It’s true: Barrie needs a new performing arts centre.
As is often pointed out, Barrie is probably the largest city in the country without its own large theatre. In fact, many smaller centres put the city to shame, one of them 20 minutes up Highway 11.
Sure, there’s Georgian Theatre, but it is somewhat antiquated and putting a lot of city money into a building we don’t own to bring it up to date doesn’t make a lot of sense, especially since the location also leaves a lot to be desired.
Another truth: The facility should, first and foremost, serve Barrie residents and the city’s arts community. Drawing tourists is good for the local economy, but depending on them is never a good business plan unless you are on Clifton Hill.
One final truth: It’s always good to keep your mind open to new ideas.
Which brings me to the recent memo from city staff about plans for a performing arts centre in Barrie, likely on the Dunlop Street site of the former Fisher Auditorium. More than a year ago, the city’s performing arts centre task force, after months of discussion and consultation, recommended Barrie proceed to build a complex containing a large theatre with up to 900 seats, a secondary theatre with 350 seats and a large multi-purpose room.
Join us at the Performing Arts Centre Vision Open House today & tmw from 4 to 7pm @ Peggy Hill Team CC. See the preliminary designs & provide feedback to help shape the final project! https://t.co/xPcnfcAGqv #BarrieArts pic.twitter.com/2d8WYU1xsb
— The City of Barrie (@cityofbarrie) April 19, 2023
In the memo earlier this month, staff updated the work done so far by an architectural firm hired to advance the task force’s work. Although more details will be made available at open houses — being held later today and Thursday at the Peggy Hill Team Community Centre from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. — there has been an obvious change in direction.
Say so long to the performing arts centre – which the memo calls a “tradition retail entertainment centre” – and say hello to the “community culture hub.”
In short, the new facility would have a mid-size theatre, recital hall, screening room, and arts offices along with multiple teaching and learning spaces. The idea is to offer a space to hold performances from local arts groups and touring productions while also becoming a gathering and learning place for the local arts community.
Instead of being active only on those evenings when there was something happening in the big auditorium, the facility would be, the memo says, “a place that is busy morning, noon and night, a place that provides a multiplicity of opportunities and experience” for all ages and interests.
From a taxpayer’s point of view, according to the city’s consultant, it would be less expensive both to build and operate.
The recommended change in the type of facility proposed, says the memo, is partly in response to the changing world of live performing arts. There are fewer big touring shows of the type that would fill a big theatre, and asking local groups to fill the gap is, frankly, “not achievable.”
To be fair, this isn’t a complete change in direction from what the task force recommended last year.
That group even used the term “major community hub.” Losing the big theatre, however, will be a bitter pill for some to swallow.
But as someone once sang, “you can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you just might find, you get what you need.”
Barry Ward is a veteran editor and journalist who also served on Barrie city council for 22 years. Fair Comment appears regularly on BarrieToday.
