Creative arts are part of the economic structure. Need to be funded like parks and fire fighters.

By Pepper Parr

This will be the year the Burlington celebrates the opening of the Burlington Performing Arts Center – on time and within budget.  So that means we have a healthy thriving arts community?  Well, yes, but make that a qualified yes.

Deb Tymstra, Executive Director of Creative Burlington, the organization that was really the womb within which the idea of a performing arts centre for Burlington was conceived, will tell you that there is an arts community in Burlington but it needs  nurturing and care to bring the talent in the community to the surface.

One of the prime driving forces in making the performing arts centre real was the work done by Mike Wallace when he was a member of city council.  Mike was the man who brought Deb Tymstra into the organization that spent ten long years doing the essential ground work that resulted in the Burlington Performing Arts Center which will open this fall.  In the days when Mike Wallace was a city council member, he got tired of doing the books for what was then Performing Arts Burlington and asked Tymstra to take on the task and that became the first step of a new passion for her.

Creative Burling has completed the re-think it had to do when its name, Performing Arts Burlington, went somewhere else.  Today Tymstra says: “we are a ‘community business’.  We are a resource for arts information,  everything from where to find a photographer or dance class, to who’s playing at Boston Manor.  We collaborate on initiatives with artists, arts organizations and others to provide events and develop programs and partnerships.  We are looking to the future of Burlington as a recognized arts destination and believe that there is a role for us to play in the artistic and cultural development of Burlington, both in planning and integration.”

Tymstra believes that the city needs a number of things for it to become a thriving arts community.  First, a champion at city hall. “We have a parks and recreation department to take care of and develop the skating rinks, the swimming pools and the programs that go with the buildings.  We have a fire department that is equipped and manned.  Those are things that every city has – the really great cities have a vibrant arts community and a champion within city hall.

Tymstra will fill your ears with her passion and dedication to the arts in the community and convince you in no time at all that the arts are not an extra but that they are vital to the very core and well being of a healthy community.  Oakville has a three person staff in what they call a cultural office – Burlington isn’t there yet and with this council focusing on better value for the money spent, staff increases aren’t on the radar set.

The opening of the Performing Arts Center in the fall will put Burlington in a different league in terms of its performing arts capacity and that will open up all kinds of opportunities and Tymstra is delighted that this is happening.  But she adds, the arts is not just the performing arts.  There is a large community of arts people that supported the creation of a building and Tymstra would like to see better funding for that underbelly.

Tymstra will tell you again and again – that the arts is not about bricks and mortar – it is about people who perform and who do the critical backstage work like set design, carpentry and the multitude of trades and skills that exist in the community to say nothing of the marketing and promotional work that has to be done.

Deb Tymstra was born in Toronto moved to Burlington more than 25 years ago and fell in love with the place.  Her background was accounting and she has an accounting services company that she operates when she isn’t going flat out with the arts.  If you’re in the arts – you have a part time job somewhere else or you don’t eat regular meals.

There are a few changes Tymstra would like to see in the way the city is both promoted and positioned in the minds of those who decide to visit the city.  “We are more than a restaurant destination” Tymstra will tell you and “every event we hold does not have to be at Spencer Smith Park” she adds.

Art and culture have to be seen at the street level and Tymstra applauds both the art work on the bicycle stands the city recently installed (you will see more of these when the snow disappears) and has nothing but great appreciation for the work done being done by the Public Art Committee and heaps of praise for the leadership Pam Mulholland has shown with that program.

“I am so passionate about the value of arts in our daily lives, and the positive effects arts have on our health, our welfare, our economy and our personal and community growth: says Tymstra.  She goes on to say: “I have spent the last 10 years advocating for why and how arts matter. Our Creative Burlington logo signifies Inclusivity of all the arts, the building of a community and the brilliance of what the arts contribute to our lives and lifestyles.  It’s fun, colourful, and inviting, with blocks symbolizing the foundation on which we can build.  Creative Burlington is my passion as well as my profession.”  Whew, this woman was steaming!

Burlington, Tymstra will tell you is past its bedroom community phase.  “We are a city now and we need to grow into this new role. “The public doesn’t fully understand the role the arts play, not only in the economic health of the community but its over all well being” claims Tymstra.  She will tell you that a really successful concert in a park will leave people feeling better about themselves and  with a little more spring in their step even though they have left a couple of hundred dollars in restaurants and with local merchants.

The arts is more than buying a ticket to a performance – it is a state of mind and the sign of a sophisticated city.  Burlington is bound by its boundaries and there are a number of arts oriented silos that do great work – but they could do even more if they worked within an arts community mind frame.  Royal Botanical Gardens is a great asset and anchors the western end of the city; the Burlington Arts Centre sits in the very core of the city and

will soon be joined by the Burlington Performing Arts Center.  Each though is currently working in a silo and not getting the benefit of the synergies that are available.

Tymstra swings from great excitement for the potential and some despair over the lack of any buy in at city hall.  The arts matter she will tell you as she leans forward with intensity and you kind of expect her to say “damn it – the arts do matter – they make a difference” and while she doesn’t say the words – you certainly feel them.

So then, why isn’t this woman on the Board of the Burlington Performing Arts Center?  She could serve as a bridge between the people who do the “arts” locally and the productions the Burlington Performance Arts Centre is going to need to stay alive financially.  That plus, she was there in the trenches when it was hard, hard work, to convince people to support a performing arts centre. Tymstra doesn’t have an answer and takes the view that “we worked for ten years to make it happen – and now that is has happened we can focus our attention on other issues in the community.

When the struggle to get a performing arts centre in Burlington was just getting off the ground the group that Tymstra led came up with $64,000 as their donation.  “That money was a collection of $10, $20 and sometimes a $50 donations plus some large amounts from people who had more, which we passed along to the fund raising cabinet that Keith strong and Walter Mulkewich headed up.

The BPAC accepted the donation and took the name Burlington Performing Arts with it.  Tymstra had to find a new name and then go through a significant branding exercise to develop and then launch what is now Creative Burlington, an organization that is part advocate for the arts, caters to the people that are the under pinning of the arts community in this town and promotes events as well as organizes events on behalf of the “entertainment” community.

With the re-banding done the next step is a re-working of the Board which will be announced at the organizations Annual Meeting February 7^th.  There will be a smaller board and the confirmation of the new strategic plan and probably a tighter budget. “at this point in time we cannot seek additional funding and don’t have immediate plans to make another application in the immediate future.

The organization had Trillium Funding in 2004 and 2008 but that source has run out and “at this point in time we cannot seek additional funding and don’t have immediate plans to make another application in the immediate future”, said Tymstra.  But she has new initiatives that can produce revenue.  The cubby hole of a building they occupy on Lakeshore Road is courtesy of  Carriage House and they are probably safe for at least a couple of years.  They will work through the problems – remember – Tymstra is an accountant.

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