The annual budget for Barrie’s poet laureate could more than quadruple.
Sitting as infrastructure and community investment committee, city councillors approved a motion Wednesday night to increase the total yearly expenditure to $4,250 from $1,000.
It still requires general committee and city council approval, which could happen by month’s end.
Tyneisha Thomas, Barrie’s poet laureate, says the funding increase will make a difference.
“As poet laureate, one thing that’s important to me, or I feel is the best way to teach people about poetry, is by showing them,” she said. “So the additional funding allows me to hire local artists, and I also get to bring money back into Barrie by supporting our local talented people that we have right here.”
“Hopefully (the funding increase) helps with a little bit more to get more exposure,” said Deputy Mayor Robert Thomson.
This increase would involve hiking the poet laureate’s annual stipend to $2,500 from $1,000, and an additional $1,500 per year for a poetry event(s) or project(s) to be co-ordinated and led by the poet laureate and pre-approved by the city’s economic and creative development department — aligned with its goals and those of council. Eligible and pre-approved expenses would be reimbursed through the department.
There would also be as much as $250 annually in travel expenses related to kilometre reimbursement at the city rate.
City staff compared Barrie’s poet laureate spending with the similar and nearby municipalities of Collingwood, Kingston, Mississauga and Windsor, determining the annual poet laureate stipend ranges from $2,350 to $5,000. However, each of those programs has additional roles and responsibilities beyond Barrie’s current program.
Thomson’s motion that the poet laureate’s term be reduced to two years from four years was also approved by committee.
Thomas was of two minds about the reduction.
“I feel like I’m kind of blessed, as the last person to have a four-year term,” she said, “but I think it kind if allows you to work harder in a shorter period of time and it will highlight more artists, so in the time now we will have two poet laureates instead of one.
“I am happy with the four-year term I was given," Thomas added.
The two-year terms would begin in 2026.
“Changing the term will give more exposure to more people,” the deputy mayor said. “It allows the opportunity for more poet laureates to be able to expose different types of poetry, different cultures … in a shorter term.”
His motion that three city councillors replace a chief librarian, or library CEO, the poet laureate from another community and a municipal culture staff, again from another community, from the poet laureate selection committee was also approved by committee.
Common program expectations for the poet laureate are creating new, original works of one to four poems about Barrie that can be used as the city sees fit, developing and delivering poetry workshops, developing a legacy project during their term and hosting literary events.
The poet laureate is required to appear at key city events and celebrations, with a minimum of three, at the Barrie Arts Awards, National Poetry Month and Culture Days.
A brief annual report is also to be provided at the end of each year, during their term, outlining activities undertaken in the poet laureate role, such as event appearances, workshops, published works, etc.
Barrie’s poet laureate, created in 2010, serves "as a literary ambassador and champion for poetry, language and the arts and will by their presence and their public readings deepen the tone and significance of civic occasions."
Their role is writing, publishing and performing poetry, educating the public on the value of poetry and the literary arts, encouraging and celebrating other local poets and writers, and promoting literacy in all age groups.
Nominations are received every four years for poet laureate, and the outgoing poet laureate is to participate in that nomination or selection.
Bruce Meyer was Barrie’s first poet laureate, followed by Damian Lopes, Victoria Butler and Thomas.
