By Pepper Parr
BURLINGTON, ON. July 25, 2013. In Kingston they refer to him as their “cultural czar” and they can’t understand why he is leaving. The contacts we spoke to didn’t even know that Brian McCurdy had resigned and was on his way to Burlington where he will serve as the Executive Director of the Performing Arts Centre. He takes up the reigns in the middle of August.
Kingston’s Grand Theatre was undergoing a major renovation when McCurdy arrived in that city. He completed that job and put together what most people in Kingston felt was a very good program bringing in a number of acts from Europe that for the most part didn’t tour smaller Canadian cities.
McCurdy created a jazz festival that has proven to be very popular in Kingston; hopefully a jazz program will be something we might see from Mr. McCurdy early in the New Year?
McCurdy was said to have been very good at creating partnerships with small theatre groups in Kingston and while described as a cautious man, people in Kingston found that the proof was in the pudding and McCurdy did produce for them.
Brian McCurdy, newly appointed Executive Director of the Performing Arts Centre.
Burlington is about to get serious with its Cultural Plan which is working its way through city hall and a committee or two. McCurdy is said to have done “excellent” work setting the direction for arts and heritage in Kingston for the next ten years. Might he manage to set the bar a little higher at the Brant Museum?
The depth of experience that McCurdy brings to cultural development will be new to this city. Burlington has gotten a little mired in its approach to culture – this man, if the information we’ve been given is sound, takes a very sophisticated approach and at the same time fully understands the realities of the market place.
In Kingston McCurdy said once he was “worried about the success of the KidStage series” and found a remedy — he cut the children’s prices in half. “It really caught on,” he said. “The audiences doubled and tripled.”
“When we did a survey at the end of this year”, said McCurdy, “ 92% said they got value for their money but would come to more shows if the prices were cheaper. So this year, we’re introducing three price breaks where you can save as much as $10 if you’re willing to sit further back in the theatre.”
McCurdy has a considerable amount of American experience which is usually a good thing. It gives him a broader view of culture and how it develops and rolls itself out. A university education at McGill University will have given him a firm understanding of the dual culture of this country as well.
Add to that some work in Hamilton with the opera crew over there and he at least knows where Burlington is. Has anyone told him about the most expensive pier ever built in this country? When he was taken on a tour of the city did they walk him out to the end of the thing?
As to why did he decide to leave Kingston, a city that has a richer, deeper arts tradition than Burlington and a very significant summer tourist traffic, a world-class university in the middle of the city and a stronger Canadian history pedigree than Burlington, no one could come up with a reason other than “these people like to move on quite a bit”.
Our contact in Kingston did have one parting comment. “Burlington” he said, “has to stop poaching our people”. And then I realized that our police chief Stephen Tanner, also came to us from Kingston. This would put some validity to the Mayors statement that we are the best place to live in the country. Problem with that statement is that there are a number of correctional institutions in Kingston where we may not want this great news to get to.
For the moment let us welcome Brian McCurdy to the city and wish him well. If Burlington is to have a cultural identity – this man appears to have the capacity to get us there. He also has a community of artists who want to be at the table and the sense we got from the people we talked to is that this man understands artists – which will be welcomed.
