THE restoration of gaming grants to arts organizations in B.C. has come as a breath of fresh air for one mainstay of the North Shore cultural scene.
Presentation House Theatre is one of 39 North Vancouver organizations that will be receiving a total of $1 million in community gaming grants, announced by the province Monday. The money is their share of the $135 million in government gaming revenue that has been restored to B.C. arts and culture organizations this year.
Abrupt cuts to the funding in 2009 had left arts groups reeling.
"It was a godsend getting the gaming grant back," said Kim Selody, artistic director of Presentation House Theatre.
Before learning Presentation House would receive the $30,000 boost, Selody had been planning to cut back on his organization's plans for the season, including its production of My Mother's Story, a play based on stories sent in by North Vancouver women. The play's original concept called for eight actors to be on stage, but because of budget constraints, Selody was planning to use only four or five.
"The problem with that was it was no longer going to be as large a representative of the dynamic of the North Shore," said Selody. "It would have put the creative team in an extremely challenging place of having to decide who to put in the show or not. Do you put in the German story, or do you put in the aboriginal story?"
Cuts to arts grants in 2009 hit Presentation House hard. In 2010, the theatre faced a $50,000 deficit and received emergency funding from the City of North Vancouver. After restructuring its operations, Selody said, the theatre is now back in the black but still has to watch every penny.
Other organizations are anticipating a similar turnaround. The North Vancouver Community Arts Council will use part of its $35,000 grant to fund a music therapy program at Keith Lynn Alternative Secondary School. Feil said it's touch and go every year whether the program for at-risk kids will run.
"It's one of our most important (programs), because the students count on it," said Feil. "You don't want to offer that kind of a service and then be constantly having to take it away. It's a vulnerable demographic, and you don't want to make a commitment to them that you can't follow through on."
Both Feil and Selody said they are grateful for this year's funding, but want to see an end to the uncertainty over the gaming grants.
"For many years you could count on it," said Linda Feil, executive director of the North Vancouver Community Arts Council. "It was (an approximate) amount of money every year, and had been for 15 years, and one day we woke up and it was gone."
Other North Vancouver organizations receiving community gaming grants this year include The North Shore Chorus Society, North Vancouver Celtic Ensemble, and North Shore Theatre for Children.
