Monday December 18, 2023 | LANGFORD, BC
by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends
Over $18.2 million in new provincial funding for the April through September 2023 period is being disbursed to over 650 organizations to support arts and culture across the province. Those details were provided in a news release last week by the Ministry of Municipal Affairs.
West shore focus:
Over $440,000 or about 2.4% of the provincial total is going to organizations based or operational in the west shore region which includes Colwood, Langford, and Sooke.
Local organizations and parent advisory councils will be able to support young artists and extracurricular activities thanks to over $440,000 in Community Gaming Grants funding, say two local MLAs: Mitzi Dean (Esquimalt-Metchosin) and Ravi Parmar (Langford-Juan de Fuca).
This round of funding is from two streams of the Community Gaming Grants program:
- arts and culture; and
- parent advisory council and district parent advisory council (PAC/DPAC).
Arts funding:
In the Westshore, Dean and Parmar report that as 12 organizations receiving over $175,000 in funding to support arts and culture (this list tallies to $153,600):
- Victoria On Stage Musical Theatre Society, $68,000
- The Sooke Philharmonic Society, $19,000
- Amber Academy Youth Fine Arts Society, $17,500
- Sooke River Bluegrass Festival Society, $13,200
- Sooke Fine Arts Society, $11,400
- West Shore Arts Council (Langford), $9,000
- Arts and Culture Colwood Society, $6,500
- Choral Evolution Society (Sooke), $5,000
- Sooke Community Choir, $4,000
“Community Gaming Grants help support the people in our communities whose dedicated service helps improve lives,” said Mitzi Dean, MLA (Esquimalt-Metchosin). “This round of funding for arts and culture organizations and Parent Advisory Councils helps them deliver activities, events and services that bring people together.”
Importance of arts and culture:
Arts groups are considered to be important lynch pins for community activity and well-being.
“Through Community Gaming Grants, the Province is helping organizations like Arts Umbrella to reach more people through their work,” said Anne Kang, Minister of Municipal Affairs.
“From arts and literature to festivals and museums, B.C. has a thriving arts-and-culture sector that keeps our communities vibrant and healthy. These grants are helping organizations to keep costs down for art students, museum visitors, festival-goers and anybody participating in arts-and-culture activities,” said Kang in a December 15, 2023 news release.
Parent council funding:
For years, parent councils have had to do their own fundraising for a wide range of things that were shortfalls in the public education system.
Now the PACs and DPACs will receive over $11.2 million to support extracurricular activities.
There are about 1,300 parent/district school advisory councils in BC. Of those, in the west shore region, 30 are now receiving over $260,000 in funding to support extracurricular events, activities and equipment (about 2.3% of the provincial grant total for PACs), including:
- Royal Bay Secondary School Parent’s Advisory Council, $30,080
- Edward Milne Community School Parent Advisory Council, $14,160
- Association des parents de l’ecole Victor Brodeur, $12,280
- Ecole Poirier Elementary School PAC, $8,060
“As an MLA and former chair of the Sooke School District, I have had a front row seat to how our arts and culture organizations serve people from all walks of life, including young learners supported by dedicated PACs and DPACs,” said Ravi Parmar, MLA (Langford-Juan de Fuca).
“Providing these groups with financial support ensures a diverse range of people benefit from their work,” says Parmar.
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ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT | EDUCATION
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===== ABOUT THE WRITER:
Mary P Brooke is the editor and publisher of Island Social Trends. She was a PAC vice-president when schools were impacted by the previous provincial government; fund raising was needed for a wide range of things.
Years ago when her own children were in K-12, Ms Brooke organized parents at Margaret Jenkins Elementary (SD61) to get a sidewalk built in 2006, and also at John Muir Elementary (SD62) in 2007-2008 to get a parent parking lot built — both for the safety of children and families.
Mary P Brooke ran for school trustee in Sooke School District 62 (SD62) in October 2022 (Belmont Zone / west shore), with a focus on parent involvement in curriculum, and on food security.
Island Social Trends has been a Platinum sponsor of the Sooke Fine Arts Show since 2017. Mary Brooke also now provides community leadership in urban food resilience.