‘Nothing artsy fartsy about the arts centre’

COFFEE WITH THE ARMCHAIR MAYOR — Ray Chatelin is a long-time journalist and a straight-shooter, two reasons I enjoy talking with him. Sometimes, we agree, sometimes not.

Ray is on the City’s arts commission, so I wanted to hear his thoughts on the mini-controversy surrounding plans for a performing arts theatre. Kamloops has been talking about a performing arts theatre for probably 20 years, and it’s been in the City’s official arts and culture plan for more than half that time.

At the moment, council is wrestling with a proposal from staff to approve $260,000 in studies that would, over the next couple of years, make the plan referendum-ready. Some on council are nervous about the cost — it’s an election year, after all.

The first thing I asked Ray when we sat down for CBC Daybreak Kamloops’ Coffee With the Armchair Mayor, which ran today, was whether we really need a new arts centre, since that seems to be under question right now.

His answer was, as I expected, yes. “People don’t understand that the current facility we use (Sagebrush Theatre) for most of our performances is not owned by the City. It’s owned by the school board.”

And it just can’t handle the demand for all the different types of concerts, he said. “It’s not an artsy fartsy proposal,” he said of plans for the new centre, reminding me of the big turnout for a public workshop on the concept almost exactly a year ago.

He said the same concerns about need and cost came up during public discussion of what is now the Interior Savings Centre, and the Tournament Capital Centre. And nobody questions their value to the community now.

I suggested to Ray that there’s more to public facilities than the specific purposes for which they’re built. They define who we are as a community.

He agreed. “It’s a lifestyle as much as a performing arts theatre.”

When I asked about the study money, he acknowledged it’s expensive to plan for new public facilities. “You can’t just go ahead and buy a pie-in-the-sky facility. We have to know the facts. And it costs money.”

His guess on when we might actually achieve the goal of a new arts centre? “Three to five years.”

That would be nice.