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Arts council proposed

Lake Country arts community looks to pool its organizing resources

A move is afloat to create an arts council for Lake Country.

Several meetings have been held over recent weeks among arts community supporters to flesh out the idea of creating an arts council, and a meeting is set for June 20 to formalize the idea and set up an initial board of directors.

The meeting takes place next Tuesday, 4:30 p.m., at the Winfield Room in Lake Country municipal hall.

Ryan Donn, head of cultural development for Lake Country, said the hope is an arts council can be an organizing conduit for cultural events in the community, a role currently shared by the district along with two local societies—Lake Country Performing Arts, and Open Air Performance Society—along with a few highly motivated individuals.

Donn said the district needs to move towards being the venue provider for events while the existing societies are beginning to face burnout due to a lack of new member volunteers.

He said an arts council could be the event planning mechanism that can assist volunteer-challenged groups with organizing cultural events.

“At this point, we’ve had several meetings to kick around the idea and now we need to make a decision on where we want to go with this,” said Donn.

Lake Country arts supporter Sharon McCoubrey said an arts council in Lake Country will offer many organizational benefits, from tapping into available provincial funding resources to being a catalyst for cultural event planning.

McCoubrey said Lake Country is the only community in the Central Okanagan that does not have its own arts council.

“I think to create our own arts council will send a positive message, that our cultural development is continuing to grow as the community continues to grow,” she said.

“One of the four pillars of the sustainability plan developed for Lake Country some years ago now is to create culture so it’s important to support and develop that part of our community.”

McCoubrey said she expects a strong commitment to push forward to come out of the June 20 meeting based on the feedback to the concept that has been received.

She said an arts council wouldn’t look to take over existing events or facilities, such as the museum, art gallery, public art commission, Art Walk or other already established events.

“An arts council would work collaboratively to do what makes sense for our community moving forward.”

Amber Hugo, who started the Open Air Performance Society with Grant Lawrence a decade ago, said volunteer fatigue has become a common expression within Lake Country’s arts and culture community.

“There are a lot of great ideas that people come up with for but unfortunately the workload falls on the shoulders of just a few,” Hugo said.

“The formation of an arts council will really help to put Lake Country on the map and give that support, be a go-to resource to help smaller groups or individuals organize arts and culture events.”

She said past discussions leading up to the June 20 meeting have been very beneficial for the sharing of information and the direction that an arts council can proceed.

“It’s exciting to start something because it’s all still in the planning stages but I really think the sky is the limit to what an arts council can become for our community,” Hugo said.



Barry Gerding

About the Author: Barry Gerding

Senior regional reporter for Black Press Media in the Okanagan. I have been a journalist in the B.C. community newspaper field for 37 years...
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