CLOSURE LEAVES ARTISTS SCRAMBLING
Bewildered artists are wondering what happened to their work after the Art Center at 2060 Pine Street, which ran Gallery O, the Vancouver Gallery of Photography, and Revolution Press at the space, suddenly closed shop on the weekend of April 21 after receiving an eviction notice.

Toronto-based painter Hans Engel, whose work was being shown by Gallery O, told the Straight he had been negotiating to retrieve his paintings from the gallery because of a dispute over commissions when he was caught off guard by the closure.

"I started getting phone calls in the middle of the night from artists in Vancouver, saying 'Hans, there are moving trucks in the alley, they're moving out, we don't know what's going on,'" he explained in a phone call. He said he has since received a number of his paintings, but claimed he is still missing 11, worth $22,000 in total. He also claimed he is owed another $4,000 in commissions.

In a phone conversation with the Straight , gallery director Sergio Patrich confirmed the eviction. He said he was forced to leave the space in a hurry, and that he was in the process of contacting artists and returning their work.

"We've been trying to return work as we go," he said. "We were very rushed to do things, and some artists might be owed money, and I can see them getting nervous...It's not like I have money in my pockets. We're trying our best to take care of people whichever way we can."

David Haughton, who had been scheduled for an exhibition of his work this month at Gallery O, scrambled to find another way to show his paintings and etchings. Haughton, an emergency pediatrician by profession, said he was able to negotiate with the landlord to rent the former Gallery O space for a month. He estimated he has forked out about $20,000 in rent, lighting, cleaning, and repainting costs to pull the exhibition together.

Lisa Barrett, former mayor of Bowen Island, a member of the Vancity board of directors, and Haughton's former art dealer, has been helping run Haughton's exhibition since it opened May 3. "In the time I've been here I've met a dozen people, from artists to tradespeople, looking for Sergio," she said.

Patrich insisted the eviction took him by surprise and that the move was not premeditated. "I know there are some artists that are pissed off at us, but there's nothing we could do," he said. "It's not like somebody said, 'Okay, let's close down and take off.' We were forced off very quickly." He said he was hoping to relocate the gallery to a smaller space.

Before heading the Art Center, Sergio Patrich ran the Simon Patrich Gallery on Granville Street.

> Jessica Werb

MUSIC PROGRAM SWELLS AS BOARD STRUGGLES
Premier Gordon Campbell presented a $500,000 grant to the Sarah McLachlan Music Outreach project on May 14. The project is administered by Arts Umbrella and provides free after-school instruction in guitar, piano, percussion, and choir to some 350 inner-city children and youth in Vancouver. The grant, funded by the Ministry of Tourism, Sports and the Arts and the Ministry of Children and Family Development, is a windfall for the music program.

Some may take a different view of the grant, however, given that it comes on the heels of the Canadian Union of Public Employees' May 1 call to Education Minister Shirley Bond to release "holdback" funds of more than $45 million. These funds are a portion of the annual allocation to school districts that the government holds in reserve until student counts and other data are confirmed for an approaching school year. Because of changes in how the funds are allocated, districts received only half of the promised holdback funds in 2006–07, and they are unsure whether they will receive any in 2007–08.

For this reason, the Vancouver school board's proposed budget for the coming year predicts a shortfall of $5.82 million, with significant cuts to teachers and support staff.

As Norman Mould, president of the Coalition for Music Education in British Columbia, explained to the Straight , music education " is still one of those subjects where if a school board is feeling the pinch, they tend to look for ways of saving money. They still treat music as a frill instead of part of the curriculum. It's unfortunate that things like the Sarah McLachlan program have to exist, because that's the only way that a lot of kids can get access to music."

> Jessica Werb

BALLET B.C. SEASON MIXES NEW, OLD
Ballet British Columbia has announced its 2007–08 season, which will feature four full-length ballets and two mixed-repertoire programs. Highlights include the romantic-period ballet Giselle (September 26 to 29 at the Centre in Vancouver for Performing Arts), presented by the National Ballet of Canada, and the world premiere of The Four Seasons (February 14 to 16, 2008, at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre), a new piece from Ballet B.C.'s artistic director, John Alleyne, set to the music of Antonio Vivaldi. For full details and ticket information, visit www.balletbc.com/ .

> Jessica Werb