49 replies to this topic

[Victoria Watcher]

The Other Guise Theatre Society is a step closer this week to realizing its dream of establishing an arts hub on Johnson Street.

 

The theatre company has signed an agreement with Thrive Impact Fund that will provide up to $400,000 in flexible debt financing to establish the space at 716 Johnson St. as a performing arts venue.

 

The theatre company has been raising money to repay a $1.8-million loan it was given in 2022 when it bought the former Tomley Market building. Kate Kempton, who provided the forgivable loan to purchase the building, is now ill and has been forced to recall the loan.

 

 

“I have long had a vision for a performing arts hub in downtown Victoria and this project is finally realizing that dream. While I can’t provide the level of financial support I had intended to, I still believe this is an ideal place to give performing arts a stable home in Victoria,” said Kempton, adding she hopes local businesses and government will step in.

 

The Thrive Impact Fund invests in and supports non-profit, co-operative and for-profit social enterprises that generate social, environmental or cultural benefits.

 

Matthew Payne, artistic director of Other Guise, said they have already paid back about $550,000, and are hoping the City of Victoria will come through with a $250,000 grant from its Major Community Initiatives and Events Grant Program.

 

https://www.timescol...rts-hub-9908723

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 05 December 2024 - 08:18 AM.

[Mike K.]

Now that the City has signalled it will buy commercial real estate, a lot more opportunities are going to present themselves.

[Victoria Watcher]

A Victoria-based theatre company made great strides toward creating a new performing arts hub downtown by securing significant funding.

The project, spearheaded by Other Guise, is set to be located at 716 Johnson St. Aiming to provide performance, rehearsal, and office spaces for local artists and arts organizations, this novel initiative also seeks to address the growing demand for affordable venues in the capital region.

“It’s pretty exciting news,” said executive director Matthew Payne, after receiving the $400,000 investment from the Thrive Impact Fund.

The commitment comes at a crucial time since the theatre company has to raise $1.8 million after Kate Kempton, a social justice lawyer and primary investor, withdrew her initial loan from the project due to illness in June 2023.

Having already collected $550,000 - thanks to a $300,000 anonymous donation with contributions from the province and the city - and securing this new funding, the project now needs to raise the remaining $850,000.

Though Payne emphasized that more work remains, he is hopeful that the City of Victoria will answer his call for additional funding.

In late spring of this year, the company applied for a $250,000 Major Community Initiatives and Events Grant with the city. Their request was reviewed in August, but Victoria council referred it back to staff requesting additional details surrounding the project’s finances.

https://www.vicnews....reality-7696968

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 10 December 2024 - 12:08 AM.

[Victoria Watcher]

I don’t know. We have a “problem” with the Mac that appears to me to simply be incredibly high rental costs due to union staffing requirements.

Giving money to this low cost operator might help them set up. But why don’t we also fix the Mac?

[Blair M.]

There's absolutely nothing to fix at the Mac.

It's working exactly as a 800 seat professional theatre with professional staff anywhere in the world is required to work.

That there are arts groups who can't afford to pay the rent and labour at the Mac is simply a matter of funding, and/or ability to sell tickets to whatever show might want to put on a production there.

 

Pro Tip: The "presumably prohibitive" cost of renting the Mac has absolutely nothing to do with the union beyond the expectation that theatre professionals who have a job and work for a living, quite rightly expect to get paid.

 

I'd be happy to get into details if anybody is interested, I'm rather well informed on any and all issues related to the Mac and the Royal.

 

Matthew Payne and his Other Guise Theatre company are demonstrably brilliant local performers/producers/presenters - and that they would benefit from having their own dedicated space, available to them 24/7/365 to develop and present a wide variety of their own, and other small, local theatre companies productions is not at all unrealistic, and something that many cities would literally jump at the opportunity to support with funding, tax breaks, and the like.

 

The Mac is a 800 seat professional theatre, tasked with presenting a wide variety of performances be they local, regional, national and international - it's not a theatrical incubator intended to be permanently occupied 24/7 by small local theatre companies whose own mission doesn't match the mission of the Mac.

[Barrister]

Do we really need another theater group, funded mostly by the taxpayer in Victoria? We already have two. 

[Blair M.]

The Mac and the Royal most definitely are not theatre groups.

 

The Royal is a road house, and symphony and opera hall.

The Mac is, by definition and mandate, a regional theatre.

 

Neither the Mac or the Royal produces or creates anything, they're simply bricks and mortar buildings staffed with theatre professionals, tasked with fully supporting a wide variety of productions which originate elsewhere.

 

Companies like the Other Guise Theatre Company create, and thus require a space to create and present in.

[Barrister]

We have Langham and the Bellfry  just in Victoria. Both of which you are familiar with but just chose to ignore to advance your shameless argument for public funds. 

[Blair M.]

Being "funded by the taxpayer" is very different from receiving well deserved grants from different levels of government, by way of a thorough vetting process.

 

Langham Court and the Belfry are producing houses, and may receive grants that they apply for.

They develop, build, and produce their own shows - but neither is funded by the taxpayer.

 

I'm more than happy to have the discussion, but accusing me of presenting a "shameless argument" makes you look more than a bit desperate for traction, and really isn't at all required in a discussion such as this one, as relatively unimportant in the grand scheme of things as it is.

[Victoria Watcher]

Being "funded by the taxpayer" is very different from receiving well deserved grants from different levels of government, by way of a thorough vetting process.

 

Langham Court and the Belfry are producing houses, and may receive grants that they apply for.

They develop, build, and produce their own shows - but neither is funded by the taxpayer.

 

I'm more than happy to have the discussion, but accusing me of presenting a "shameless argument" makes you look more than a bit desperate for traction, and really isn't at all required in a discussion such as this one, as relatively unimportant in the grand scheme of things as it is.

 

I appreciate your take.  And infomation.

 

I'm just not sure how we can have a crisis at the Mac and not look at options to make it more economically feasible.

 

I love the Mac, it's a great theatre and such great, close seating.  And it's pretty.  LOVE seeing shows there.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 10 December 2024 - 09:05 AM.

[Blair M.]

What do you think would make the Mac more economically feasible?
What is the crisis as you see it?
Sincere questions.

[Victoria Watcher]

What do you think would make the Mac more economically feasible?
What is the crisis as you see it?
Sincere questions.

 

Just the usual long-running thing.

 

https://www.timescol...-venues-9799360

[Blair M.]

Remembering that reporters aren't necessarily experts on the things they report on, rather they report what they're told, or what they believe they're being told, let's look at some facts that are not intended to support any given argument, just presented as facts:

 

1. The Mayor is simply stating the reality that the City of Victoria owns the building, and is the sole funder of its operation. Despite numerous attempts over a number of years (including those by Alto herself when she was on the RMTS Board), no other municipalities in the CRD have expressed any interest whatsoever in participating in the support of this regional facility we call The Mac. This despite its continuous use by the entire CRD.
2. Alto goes on to express the reality that a regional facility should be funded regionally, and not just by the lone municipality it happens to be located in.
3. The article then speaks of a consultant hired to investigate regional arts facility funding, of which the Mac would obviously be included, but which intends to investigate all regional arts facilities.
4. The article eludes to the often misunderstood concept that small theatre groups have to either receive civic funding directly in order to cover the cost of their performance space. In a nutshell, regions that are interested in supporting their arts groups have to either give their small theatre companies funds to pay for the rent of their venue, or they have to give the venue funds directly, to be used to pay for small theatre companies rental costs.

 

In short, this isn't a crisis at the Mac at all, if anything, it's the Mac being treated as a political football.

It's ultimately the City of Victoria declaring that it will no longer accept that they will be the only funder of a regional facility that's used heavily by each and every one of the numerous municipalities that make up the CRD. 

The Mac is also a facility that see's its patrons come in from all of the varying municipalities, thus truly fitting the definition of a regional facility.

 

The Mac (and the Royal) are operated by the RMTS, on behalf of the CRD, and the participating municipalities. The RMTS doesn't own the buildings, or any of their contents - those are owned by the taxpayers in the participating municipalities. A political crisis (which is really what we're talking about) doesn't automatically translate into a crisis for, or at the Mac - nor does it imply a "crisis" that the Mac itself has any ability to fix on its own, as the RMTS is not a political operation, it's solely a management operation - and that management operation is proceeding exactly as the building owners and funders require that it proceed.

 

Could the political crisis wind up causing a complete closure of the Mac? - it certainly could, but that would have everything to do with politics, and absolutely nothing to do with the Mac or the folks that operate it on behalf of its taxpaying owners.

 

Of note too is that theatre companies like Langham Court and The Belfry own their own buildings and develop and produce their own shows. This requires an artistic staff, a vision, and a mandate put forward by the owners, which in the case of the Mac and the Royal, are the taxpayers of the participating municipalities.

Being artistic producers also opens up a multitude of avenues both regionally, provincially, and nationally for additional funding - none of which is available for stand-alone bricks and mortar facilities like the Mac (and the Royal for that matter).

Neither the Mac nor the Royal have a mandate from their owners (taxpayers) to become producing houses with a full, in-house artistic staff. That in and of itself isn't a crisis - it's just the way the owners want it to be --- until they don't.

Edited by Blair M., 10 December 2024 - 10:18 AM.

[Mike K.]

Maybe we should get out of the entertainment business entirely, as taxpayers.

[Blair M.]

Maybe we should get out of the entertainment business entirely, as taxpayers.

Always an option. Lots of non-theatre goers will support such a move too.
It usually results in a city without any functioning theatres, something the broader swath of taxpayers usually find unappealing.
Outside the privately owned theatres of Broadway and the West End, stand-alone publicly owned theatres in the remainder of the world just aren’t money-makers, and they never will be.

[Victoria Watcher]

But the vast majority of taxpayers never attend the theatre. Should they continue to fund them through taxes?

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 10 December 2024 - 11:27 AM.

[lanforod]

You can use that argument for many public amenties and events. Pools, rec centres, festivals, museums etc.

 

It's great if these could all be self sustaining, but some can't. Just because they can't, doesn't mean there isn't value in subsidizing it as taxpayers.

[Victoria Watcher]

Why should I pay for you to use a pool?

[lanforod]

Maybe you shouldn't. But if thats the change you want, you need to elect and work to get others to elect politicians who would enact that change. Good luck with that.

[Blair M.]

I don’t swim, along with thousands of other Saanich taxpayers, but my taxes support the Commonwealth Pool.

I don’t play field sports, along with throngs of others, but my taxes support numerous field facilities in Saanich.

I don’t ride a bike, but my taxes support ……….
I’ll stop.

I guess it’s more about what the metaphorical “you” want your community to look like?
Most people believe the arts in general are a good thing, and worth supporting, whether they go to the theatre or not - their kids or family might.

I personally don’t have ‘the answer’, but would rather see my tax dollars support the Mac, as opposed to a multi-million, city owned crack-house, or 100 more miles of bike lanes.
Others may feel very differently.