By Pepper Parr
BURLINGTON, ON October 15, 20111 It has been a very good month for the Burlington Performing Arts Centre (BPAC). First they got off to a very smart start, their first commercial performance went off well and for an act that was not a big name event – it was well attended.
The building works and the different groups responsible for the place now have a firm grip on the reigns and we can enjoy this newest addition to the arts side of the city and watch how Brenda Heatherington and her team grow the place.
Fund raising is always going to be an issue – despite the views of some on city council – the arts cannot be both profit centres and at the same time a place where local talent is nurtured and grown.
You can still get your name on one of the 718 seats at the Burlington Performing Arts Centre and Executive Director Brenda Heatherinton will thank you and flash you a smile as well.
The growing will get a little easier with the receipt of a $200,000 grant from the Ontario Trillium foundation – those are your lottery dollars at work. The Performing Arts Centre has known of the grant for some time but did not made a public statement because there was an election going on – not the understanding most people have of what transparency means. The BPAC people apparently didn’t want to make an announcement during the provincial election. One can understand the Trillium Foundation not wanting the funds they distribute to have any taint of politics – if they didn’t want the BPAC to say anything – they shouldn’t have announced that a grant was going to be made. But, the grant has been made and BPAC will certainly put the dollars to good use.
And you can put your dollars to great use by Taking Part in the “Take Your Seat” campaign. All 718 seats in the theatre can be ‘purchased’ which will get your name on the back of the seat. Click here for more information on that opportunity. It isn’t quite the same as getting your name up in lights but there will always be the satisfaction of knowing that you are part of the original history of the place as you sit comfortably in “your” seat to enjoy a performance.
Later this month, the 23rd to be exact, there will be a public ceremony to commemorate the turning over of the building to the BPAC people and they will officially become the tenants on a building the city owns and for which BPAC pays rent of $1.00 per year.
