taken on this task,” said Okotoks Mayor Bill McAlpine. “We’re working with Community Futures, which is an arm of Western Diversification, to lead us down the right road and help us get some funding.”
Sands is working on creative economic models that would ease operation costs and open channels of funding.
“If you go to the minister and say, Can we have $10 million for a new theatre? They’ll say, ‘Ha ha ha ha ha.’ But there are creative ways of finding programs that come with capital,” said Sands. “To make it work there could be a museum with a daily user fee, a gallery where the art sales offset the cost of running it, an onsite restaurant to offset the operating costs.”
As the vice-president of Dewdney Players and their technical director for 12 years, performance is close to Sands’ heart. He believes building a large performing arts centre would have a positive impact on Okotoks.
“Holy cow, it’d have a great affect on the performing arts community,” he said. “It’d have an enriching value for the residents. They’d be exposed to more things that simply haven’t happened out here.”