By Pepper Parr
January 20th, 2015
BURLINGTON, ON
It was a different day for Rick Burgess who stood before the Community and Corporate Affairs Standing Committee explaining why funds were needed for two new positions at the Performing Arts Centre.
He got a decent hearing; the Mayor is onside – Burgess was heavily involved in the Mayor’s re-election campaign.
Rick Burgess, the Mayor’s man.
Paul Sharman, who sits on the Performance Centre Board didn’t seem opposed to the addition of the two people but didn’t seem all that keen on adding the cost to the Centre’s base budget.
There was a bit of banter back and forth about a how a Centre board meeting went – Sharman seemed to think the Centre should improve their revenue and pay for the new jobs out of those funds.
Burgess didn’t want to take that kind of risk – he wanted the dollars put into the base budget now and keep them there.
From the right: Performing Arts Centre Executive Director Suzanne Haines, retiring Executive Director Brian McCurdy who did a great job; Brenda Heatherington who opened the Centre and was the first Executive Director and Ilene Elkaim chair of the board.
Suzanne Haines, coming along nicely as the Executive Director, appears to have broadened her role and is more involved in fund raising – even though there is a close to full time fund raiser on staff.
The public has yet to hear anything about what the fall program is going to look like – there hasn’t even been a hint.
Two years ago Burgess was getting a solid dressing down from this same committee when he pleaded for funds to cover the cost over runs and deficits that kept mounting. Council gave him the funds he needed then but it wasn’t a day that Burgess wants to remember.
He got the funding he needed then but the Performing Arts centre lost its Executive Director
Two Executive Director’s later and Burgess is back asking for additional funding – he wants the cost of a technician and the cost of a person to handle community engagement added to the Centre’s base budget.
Getting that additional funding isn’t going to be a slam dunk – there is far from a consensus among Council members that the Centre has earned the right to ask for additional support.
Last year was a good year – but it was not something Haines did – the good year – and it was a good year was made to happen by former Executive Director Brian McCurdy who resigned for personal reasons.
Haines is out in the community doing the networking and learning how culture works in this city and where the clout exists. She has a language of her own and talks of “animating” the place and making it more active.
There have been some small interesting changes. Haines needs time to get her footing and show what she is capable of doing. She has a supportive board and has come off a season that worked very well.
In her delegation to council Haines pointed out that curated performances grew from 30 to more than 100 and that there were 600 uses of the Centre.
The Pat Methany performance was sold out – it was the day Suzanne Haines started her job as the new Executive Director.
She said 100,000 people have bought tickets and added that in August the Centre will celebrate its 5th Anniversary.
There is a Culture Infrastructure Fund, either set up or being set up, that will have $100,000 put into it. The Gazette needs to dig into just what that fund is to be used for and which part of the cultural community will have access to it.
Royal Wood signing CD’s after the very first commercial event at the Burlington Performing Arts Centre.
The Centre people along with its supporters seem to be saying that the first four years were a time when they learned what needed to be done – and that is part of the past.
McCurdy has shown that with strong management the Centre can get by on the close to half a million it needs in the way of ongoing support.
The Centre is always going to need financial support from the tax payers.
Whether they are going to get the support they need is something council will debate today and on Thursday.
