By Pepper Parr
July 15, 2015
BURLINGTON, ON
There is an infectiousness to the guy.
He doesn’t stop – every idea is a great idea.
He’s been in show business forever and knows all the players – he drops names like rainfall.
Bob Missen – one of the founders of the Lowville Festival – which takes place this weekend
The arts, the arts, the arts – they are what Bob Missen lives and breathes and if there is an opportunity to advance a cause or an idea or an event – he will be at the front of the line
When he delegated during one of the Stakeholders meetings that were held to ”inform” the Strategic Plan, the people in the room had to lean back a little to absorb the flow of words.
Missen knew that this was his opportunity to state his case – and he didn’t miss much of that opportunity.
Missen doesn’t speak from a script – he does wave his hands a lot and the passion just flows out of the man.
He promoted the Lowville Festival and certainly had the ear of the people who were in the room.
Missen’s mission if you will, goes far beyond the limits of Lowville where he is hosting the inaugural Lowville Festival; he sees no reason why the Nelson Quarry that is close to the end of its productive life can’t be converted into a park with an amphitheatre set beside the lake that would get formed when the quarry eventually fills with water.
Can the city get it hands on the quarry and turn the site into a healthy addition to the economy and social activity in rural Burlington – will the locals go along with such an idea o do they want to be left along to enjoy their piece of paradise?
Missen is talking the language that John Taylor lives – there are already people planning on a second conversation with the Nelson quarry people about having the city acquire the property.
A quarry in Action was recently acquired by the Region for a reported price of $1 – Missen likes that approach.
Burlington’s city council did a bus tour of the quarry site and were briefed on the time frames the Nelson quarry people were looking at – Councillor Marianne Meed Ward came away from that event feeling that there were potentialities.
The Lowville Festival event is pretty catholic in its breadth – there is just about something for everyone. “We are not at all sure where this is going to go” said Missen. “We just saw the locale as something with great potential and we put out the word and are now bringing all the wonderful talent this city has and letting the citizens hear for themselves.”
Teresa Seaton, centre, discusses where her cultural hot spots in the city are located. Donna Graddon, on the right is thinking that one over.
Missen is convinced there is great potential for an explosion of artistic activity and it doesn’t all have to take place on the edge of the lake. The Escarpment is just as big a part of the city adds Missen and we want to take advantage of that setting.
“Losing Brian McCurdy as the executive director of the Performing Arts centre is close to tragic” said Missen “but there are some very good people in place and their focus now on community groups and encouraging local talent is something Burlington has needed for some time.”
“Hopefully” adds Missen, “McCurdy will be deeply involved in the selection of his replacement – he knows everyone and can be of immense help.”
Missen is of the belief that Burlington will create an Arts Council and that the city will fund it on an ongoing basis – and go so far as to give the Council a significant sum to be handed out to different arts groups – an amount of $100,000 has been floated.
The discussions taking place at the Strategic Plan sessions make mention of a role for the arts but the focus there is on vital neighbourhoods.
There was a time when individual council members listened to requests for funding and some dollars were handed out – it is unlikely that any of the seven politicians that lead us through the darkness are going to give up that perk.
The Collective had done their homework – they knew what they wanted – now to actually get it – that’s their challenge.
The arts community has certainly come to the surface and are now clearly visible on the radar screen – what kind of influence they can have on the bureaucracy is another story.
Culture Days is taking place in the city in September. Missen takes a lot of the credit for getting the city on board with that program which was a success last year.
The city currently has a Culture manager – she was upgraded from a culture planner – but other than a half time helper Angela Paparizo struggles with a large workload without the kind of senior management level support and direction.
Up until the appointment of Paparizo as a cultural manager, arts programs got stuffed in with sports and recreation – the two didn’t mix all that well.
Robert Steven. president of the Art Gallery of Burlington has yet to make any kind of a mark on the cultural scene – he is still working his way through the organization he was brought in to run.
The newly appointed president of the Art Gallery of Burlington, Robert Steven, came to us from Grande Prairie, where he ran a full slate of programs as the Director of Arts and Culture – Grande Prairie had a 2011 population of 55,000 – Burlington is three times its size. That city proved to understand that the arts was not only healthy for a public but was also a real business. Burlington isn’t there yet.
The city struggled with an ongoing subsidy of more than half a million dollars each year for the Performing Arts Centre; when they place first went operational Ward 2 councillor Meed Ward said she wanted the place to be self-sustaining if not profitable – she has since learned the arts don’t work quite that way.
The current council is not likely to lay out all that much money in 2016 – they are still trying to digest the possible 4% tax increase the finance department trotted out a few weeks ago.
Cultural projects manager Angela Paparizo and Trevor Copp have been leaders in pushing for the creation of a Cultural action plan – the task now is to network and create some momentum at the bureaucratic level.
The emergence of a younger active more mobile demographic in Burlington has opened some eyes and resulted in the creation of an art collective that is not shy about getting their story out.
There is a Cultural Action Plan – in print at least – that needs to get some meat on its bones. It was in the hands of General Manager Kim Phillips who has since retired and really hasn’t found a home or a strong advocate. The Cultural manager has some networking to do.
Missen had hoped she would be a very visible presence at the Lowville Festival – Paparizo is on vacation that week.
Congratulations to R Missen and his co founder of this festival! It is far from the Sound of Music as a cultural festival.
The expectation that festivals and BPAC should be profit making ventures hold back a society.
UNESCO defines Culture is the set of distinctive spiritual, material, intellectual and emotional features of society or a social group, and that it encompasses, in addition to art and literature, lifestyles, ways of living together, value systems, traditions and beliefs.
No where does it state that culture is a profit making venture. Great festivals do draw people to the area and community businesses may profit.
This Lowville festival serves a need in north Burlington as a possible cultural node as mentioned in the Cultural Action Plan of Burlington. Whether the content will suit the culture of Lowville is difficult to predict.