{"id":32327,"date":"2022-12-08T14:44:09","date_gmt":"2022-12-08T19:44:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=32327"},"modified":"2022-12-08T14:44:11","modified_gmt":"2022-12-08T19:44:11","slug":"federal-support-helps-break-down-walls-of-cultural-centre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/federal-support-helps-break-down-walls-of-cultural-centre\/","title":{"rendered":"Federal support helps break down \u201cwalls\u201d of Cultural Centre"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Left temporarily without a permanent home due to the construction of Town Square, the Aurora Cultural Centre looked for new ways to reach Aurorans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From finding alternate performance venues and gallery spaces, initiating public art projects like the Bell Box Murals, and doubling down on their livestreamed offerings, the Centre has been able to create a Cultural Centre beyond its formal walls \u2013 thanks to support from public bodies like the Federal Government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last week, before a public art installation at the Aurora Family Leisure Complex created by Metis artist Tracey-Mae Chambers, the Centre celebrated the impact of a $65,000 grant from FedDev Canada (Federal Economic Development Agency).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Aurora Cultural Centre does an amazing job and is obviously deserving of funding [but due to COVID] the organization wouldn\u2019t have been able to keep going because fundraising was down, attendance was down, and we really wanted cultural and community organizations to continue and thrive,\u201d said Aurora-Oak Ridges-Richmond Hill MP Leah Taylor Roy at the event. \u201cThey are really what makes our communities so robust.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Tourism Relief Fund, she said, got more than a return on its investment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe invest in community organizations, we invest in people, and you see the returns,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Suzanne Haines, Executive Director of the Aurora Cultural Centre, had plenty of ways this return on investment was measured. In addition to the Aurora Bell Boxes, the grant money enabled the Centre to continue its live family programming, including their Meridian Magic Carpet and Kaleidoscope Family series, free to the public. Many more ticketed performances were also live-streamed thanks to tech that was purchased with the money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere were two other really significant projects that were percolating during COVID and we felt was really important to do and be part of is what we saw in the community: one was the Constellations World Music Festival last June and brought in three world artists into Town Park for free and we had over 600 people come to that, which was unbelievable,\u201d said Ms. Haines, adding they hope to do it again. \u201cThe other was the IDEA Symposium [where] the community came into a space together for two days at the Armoury and we brought in key thought leaders from the Black community, the Indigenous community, York Pride, the business community, and we asked them to speak to the community about what is needed in terms of Inclusivity, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility. It was really an opportunity to generate conversations. What\u2019s come out of that for us at the Aurora Cultural Centre is a whole lot of learning on where we\u2019re going in the future. Everyone who was there walked away feeling like they started that conversation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFunded by this, all of that was possible. This was about bringing audiences back. It\u2019s about encouraging people to feel safe, have a conversation and to build some more bridges in the community. During the pandemic we would not have kept our doors open without the wage subsidy, without those really critical programs at a time when it was critical for us absolutely wouldn\u2019t have been possible.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From here, the Aurora Cultural Centre Board will go into a strategic planning process in 2023 that will look at many components of the future, including its place within Aurora Town Square, and increasing the Centre\u2019s presence in the community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have been able to test a lot of things and see where there\u2019s an appetite,\u201d said Ms. Haines. \u201cAurora Pops Up was a program fully funded by the Federal Government and all of those programs gave us an opportunity to do something. Can we maintain Aurora Pops Up? It\u2019s all a budgeting question because that is a free program. We need sponsors to step up, we need community to step up\u2026 At the end of the day, it\u2019s an opportunity to see what the community is interested in and they definitely loved Aurora Pops Up, they definitely loved the Bell Boxes and the public art\u2026 those are spaces that we do well and we can occupy and can respond to the community.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir
Editor
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter<\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Left temporarily without a permanent home due to the construction of Town Square, the Aurora Cultural Centre looked for new ways to reach Aurorans. From finding alternate performance venues and gallery spaces, initiating public art projects like the Bell Box Murals, and doubling down on their livestreamed offerings, the Centre has been able to create […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27,4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arts-and-culture","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-8pp","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-10 21:54:06","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32327"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32327\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}