The Quesnel & District Community Arts Council is once again gauging public support for a performing arts centre.
Council member Colleen Brines says it’s the first step in building a business plan for such a facility.
“Basically what we’re doing right now is just finding out from the community do you support arts and culture in Quesnel ? What does the community think ? Is it important ? Is it a value to the community ? And that’s what we’re looking for right now.”
Brines says it is an online survey. https://ca1se.voxco.com/S2/114/NCArtsImpact/
“It’s only open until the 22nd because we really want to get the information back to see how we go about promoting it.”
Brines says they’re not sure at this point how much it would cost.
A 450-seat stand alone performing arts centre was pegged at anywhere from 9.95 to 19 million dollars in a feasibility study that was done back in 2018.
Brines says this is a 40-year old dream that began back when the Rec Centre was first built back in the 80’s.
Plans have changed a bit over the years.
There was a referendum for a multi-centre that would have included a performing arts centre that was rejected and that was followed by a vision to have it built onto the rec centre.
The vision now is for a stand alone facility.
Brines says the first step is getting the results from this survey.
She says Quesnel is limited right now in what types of performances it can host.
“We’ve got lots of sports and trails and things like that, but there is no place where we can actually have presentations with the facilities needed, the lights, the sound. Correlieu is getting old and it is not that practical. The churches have been very good, but they’re not great for theatre presentations, so we need something.”
