E.A. Rawlinson Centre: Arts Board steps out, City steps in

The Prince Albert Arts Board is handing over its share of the responsibility for the E.A. Rawlinson Centre to the City of Prince Albert’s community services department in the new year.

The Arts Board has acted as the entertainment venue’s caretaker for more than a decade, and now it is looking to focus on raising the profile of the arts community in the city. The Arts Board has been operating the E.A. Rawlinson Centre for over a decade, contracting its day-to-day management out to Star Development Corp.

For the Arts Board’s chair, Roxanne Dicke, the organization played an important role in the history of the E.A. Rawlinson Centre. Its work included finding sponsors, funding, and working with the City. But now that the building is in its 11th year, Dicke feels that it’s part of a “natural progression” for the centre to be closer to the City.

“It’s a City facility. Like Art Hauser [Centre] or Kinsmen [Arena] or any of those other facilities, it makes sense to have a direct connection with the City itself,” she said.

The City has, in past budgets, set money aside for maintenance and operational costs. With the 2015 transfer of control the budget will include programming revenues and costs. For the coming year, the E.A. Rawlinson Centre is expected to bring in $691,270 in revenues, and have expenses totalling more than $1 million.

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Operational responsibility doesn’t mean an increase in costs for the taxpayers.

Instead of the money being in separate parts of the budget for the E.A. Rawlinson Centre, it’s now consolidated in one place in the community service department’s budget. In the past, the money not set aside for operations and maintenance was provided to the Arts Board in the form of a grant, which the board put into the facility.

The budget committee has approved $242,800 in cost increases within the community services department’s budget for the E.A. Rawlinson Centre – a line on that department’s ledger that did not exist prior to the 2015 budget. It offsets a corresponding cost decrease in the grant to the Prince Albert Arts Board.

The Arts Board put in a grant request for $36,900. The budget committee agreed to set the funds aside, but whether or not it would be public will be based on the approval of the Arts Board’s business plan.

Community services director Jody Boulet has reserved comment about the transfer of responsibility until after Monday’s council meeting.

The Arts Board’s evolution

Stepping away from the E.A. Rawlinson Centre was a decision made by the Prince Albert Arts Board.

The Arts Board is looking to return to its roots.  It started out with a guild focus, bringing together representatives from different arts disciplines, Dicke said.

“In many ways, that’s what the Arts Board is returning to,” she said.

One of the reasons it made sense for the Arts Board to relinquish its reins is because it is an-all volunteer organization, and it’s a lot to ask of volunteers to run the facility, Dicke said.

“It’s absolutely going to open us up to new projects, new relationships, and hopefully we can focus on a broad spectrum of the arts.”

This transfer of responsibility, for the Arts Board, means that it is changing focus to looking at the arts as a whole in Prince Albert, Dicke said. The Arts Board is working on a civic arts policy with the City.

“Other progressive cities, of course, have such policies in place, that helps direct the city and, I guess, the citizens of the city, in terms of how we view the arts, how we embrace them, how we support them, and that kind of thing. So, we are looking at kind of a broader picture now.”

In Saskatoon, for example, the civic arts policy sets out what the different kinds of arts are and what the City’s role in fostering the arts is. Prince Albert does have a civic arts policy, which differs from Saskatoon’s in that its focus is mainly on setting out the Arts Board’s role and the nature of the City’s interaction with the board. 

Dicke explained that the new policy would provide direction and focus for the City in its decision-making. It’s in the first draft stage, and the Arts Board will be consulting with different groups in the community as it shapes the policy.

“We are a very multi-faceted city, a very diverse city, and … although we are a real sports-minded city, there’s also a very, very strong artistic and arts community here.”

tjames@panow.com

On Twitter: @thiajames