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New Westminster to develop new arts strategy

Anvil Centre will take a front-row seat in the City of the New Westminster’s new arts strategy. Biliana Velkova, the city’s arts coordinator, said the city needs to create a new arts strategy to replace the five-year plan adopted in 2008.
Anvil Centre
Lisa Spitale, the city's chief administrative officer, says it's the "right time" for the city to develop a new arts strategy as it relates to operational efficiencies at Anvil Centre. In this Record file photo, she took a seat in the Anvil Centre theatre during a tour of the facility when it first opened.

Anvil Centre will take a front-row seat in the City of the New Westminster’s new arts strategy.

Biliana Velkova, the city’s arts coordinator, said the city needs to create a new arts strategy to replace the five-year plan adopted in 2008.

“We have built a fantastic foundation for the arts,” she said. “Now we are at a crossroads.”

Development of the new plan, which would outline goals from 2017 to 2022, would help to fill missing gaps and shortcomings in arts offerings in New Westminster.

Coun. Mary Trentadue, chair of the city’s arts commission, said the arts strategy has taken the city to a certain point, but it now needs to look deeper.

“We need to do this work now,” she said. “Three or four years from now it will be too late.”

Coun. Patrick Johnstone said this is a “really important time” for the city and the arts, noting council is working on a long-term plan for Anvil Centre and determining how to make its space as functional as it can be.

Mayor Jonathan Cote noted that finding a home for the arts was a big component of the 2008 strategy, but the city is now considering ways to make Anvil Centre as successful as possible and how to best run the facility. “To me, I think the Anvil Centre has to be a big focus of the arts strategy.”

Lisa Spitale, the city’s chief administrative officer, agreed it’s the right time for the city to move forward on a new arts strategy, as it relates to operational efficiencies of Anvil Centre, tourism and economic development and ties in to the official community plan update.

Some council members expressed concern about overburdening staff at a time when they’re working to implement the city’s strategic initiatives, updating the official community plan and planning consultation about the replacement of Canada Games Pool.

Velkova said the arts commission is excited about taking on the project.

Coun. Bill Harper said it will be “far simpler” to develop a new strategy because the city isn’t starting from scratch as it has the previous strategy and city policies to draw on.

In addition to giving staff the green light to begin work on a new arts strategy, council also added it to the list of the city’s strategic priorities for the next few years.