Arts, culture and entertainment key to a vibrant city: Tom Gill
Surrey: Surrey First mayoral candidate Tom Gill outlined his team’s plans on Thursday to showcase and grow the arts, culture and entertainment in Surrey. Joined by council candidates Vera Lefranc and Narima Dela Cruz, Gill said Surrey First will create an endowment fund to kick-start plans for a world class performing arts centre, double arts and culture grants, develop a contemporary art gallery in South Surrey and use the “maker space” planned for the new Clayton Community Centre as a model for more artist work spaces across the city.
“Great cities, the ones we all admire, have a strong and vibrant creative side and Surrey is no different,” said Gill. “We have a very creative arts and cultural community in Surrey. We want to encourage that talent and see it flourish right across our city. For instance, the performing arts centre will be a creative hub for Surrey, a destination for our region and an anchor for a vibrant new entertainment district.”
Gill said he would commit $1 million annually over the next five years to an arts and culture endowment fund as a way of launching plans for the performing arts centre, including developing a detailed financial and fundraising case that would include other levels of government and local philanthropists with a passion for the arts. Gill first introduced the performing arts centre at his campaign launch.
The 1,200-seat performing arts centre would include a smaller 200-seat theatre and rehearsal space, expanded lobby for receptions, meeting space for conferences and a privately-run signature restaurant. The preliminary 240,000 sq ft concept is estimated at $245 million.
“The performing arts centre would be a catalyst for a vibrant entertainment district in and around city centre and a major attraction for those of us in Surrey as well as visitors from across the region,” explained Gill. “I’d like to see us spend the next four years pulling the business case together, finding the right partners and securing funding. There’s a lot of work to do, but I believe we can have our performing arts centre open within 10 years. But, the time to start is now.”
Council candidate Narima Dela Cruz lives in city centre and said Surrey First’s commitment to the arts comes from the genuine belief that art and culture can “transform communities” and add value to the entire city.
“The performing arts centre will be an exciting addition to our city and something everyone will enjoy,” said Dela Cruz. “When you add it to our new city hall, the growing university district and the thousands of people who are calling city centre home its easy to see why there’s such a great fit.” Mission: Save-onfoods officially opened its 19th in-store B.C. wine department at its Mission store on Thursday, September 27 at 11 a.m.
With more than 1,100 varieties of 100 per cent British Columbian wine on its shelves, Save-onfoods Mission is the latest store in the company to offer customers the convenience of picking up a high quality bottle of wine at the same place they pick up groceries since the province began allowing grocery retailers to apply for B.C. VQA licences in 2015.
“Our customers love great local products, and offering them the option of buying a madein-b.c. wine to complement their meals is just one of the ways we’re going the extra mile for our friends in Mission,” said Save-on-foods president Darrell Jones. “We are thrilled with the quality of these British Columbian wines, the comfortable shopping experience of our wine departments, and we think our customers are really going to love having this convenient option in their neighborhood grocery store.”