Vancouver park board commissioner Aaron Jasper will present a motion this evening (March 23) to “approve the interim use, at no cost to the Board, of the Mount Pleasant Community Centre for childcare programs until no later than March 15, 2010”.
The motion is expected to pass.
While the motion is concerned with securing childcare programs at the centre during its transition to new facilities at 1 Kingsway, it also provides a window of opportunity to local arts groups to draft a proposal for using the old centre as an arts hub.
The only trouble is, as of yet, no one in the cultural community has taken the lead on the issue. In an e-mail sent today to various members of the local art scene, Judi Piggott, who has been coordinating an informal ad-hoc group dedicated to the issue, stated: “As much as I feel this is important, as a resident of the area and a ”˜friend of artists’, I do need to know that you are still interested, and supportive of this approach on your behalf. I’d love to get any responses—however brief—if you get this information and want to keep going. If I know that, I will happily keep volunteering to keep the communication links alive.”
According to Piggott, the the estimated cost of keeping the whole building operating for the period proposed by Jasper is $200,000, and arts groups have until the end of May to draft a proposal.
Various groups have been suggested as possible tenants of the old community centre, including, according to Commissioner Constance Barnes, a coalition of the Electric Company Theatre, Rumble Productions, Boca del Lupo, and New World Theatre.
However Nathan Medd, managing producer of Electric Company, told the Straight by phone that the group is currently focused on an alternative space.
“Right now we’re targeting a different building in East Vancouver [on East Pender Street],” he said. “That is under negotiation, currently.... I haven’t attended any meetings [regarding Mount Pleasant] in the past eight months.”
He added: “I can say that I toured through Mount Pleasant and I think it would make an excellent arts facility. I’m not trying to discount its value to the community one bit. I’m excited about it and I hope that it can be saved and activated.”
Barnes said she would be contacting arts groups regarding the issue. “What I’m going to try and do is reach out to all of these different art schools that I know and also different art communities and see who’s interested [in using the community centre],” she said. “See what’s feasible, and then if we can look at some kind of a lease where the top of the building is leased and the bottom can still stay open for childcare, I think that that’s definitely feasible....I’m going to reach out to the arts community and have an open forum and start talking to the folks in the neighbourhood and see how they feel about utilizing that space in that manner.”
But at this stage, once the new facility at 1 Kingsway opens in the fall, has no responsibility to protect—let alone bankroll—the maintenance of the old community centre, which is slated for demolition come down this September. Someone needs to step up and take the lead on the issue, otherwise the dream of an arts centre in Mount Pleasant will quickly fade away.
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Comments
Part of this process has been to bring things to the point of development where people are not working at cross-purposes, nor solely for their own specific benefit, but for an outcome that is sustainable and where everyone wins. Now that the brief reprieve is in hand, we must all work together to make the very best of the opportunity.
There is no shortage of leadership, quite the contrary, there is a plethora of leadership:
The Arts committee of the Mt. Pleasant Community Center Association, the Save the Pool Committee, and the Child Care Committee, as well as many individuals on the Association Board have a history and momentum of effort to save the building. They are supportive of the Arts Centre concept and we have discussed the compatibility of all these agenda and where they may conflict. Information is being gathered in more detail about costs and possible options, and plans for a more public meeting are underway.
It is time for the variety of groups to work together to frame a common outcome. That is what we are doing. Without this, we expend energy on duplication of effort, we potentially lose the support of key stakeholders whose efforts have not been incorporated, and we run the risk of missing key opportunities.
In addition, I know you realize that arts organizations do not have the resources for attending to all these details, on 'spec' as they fight for their very survival. They must take care of their immediate needs while this complicated process runs its course.
This is another reason why the City's Cultural Plan includes support for the development of an Artscape-like intermediary group to facilitate this work. Until we can determine - through a proper independent feasibility study of the building - what is possible and affordable to do with this particular building in this specific neighbourhood under these circumstances - there is no guarantee that any of the arts groups who have expressed interest could locate there. We are working on securing funding for this first step so it can be completed during the next few months and give us the business case for saving and converting the building.
In the meantime, existing task groups have met and plans are forming. It's unfortunate that the people you interviewed were not informed of this. So far this is all volunteer time from people who have heavy workloads and responsibilities, whose jobs and income are also insecure in these times of cuts and reductions. But they have dedicated themselves to doing this work in a manner that will create an irrefutable case, supported by community and sustainable over the long term.
Yes, it is essential to have a strong communications and PR plan to get the message out and update the press and the public on a regular basis, and we will get there. In the interim as you should also be aware, the effect on this project's viability from possible City budget cuts meant we had to redirect some of that energy to advocate for saving the Cultural Facilities Plan implementation.
For now, we appreciate the issue being kept in public view, but we know that work on a plan to use the building during the next year and have the resources and support to do that is the first urgent step. There will be legal and insurance and other considerations to negotiate. We can use all the help we can get.
For anyone who is interested in this project, we must make sure we are communicating with each other. Please put direct people to the website at www.sectorcouncil.ca for updates, or the facebook group 'Arts Hub at Mount Pleasant Community Centre?' or put them in contact with me jpiggott@sectorcouncil.ca so I can make sure the linking happens. That is the responsibility I have taken on and which everyone can help with.
Judi Piggott