MOOSOMIN — The doors open Thursday, Feb.1, and the Moosomin Visual Arts Centre already has two months' worth of activities scheduled on the calendar. What began as an idea about a year ago has come to fruition with a place to call home.
“We are officially going to be at St. Alban’s Anglican Church,” said Terry Grant, representing the centre in an update to the Moosomin Chamber of Commerce. The group also reports having secured its non-profit status thanks to the Moosomin and District Arts Council. Showing their support, the Town of Moosomin has backed the group with a three-year commitment of $150,000.
“We are currently booking classes that are going really, really well,” Grant said.
Those classes span nearly everything imaginable when it comes to creating, an inclusive atmosphere.
“It’s going to meet a need in the community,” said Moosomin Visual Arts Centre representative Kara Kinna. “It’s obviously filling a big hole and I feel like just seeing what’s happening with the calendar already, things are working. Rather than having people leave our town for classes, our hope is that we bring people to Moosomin and have this as an institution in Moosomin where people can come and access art—both local people and out-of-town people to come into town and make use of the centre.”
The excitement surrounding the centre’s opening is electric, but there’s still a lot of work ahead for the 13-member board.
“With us starting up on February 1, we’re basically full speed ahead. That said, we are a new group, so we do need to fundraise like crazy,” Kinna explained. “This is basically a six- to seven-days a week centre. It’s going to be a pretty big institution in the community.”
She noted the centre’s ‘wish list’ stands at around $87,000 worth of supplies—from paint brushes to computers. The group also presented Chamber members with more details on the centre and an outline of corporate sponsorship tiers, adding that staffing will soon be another criterion. Donations such as the kiln Dr. Kristin Foy recently gave to the centre are gladly accepted, as well as plain old honest-to-goodness cash.
“We actually have an after-school program that we’re starting right away here and we’ve already got people who are applying to be part-time staff in regards to that,” Kinna said. “We also want to have a staff member just to help basically right in the centre.”
The World-Spectator is also a drop-off location for art supply donations and has already accepted many items.
“We basically think the sky’s the limit in terms of what we can offer for visual arts programming,” Kinna concluded.
