Why a Creative Community Symposium?

Hello everyone,

I want to update you about all the stuff that has been happening.  You may have seen the ads or received an invite for a Creative Community Symposium at The People’s Place Library on June 29th, and wonder, “why?”.  Let me tell you the thoughts behind this.  Creating a plan for a community arts centre, should involve the community in the planning.  I have a small network of creatives, and each of them has a small network – so that is a lot of people right?  Well, not exactly, we may be missing anyone who isn’t a part of our networks, and anyone who does not follow the social media we use in a way that the algorithms will send them information.  Let me rephrase that.  It is not that we “may” miss people, we ARE missing people.

An Arts Centre designed for the community needs the community’s help in developing it.  How do we reach the community to get the conversation started?  We invite everyone to the community room in the library. I am hoping that everyone I reach, tells two friends, and they tell two friends. . .  If that mantra doesn’t evoke memories of a commercial, then I may have just aged myself.

During the symposium, we plan on collecting ideas of what our community needs.  I know what I would like to have access to, but what I want may not be what the majority of my fellow Nishers want.  For an arts community centre to be successful it has to be used and supported by the community it serves.  I hope that answers the question of why I am helping to plan this Symposium.  I may be the one writing this blog because that is what I like to do, but I am not the only one putting time and effort into this event.  I have several people working diligently alongside me.  Addy Strickland, Bec Semple, Anne Camozzi, Lee Daponte, Nancy Turniwan, and others are busy behind the scenes.

The Creative Community Symposium is just one small event that is part of a larger picture.  Getting a building is not a given at this point.  It is still just a dream.  For a dream to turn into a reality, it needs to become tangible.  At this point we don’t know if our community needs a few rooms to take classes, and a few walls to line with local art, or if it needs a stage with proper acoustics and lighting, a recording booth for our musicians, a dance studio with a wall of mirrors and a barre, a muck room with proper air filtration and cleaning stations as studio space, a kiln, or several kilns, a woodworking shop . . .  Oh, I could make a long list of all the ways to get creative.

Once there is a clearer picture of what we want, then it would be easier to plan a path towards getting it.  Part of that path started with friends gathering at my house to discuss the possibilities two years ago.  The next step is to become a more organized, recognized group.  With this in mind, AVA will become a sub-committee under Antigonish Culture Alive (ACA).  Falling under an existing organization registered with Joint Stocks with charitable status would allow AVA access to grants, funding, and support programs it otherwise would not have been eligible for. 

It may seem like a long, winding road, and it is.  As I research other arts centres, it quickly becomes apparent that not two art centres are the same just as no communities are the same.  So, we can learn from them, but we can’t copy them.  That would have been too easy.  Establishing our own community-led arts centre will be worth it.

Happy Creating,

Andy