New performing art centre in Kelowna worth the cost: lobby group

A group of Kelowna residents are hosting an event to try to bring attention to the need for a new performing arts centre in the city.

Citizens for a New Performing Arts Centre is holding a forum at the Rotary Centre for the Arts at 7 p.m. on Nov. 13 to find out what kind of theatre the community wants.

The City of Kelowna created a Community Task Force on the Performing Arts last year that presented four recommendations to help support the arts.

Those recommendations included keeping the current Kelowna Community Theatre and finding somewhere to build a new performing arts centre.

Ballet Kelowna founder, and president of Citizens for a New Performing Arts Centre, Myles Bruckal said that the city’s task force has been meeting throughout the year and he plans to make an announcement about its progress at the event.

“We’re really trying to get the feedback from the public on what they would like to see in a theatre so that we could share that with the city and the task force,” he said.

Architects with experience in designing theatres, Robert Claiborne and Jodi James, are going to be giving presentations on some preliminary, mock-up designs to help people think about the kind of theatre Kelowna ought to have.

The new Kamloops Centre for the Arts has a projected cost of more than $150 million. Bruckal said that the Citizens for a New Performing Arts Centre did a study and found that a 1,600 seat theatre would meet Kelowna’s needs and the rough cost estimate is $110 million.

It’s still incredibly early in the planning process, but he said the goal would be to get a third of the funding from provincial and federal grants, a third from taxpayers and a third from donations, with a major donor that would get naming rights.

“We’re not at the point yet, we would certainly like to put out the word, ‘hey. is there anybody out there that is interested in naming or having some kind of recognition,’” he said. “If it’s a corporation, it’s to advertise. If it’s an individual, it might be kind of a legacy thing.”

Les Bellamy, the former president of the Canadian Home Builders’ Association and a bass player, is working to promote the group’s event.

“What are best practices for building a new theatre? What makes a great theatre a great theatre? From the logistics of where should the seats be to where should the stage be? So all of these things make a great theatre,” he said. “Get those questions going, and let’s generate some feedback, let’s generate some curiosity, and let’s make sure that this is getting into the city’s hands.”

The current Kelowna Community Theatre was built back in 1962, and Bellamy said it’s time for an upgrade.

“It’s outdated,” he said. “I think that much like the Parkinson Rec Centre no longer represented the size of our community and the opportunities of our community, the theatre doesn’t either.”

He said other venues like Prospera Place or Revelry aren’t suited for all the arts in Kelowna.

“It’s for different types of art that come into this place. Prospera Place is a very large venue. It’s hard to be intimate in that kind of a massive venue… the Revelry, and I want to be polite about this, it’s not a very nice venue. It’s definitely not intimate. It’s 100% slated towards music only. It’s a big, huge stage, sound system, light system. It’s for the music scene. And I’m glad we have it.”

Bellamy said when public projects get built they last, and it’s important that everyone gets a chance to have their say.

“These kinds of structures get built, and they’re there for generations. We want to make sure we get it right, and I think that there needs to be far more community involvement in these major decisions,” he said.