The community is already applauding plans for a cultural hub in Barrie.
At Thursday evening’s public open house, a different type of performing arts centre (PAC) got a good reception.
The community cultural hub would prioritize a diverse range of uses and regular programming, rather than relying solely on a traditional retail entertainment centre model, be more widely accessible — as it would operate all day long, not just at performance time — and would feature a central commons area, a mid-size, 600-seat theatre, recital hall, screening room, multiple teaching and learning spaces, as well as arts offices.
Ruby Young’s child is an artist, a musician and involved with the Canadian Musicians Co-operative in Barrie. She says she supports the hub.
“It’s a great opportunity for the musicians living in the city,” Young told BarrieToday, mentioning it could be used for education and training, as well as performances.
And it would help downtown Barrie become more family-friendly.
“It would be nice to see something that integrates all of this together,” Young said.
Feura, who is a 20-year-old pop-rock musician, sees the possibilities of a community cultural hub.
“It would be excellent for bringing more culture to Barrie,” Feura said. “It’s a huge opportunity for Barrie to be a great place for young musicians to meet, rehearse, play.”
The city retained Hariri Pontarini Architects (HPA) to review the performing arts centre task force’s recommendations from more than a year ago — a maximum $53.1-million, 66,500-square-foot facility with 900- and 350-seat theatres, plus a 5,000-sq.-ft. multi-purpose room on the since-demolished W. A. Fisher auditorium site on Dunlop Street West.
HPA says the hub would cost less to build and operate than a PAC, or retail entertainment centre, which relies mostly on live presentations.
The Barrie Film Festival's Claudine Benoit says she prefers a theatre with 650 seats, as opposed to something larger.
“From a spectator’s perspective, you can see the performance really well in that space, but I can see the argument from both sides,” she said of a larger theatre, while supporting the hub model.
“A cultural hub makes better use of the space,” Benoit added.
Barrie resident Beverley Savill said she would like a theatre with more than 600 seats
“I would say about 800 seats,” she said. “It’s sort of shades of the (former Barrie Molson Centre),” she said of the current Sadlon Arena, which opened in 1995 with 4,200 seats instead of the 6,000 needed to attract events like the Memorial Cup or the Brier. “Why would we be short again?”
She said 800 seats would also be competitive with other cities and venues competing for outside entertainment acts, and could be used by local ones.
“A lot of the (local) groups could pull in bigger crowds if they have space for a bigger audience,” Savill said.
HPA's Siamak Hariri, a former Barrie resident, said William Moore, of MacLaren Art Centre fame, is a pioneer of what a community cultural hub could be in Barrie.
“You take your child to an art class, and then you just hang around,” he explained. “You meet someone and become friends.
“Performing arts centres are not just one thing, they are many things. It becomes a big blur," Hariri added.
Building a community cultural hub, or new performing arts centre, has not been debated by Barrie city council, which was elected last October.
But the new report says the hub would cost less to build and operate than a standard PAC.
"The capital cost of the cultural hub facility will be substantially lower, resulting in one-time savings of millions of dollars," the report says. "The net operating cost of the cultural hub will also be significantly lower than that of (the task force’s plan), resulting in annual recurring savings of hundreds of thousands of dollars."
Barrie’s 10-year capital plan includes forecasted funding for a performing arts centre with a total allocation of $36 million, with the majority of funding projected in the years 2025 to 2028. Council approves the 10-year capital budget on an annual basis, but it’s subject to change.
The city has $5 million in its theatre reserve fund, $2.5 million from each of the last two years. That amount is to go into the theatre reserve annually.
But according to the Development Charges Act, a municipality cannot collect development charges (DCs) for a performing arts centre, said Craig Millar, the city’s chief financial officer. DCs are designed to recover the capital costs associated with residential and non-residential (commercial, industrial, institutional) growth within a municipality from developers so that existing residents don’t have to foot the bill.
It’s expected the PAC or community cultural hub would be funded on a one-third basis from the feds, province and city, along with fund-raising.
HPA officials said capital and operating costs for the hub have not yet been determined and are part of the next planning stage.
A PAC or community hub would represent a significant investment in cultural and tourism amenities, the HPA report says, contributing to the revitalization of a section of the downtown core which has been identified as a focus area for downtown revitalization. It also provides a convenient connection to the future market precinct being proposed for the Barrie Transit Terminal on Maple Avenue.
The task force’s key mandate was to develop a plan to construct a modern performing arts venue in the city’s core, to replace the Georgian Theatre and Fisher auditorium.
But its recommendation — three public performance rooms with an 800- to 900-seat main theatre, 350-seat second theatre and a 5,000-sq.-ft. multi-purpose room — has been deemed too large for the Barrie market.
For a PAC to be successful, the HPA report says it should have a diversity of use, a place where something is happening every day (morning, noon and night), encouraging the community to use one or more aspects of performing arts.
The retail entertainment centre model is limited in its ability to achieve this goal because it is truly only active when a show is on, and it only caters to entertaining audiences, the report says.
So the consulting and design group recommends pursuing an alternative model — a community cultural hub — that prioritizes a diverse range of uses and regular programming, rather than relying solely on a traditional retail entertainment centre model.
Thursday’s public open house was the second of two at Peggy Hill Team Community Centre on Mapleton Avenue.
