Kelowna city council has approved a total of $180,000 in operating and project grants for 35 local non-profit arts, culture and heritage groups and $95,000 for three professional arts groups.
The money for the non-profit groups, funded through the city’s recreation and cultural services department and adjuducated by the Central Okanagan Foundation for the the city, helps the groups with with day-to-day operating costs and the cost of staging events such as festivals and other projects that focus on arts, culture and heritage.
Of the $180,000 total for the non-profit groups, $110,000 will be divided among 18 groups for operating, with the largest amounts going to the Okanagan Heritage Society ($12,000), and $10,000 each to Bumbershoot Children’s Theatre, the Okanagan Historical Society and the Theatre Kelowna Society.
Cultural services manager Sandra Kochan said this year three new groups are being included in the grant distribution, Centre Culturel Francophone de L’Okanagan ($6,000), the Okanagan Chinese Canadian Association ($5,000) and the Society of Friends of the Early Music School ($2,000).
This year $70,000 is being distributed to 17 organizations for project funding, with a maximum grant not exceeding $10,000. The three biggest were grants this year are $9,000 each for the Kelowna Art Gallery’s From Vault to Virtual, a project to digitize the gallery’s photographic collection, the Intercultural Society of the Central Okanagan for its Global Music Fest this month and the UBC0 creative studies department’s eco-art workshop for 12 to 15 local arts to work with a world-renowned eco-art curator.
All programming funds must be matched by another body.
Included in the 17 program grant recipients are nine first-time recipients, said Kochan.
“The grants show a good cross section of the community,” she said.
In addition to the grants for the non-profit groups, city council also approved $95,000 for three professional arts groups, $50,000 for the Okanagan Symphony Society, $25,000 for the Kelowna Ballet Society (Ballet Kelowna) and $20,000 for the Okanagan Artists Alternative Association (Alternator Centre for Contempory Art).
All there have received the same grants since 2008.
These are huge resources for a community our size,” Kochan told council Monday.
She noted that the city money accounts for just five per cent of Ballet Kelowna’s annual funding.
Acting mayor Like Stake noted that despite the city recently cutting back on spending in several areasin its recent provisional budget, this year the city has not cut back on its arts, cultural and heritage grants.
2012 Arts, Cultural and Heritage Grants recipients
Operating Grants recipients
BC Old Time Fiddlers Association Branch 7 $3,000
Bumbershoot Children’s Theatre $10,000
Central Okanagan Heritage Society $12,000
Centre Culturel Francophone de l’Okanagan $6,000 (first time recipient)
Chamber Music Kelowna $9,000
Cool Arts Society $6,000
Dolyna Ukrainian Cultural Society $1,000
Kelowna City Concert Band $6,000
Kelowna community Music School $6,000
Kiwanis Music Festival Society $7,500
Okanagan Chinese Canadian Association $5,000 (first time recipient)
Okanagan Choral Society $800
Okanagan Festival Singers $5,000
Okanagan Historical Society $10,000
Ponderosa Spinners & Weavers $1,000
Society of Friends of the Early Music Studio $2,000 (first time recipient)
Theatre Kelowna Society $10,000
Viva Music Society $9,700
Project Grants recipients
Arts Council of the Central Okanagan $5,000 (first time recipient)
Central Okanagan Heritage Society $2,000 (first time recipient)
Centre Culturel Francophone de l’Okanagan $3,500 (first time recipient)
Cool Arts Society $1,012
Intercultural Society of the Central Okanagan $9,000
Kelowna Art Gallery $9,000 (first time recipient)
Kelowna Ballet Society $2,638
Kelowna Community Music School $1,000
Kelowna Kasugai Sister City Association $2,000 (first time recipient)
Kelowna Museums Society $8,750 (first time recipient)
Kelowna South-Central Association of $1,700 (first time recipient)
Neighbourhoods
Ki-Low-Na Friendship Society $5,000
Society of Independent Filmmaking $900
Okanagan Symphony Orchestra $3,000
Orchard Valley Quilters’ Guild $4,500 (first time recipient)
UBC-O Creative Studies $9,000 (first time recipient)
Uptown Rutland Association $2,000
Professional Arts Grants recipients
Alternator Centre for Contemporary Art $20,000
Ballet Kelowna $25,000
Okanagan Symphony Society $50,000
