The Nanaimo Art Gallery has received $50,000 from the Ministry of Community, Sport and Cultural Development to renovate the Nanaimo Arts Centre under the Collaborative Spaces pilot project.
“We’re delighted to receive the investment from the Province of B.C. for renovations to the arts centre,” said Julie Bevan, Nanaimo Art Gallery executive director, in a press release.
Bevan said the money will be used to make enhancements to both the public spaces in the building and behind-the-scenes areas later this year.
The arts centre is a collaborative space used by the gallery, Vancouver Island Symphony, Crimson Coast Dance, TheatreOne and the Nanaimo Archives, said Bevan. She said the organizations have worked together in the space, located in the heart of downtown, since the 1990s.
“Our five professional arts and heritage organizations are each involved in such inspiring and impactful work and we want the spaces where we operate to be inspiring, inviting and contemporary,” she said.
The funding is part of the province’s new Creative Economy Strategy, which invests in mixed-use and flexible arts spaces in the province. The government plans to dole out a total of $1.5 million for collaborative art spaces over three years.
For more information about the strategy, please go to www.gov.bc.ca/creativeeconomy.
