Some of you will be aware of the October 3 meeting that Guelph Arts Council organized to get input on the proposal for a Guelph Community Arts Centre — there have been several reports on this matter in the local media (late September / early October).
We understand that City Council will be involved in a priority-setting exercise later this week, so we thought that you would be interested in hearing more about what transpired at the above-noted meeting. To that end, I have included our news release below. Also, I might add that the Guelph Arts Council Board of Directors, at its October 15 meeting, reaffirmed the Arts Council’s intent to continue to work as a faciliator for the Community Arts Centre — basically, to do what we can to help move this project forward.
As you likely know, ths is not a new idea, even though it has not been top of mind since the summer of 2003. However, given the strong needs expressed at the recent meeting, we do feel that this is the time to bring the project forward again, especially now that the current library building has apparently been ruled out as a site for either the future library or the civic musuem. Also, our earlier feasibility study did identify the current library as the preferred site for a Community Arts Centre.
On behalf of the Guelph arts community, we would respectfully ask that you keep this project in mind when you are discussing priorities, and, in particular, that your discussions about the new library main branch would be connected to the future use of the current building as a Community Arts Centre.
Guelph Arts Council