Last week the board of directors of the Gibsons Landing Fibre Arts Festival reluctantly announced the cancellation of the 2011 festival. Though the 2010 edition, running Aug. 19 to 21, will go ahead as planned, directors were suffering from a lack of new, committed volunteers to take the event into next year.
Out of the 11 board members who organize the highly successful festival, nine will be stepping down this year.
"Of course we hope the festival will continue," said current board chair Janet Genders. "We're not tired of it - we're just tired."
Genders, Noreen Tretick, who is a founder and workshop organizer, and treasurer Kathy Conroy met with Coast Reporter last week to express their sadness about the end of the festival. They are clear the festival is a financially-viable operation and that the loss of gaming funds this year that has plagued many arts organizations is frustrating, but it is not the cause of its potential demise.
"It exacerbates the situation," said Genders, adding gaming funds were used to employ an administrative assistant. "It put a cramp in it, but would not have stopped it."
All three board members are adamant the reasons for calling off 2011 are due to lack of volunteer directors to run it.
Most of the current members have served for many years. Tretick, as a founder along with the late Louise Hume, started working on its behalf in the year preceding the first festival - a total of 12 years service.
"I've had sleepless nights over this," said Tretick. "There's no solution except trying to find others to step forward. As we sit now, we cannot put on 2011."
Conroy said they have no problem finding volunteers to fill every shift while the festival is on, but it's a year-round job. The board positions work on a 15-month time line for organizing their current format: workshops, trade show, exhibition, Landing festivities, artisan market and demonstrations.
Detailed organization is required, instructor and venue contracts must be in place by the fall, and promotion begins in the spring. Building the infrastructure, both in the park and at Elphinstone Secondary School, demands a huge physical effort from directors and volunteers.
It might be possible, they suggest, that a smaller event could take place in 2011, or that the festivities in the Landing, for example, could continue as its own event with the help of volunteer organizers, with the hopes the festival would return in 2012 under new leadership.
Directors urge that if anyone has ideas or proposals for how it could continue to please approach the board. (www.gibsonslandingfibrearts.com) They also invite interested people to take on the commitment. Directors stress that you don't have to be a fibre artisan yourself - just be good at organization.
