Join the excitement of Aurora Town Square opening as Centre looks for volunteers

Excitement for the next month's Grand Opening of Aurora Town Square is mounting and the Aurora Cultural Centre is looking for fresh volunteers to share in the buzz.

The Cultural Centre is expanding its popular volunteer program as they begin to settle into their new digs in the expansion to 22 Church Street, and there is a wide variety of opportunities for people 14 to 101, says Claire Acott, Audience Services Manager for the Aurora Cultural Centre.

“There is such a sense of extreme excitement,” she says. “Volunteers are eager to be part of such an uplifting experience. The Town has put the arts front and centre in Aurora with the addition of Aurora Town Square. The Aurora Cultural Centre has been out in the community this summer at markets and community events spreading the word not only about our programming, but how community members become involved as arts volunteers.”

There are volunteer roles to suit each individual interest and range from serving as ushers at performing arts shows, to supporting children's art programs, to taking on the role of gallery ambassadors at events.

Acott joined the Aurora Cultural Centre team last year. Coming to the table with a background in front-of-house management for non-profits, she says she was looking for more opportunities closer to home and to work with an organization with like values. She found that and more with the Aurora Cultural Centre where she has been working hard to prepare for the start of the Centre's big new chapter in September.

“I hadn't been excited about re-entering the workforce post-COVID, but when I got to meet the team and Suzanne (Haines, Executive Director of the Aurora Cultural Centre) I realized very quickly that I wanted to work here with people as passionate about the arts and community as the Aurora Cultural Centre,” says Acott. “I see the value of volunteerism in different ways. There is the joy of watching a person who is eager to volunteer but is a little bit shy and maybe has never put themselves in a position where they are engaging with the public. Our volunteers find this confidence and this joy that is priceless to me. It is just watching people find their calling or their joy again in a field that maybe they have never tried before.

“On the other side of it is the passion that our volunteer team brings to the table that elevates the experience for everyone involved, in whatever kind of cultural program they are engaging with. They are eager to learn, they are eager to share that knowledge with the public and they feel tremendously grateful to be part of something so exciting.”

The Centre, she adds, “loves the opportunity to foster and give students especially” the chance to try out new fields they might be interested in pursuing in the future.

“Within our education, they can kind of see how they feel working with students and with our campers at March Break or at summer camps. In our gallery, there is a really lovely opportunity to become educated on the different exhibitions we will be bringing in. The opportunity we're currently developing is a Gallery Ambassador Tour Volunteer. They would have the opportunity to work closely with our Gallery Manager, Samantha Jones, and Assistant Adora to learn about current exhibitions or the upcoming exhibition and be able to, when members of the public want to learn more, they can be empowered to share information. To me, that is a really interesting and awesome way to engage with actual artists we continue to expose the public to within our spaces.”

For more information on the new volunteer program, and to register and log your areas of interest, visit auroraculturalcentre.ca/volunteer/volunteer-at-town-square.

By Brock Weir