PG Community Arts Council move gets put on hold

The Community Arts Council (CAC) was planning on moving their location from their Studio 2880 location, but last night’s (Monday) city council meeting showed that might be put on hold for a bit.

The CAC wanted to move to 1310 3rd Avenue and submitted an application through the city for the Canada Infrastructure Program back in September 2020, but found out it was denied.

Total project costs would be $5.62 million, and the grant would have covered $4.12 million of the expenses.

Councillor Brian Skakun suggested selling the old studio could lower the cost of the project.

“Selling the land there could offset some of the costs, and do we have any idea of what the land at Studio 2880 is worth right now? Because that could be a portion of the contribution for a facility downtown.”

Significant investments would need to be made at the current location of Studio 2880 to keep it in a useable state, and the city estimates that cost would be about $470,000 over the next ten years.

Mayor Lyn Hall said despite the denial of funding, the city would still look at finding something that worked.

“So we’ll see where we go in the next little while, and staff will work diligently on this, you’re absolutely right. We have a knack here in the City of Prince George to be able to tap into grant funding.”

Sean Farrell with the CAC said that the 10 month wait period to find out they were denied funding was unfortunate, but added they have other options.

“There are funding sources regionally, provincially, and federally. The Department of Canadian Heritage actually has a fund called Cultural Spaces Fund that one of the main funding components of that is creative hubs. And we’d also be looking at other sources, such as Northern Development Initiative Trust, under their Cultural Infrastructure Program.”

Farrell said a local fundraising campaign isn’t off the table either and could help get the community invested in the project.