By Pepper Parr
February 15th, 2019
BURLINGTON, ON
It was a quiet but very successful evening for ACCOB – the Arts and Cultural Council of Burlington. It was their second Annual General Meeting – something many weren’t certain was ever going to take place eight years ago.
The first seed that grew into what exists today was put into the ground when Trevor Copp delegated at city council saying he wanted to be able to work in the city he lives in. Copp is a performing artist.
City council heard what Copp was saying and over time funding was found to do some research and create a plan. Much of the research was done by an admittedly well qualified researcher who is based in Hamilton.
A plan was put in place, ACCOB was formed and over time they were able to convince the city that they needed support within city hall. Funds were found for a culture manager who over a period of time was given funds to add a half time support staffer.
The organization has a bank account with money in it and is now ready to take the next step and create a Strategic Plan.
ACCOB brought in a guest speaker, Bernadette Ward, the Executive Director of the Oakville Arts Council – an organization that has been operational since 2004.
There normally isn’t much in the way of questions after an AGM – unless there are a lot of concerns and complaints. There were a lot of very good questions at the Tuesday evening AGM.
Paul Sharman made an appearance – he is probably the member of council who will prove to be their strongest supporter. Sharman is a council member who actually buys a ticket and attends events at the Performing Arts Centre. Ask him for comment on an opera and chances are you will learn far more than you expected.
Ward 3 Councillor Rory Nisan may well turn out to be a strong arts advocate as well; his parents met each other at the Student Theatre
Cheryl Goldring, an accomplished artist in her own right, told the audience that she is in the process of putting together a fund raiser for the Performing Arts Centre in early April – she expects to involve something in the order of twenty different performing artists.
Sounds a little like the Blue Jeans Festival that was put on at BPAC in its early years. Her husband played the piano, admitting that he had missed several of the piano classes while Mike Wallace danced to the Gene Kelly tune Dancing in the Rain.
Goldring had a lot of questions for Ward, the Oakville Arts Council Executive Director – look for something from her in the months ahead. She can now make more of her profile as an artist and bring about a stronger appreciation and a better response to the arts in this city.
Tim Park was returned as President and is serving as Treasurer until they can find someone to do the numbers work.
The task for the year ahead is to put together a strategic plan and work at maintaining their visibility in the community. The web site has been upgraded,they have money in the bank, they are now recognized by the city as the group that will serve a critical role in the building more capacity for the arts community. They also now have a strong working relationship with the Performing Arts Centre.
Here is the ACCOB 2019 Board as posted on Facebook. A bit of googling gave some of their backgrounds. There may be more or changed since the Facebook post.
ACCOB Board of Directors:
*Tim Park (music, President and Treasurer),
*Kim Verrall (Secretary?)
*Ancilla Ho-Young (Burlington Caribbean Connection)
*Andrea Battista (music)
*Joanne Churchill (Education Outreach Coordinator at The Burlington Performing Arts Centre) ,
*Lily Z. Hudson(Founder at Redleaf Cultural Integration),
*Louis Tsai (Halton Region Chinese Canadian Association),
*Nina Truscott (music),
*Robert Steven (Executive Director of Art Gallery of Burlington),
Diana Zimber (music)
Good fortune to the new board!
GENE Kelly not Jean.