Clearing Casa confusion
Casa an arts education facility, not a performing arts centre
City council recognized it as a top-of-the-list priority back in 2000. But today, a performing arts centre for a city of 100,000 is no closer to construction. Now a Lethbridge citizens’ group says it’s simply hoping to keep the project on the city’s to-do list. Speaking Wednesday, a spokesperson for the “Next Stage” performing arts advocacy group said it’s asking city council for a study which would recommend a plan and pinpoint a location.
“Lethbridge has always been a very vibrant arts community,” Diane King pointed out during a news media briefing. “But there is no more room for growth.”
The city’s first theatre opened in 1885, she said. By 1910 the city boasted a population of 8,000 served by a live entertainment facility with 800 seats, plus a fly tower for drama productions.
The city’s largest theatre today, the 50-year-old Yates Centre, offers fewer than 500 seats for a rapidly growing community. It’s being shut down for accessibility and mechanical upgrades, but then it’s fully booked for the next two years after reopening.
That’s why many touring performers are booking Medicine Hat instead, King said, or expecting their fans to drive to Calgary.
The city’s only additional performance venue in recent years, King added, is a “black box” seating up to 100 for music recitals at Casa. But she said Casa, with much of its space leased to the University of Lethbridge Conservatory of Music, was built as an arts education facility — not a performing arts showcase.
Some residents seem confused about the different needs, King noted. So the Next Stage group has posted several videos, “Casa Confusion” and “Capacity Conundrum” on YouTube.
But Casa provides an example of what can happen when detailed plans are ready, she said.
Because the city advanced the project to “shovel ready” stage, King explained, almost all of its $21 million cost was covered by provincial and federal grants available at that time.
“We need this project to be shovel ready,” she said, and the group’s $375,000 request to city council will allow city administration to move it to that stage.
As well as identifying a preferred size, design and building site, she added, the study should provide an operating plan so Lethbridge city council and citizens would understand its projected income and expenses.
Lethbridge’s new leisure centre will largely tap out the city’s capital investment funds for the next four years, Next Stage recognizes. After that, “We’re trying to make this a priority.”