Our Future

One of the areas of concern recently identified by the PEI Cultural Sector Council of which I am a board member, was that there would be a significant shortage and drop off in professionals within the cultural industry, if we continued to neglect and address employment for those dedicated and educated in the cultural sector fields. As the numbers of our artistic professionals continue to grow in age and head for retirement, doors have been closing in terms of replacement staff, and in many instances those professions are becoming instinct simply because our youth graduate and leave this province for lack of work or the lure of work and the promise of big bucks elsewhere. It’s time we think seriously about the impact that this will have on this generation of upcoming graduates as well as our future generations.

Having community and regional ARTS Centres such as ours is our future if we are to preserve our cultural heritage and richness.

Our Centre is a non profit but sustainable corporation with a mandate for fiscal responsibility. We attain that responsibility through our tuition, our admissions to events, donations, grants directly related to programs and/or performances from the stage, as well as in house fund raising. The Centre for Performing ARTS is a Canadian registered charitable organization. We are proud of our accomplishments and look forward to a healthy vision of growth in our future. We do not receive any operating funds from government but work hard to keep ourselves sustainable through good sound business management and accountability.

Some of the goals of our initial mandate have already taken place with our School, our stage, and our soon to be unveiled Cinema, a/k/a The Screening Room. Thanks to the generosity and support from businesses and our patrons, as well as the tenacity of our students and parents in selling lobster raffle tickets, we’ve been able to secure our projector to illuminate the giant silver screen that has been preserved from yesteryear on stage creating a marriage of both new and old technology and resources. Once again, just as Bruce Yeo did back in the day, we will have the wonders of cinematic art come to life in Montague.

The common thread heard at the many Montague visionary meetings that I’ve attended was that people wanted to have wholesome family entertainment. They wanted to be able to watch movies here again Montague. I am happy to report that will be happening very soon with the launching of our Family Movie Nights, and Saturday morning cartoon shows as well as independent film makers launching the premier of their films, and hopefully one day hosting a film festal right here in Montague.

Part of our 3-5 year plan also included establishing a community radio station, and we have made application to be able to do so and are in the throws of the tedious and endless mounds of CRTC paper work. Imagine one day driving around in your car in this area, and hearing a local broadcast, and maybe even a “traffic report”, in our Eye on Montague, or local community programming being broadcast right here in the heart of our lovely town. These are not pipe dreams, they are a vision..and one that is very attainable and do able.

BUT, we cannot do it alone..it was never about ‘me” doing it alone…It just wouldn’t make sense, or be much fun. So it is with immense pride that I tell you that we have now grown to the extent, that we have formed a preliminary board to found a “regional arts center” which will include the Center for Performing ARTS, as well as the Schools of Music, Dance, and Theatre, the Screening Room, CMON-FM Radio Station, and the newest part of our organization, The Gallery which will be a full scale visual arts gallery and school for art. We hope to include such programs as community schools once again here in Montague, as well as attracting programs through the seniors college, and perhaps, to provide access and space to the Montague family of schools and surrounding communities to provide classrooms for arts programs to our students.

It is our anticipation that we will have the support of our local as well as provincial government, our business community, our civic leaders, from all over down east to come together to see this dream become a reality. It will be a collaborated effort and a dream to build a regional arts facility with nearby communities coming together in support of a common goal….that is to have ARTS well represented in a facility, down east.

Now that the first shovel has been turned for both the wellness centre and the regional high school, we hope to be the next project for this region..a partnership and marriage of the many communities down east with a sharp and keen eye toward the future. We will be complete..we will have our regional wellness center, our new regional high school, and our new regional state of the arts…Cultural Arts Center.

We intend to utilize existing infrastructure and facilities to build a state of the art theatre and facility which will be affordable, accessible, and available to not only Montague but to all the communities in Eastern PEI including our schools with educational arts programs and outreach creating a partnership of literacy through the ARTS for all ages.

We’ve just spent almost 4 years on the prototype..and proven that if we build it they would come…it’s time to take this a step forward, a giant leap forward, into the future, and into the realm of what we deserve for our cultural preservation for generations to come.

I hope you will support our endeavors and share our vision for Regional ARTS Center EAST. We are always looking for people to get involved and welcome your input as well as support.

Very truly yours,

Virginia Winter, Executive Director