How can Waterloo Region improve the arts and culture scene?
Lack of diverse nightlife and festivals seen as an issue in talent retention
Artists and cultural event promoters in Waterloo Region say they face a significant challenge in getting support for their profession from local government and the community.
Some say the problem is a lack of funding, others say it's the region's close proximity to Toronto.
Improving arts and culture here is a municipal election issue because local leaders say the scene plays an important part in attracting and retaining talented people to live, work and play here.
CBC Kitchener-Waterloo asked five people in the region who are involved in the arts scene for their ideas.
Alnoor Keshvani
Owner, Loop Clothing
"We do have absolutely amazing venues, arts and culture venues in the city. I think the challenge there, in my opinion, is the fact that their programming is geared toward the older clientele.
And I would just like to see them refresh their programming a little bit and sort of gear their stuff towards that 25 to 45 category rather than the 45+ category.
I mean if Centre in the Square for instance was to take their Electric Thursdays and put some sort of hip-hop spin on it, I think it would be absolutely incredible."
Miroki Tong
Professional performer/producer, artistic producer of Altekrea
"So some of the struggles that I go through personally is that sometimes when I'm producing a project, I have to work multiple side jobs.
So I'm either working a barista job at night, or I'm running multiple business contracts doing business development for another company, I'm working contracts somewhere else, just to try and sustain my own income, while building my own projects.
One of the other things I notice is that there is a distinct lack of private sponsorship that is available in the region. I find it particularly difficult in reaching out to businesses and asking them to support us."
David Marskell
CEO of THEMUSEUM
"I don't think we give ourselves enough credit in this community for all the cool things that are happening. I think the cities are working hard, the downtown BIAs for sure, to try to make things happen in the downtown economic development groups.
I think they don't have money, they're not going to solve this by throwing money at it, and I think the cultural organizations have to acknowledge that.
I think the cities can support us in different ways or help waive some fees, if we want to close a street for an event or what have you. But I think cultural organizations have to take some of the onus on themselves and actually create meaningful collaborations and work together. Because there's certainly some overlap and places where other organizations have better skill sets than we do here at THEMUSEUM, or maybe we have some things that could help somebody else."
Anna Beard
Arts and Culture editor, The Cord Community
"I think the biggest issue is not coming from an artist's perspective. I think it's coming from a public perception perspective. Not everybody finds value in art, which is disappointing.
It's really, really disappointing. And not everybody thinks they should have to pay for art. So then it becomes a question of how do artists make money, if you're not willing to pay? How do we support the things that we have?
Because everybody knows to have a really dynamic city, to have a city and a region that people want to live in, you have to have an arts and culture scene. There needs to be something for people to do when they leave work."
Duncan Finnigan
Hybrid filmmaker
"There's got to be space, a collaborative space for artists. There's a place in Toronto called Artscape, where all artists come and commune and share experiences and share work and so on. And I come from that similar background in Glasgow.
I used to be a part of a thing called the Glasgow Film & Video Workshop. We did a lot of filmmaking there, but there's also crossover between environmental art, disabled arts as well.
There were many things. But one of the things that we had over a 30-year span was work begets work begets work. And that was supported by the city. The city knew that it was something people really wanted. That's what people here want. People are doing their art, and are doing it in small pockets here there and everywhere.
I remember seeing a piece in the paper about incentives for startups to be here in downtown Kitchener. There should be incentives for artists like that."