Twenty-five organizations on the upper and lower Sunshine Coast will share over $700,000 in provincial funding through B.C. Arts Council (BCAC) 2024/25 grants. Across the province, more than $37 million in funding was distributed to 1,303 arts organizations, events and artists.
Locally, program funding was provided through the council’s Accelerate, Arts Circulation and Touring, Arts Impact, and Arts Infrastructure streams. The largest single award announced,for Sunshine Coast recipients, $125,000,went to the Gibsons Public Art Gallery. The Sunshine Coast Arts Council is to receive two contributions totalling $34,570 from those sources and there was also an award of $6,000 to Coast Recital Society.
Deer Crossing The Art Farm was granted money under two BCAC programs. From the Arts-Based Community Development and Leon and Thea Koerner Award $30,000 is to be provided to the Gibsons-based group. Under BCAC’s Project Assistance: Professional Performing Arts Organizations classification, $25,000 was awarded.
Other local groups that received operating and project assistance included book publishers Nightwood Editions and Harbour Publishing which were granted $44,000 and $64,250 respectively.
For the Sunshine Coast Arts Council, an operating grant of $20,430 and community arts festival program assistance of $9,000 were approved.
The Sunshine Coast Festival of the Written Arts was awarded operating assistance of $36,500.
In a July 16 provincial government news release, area MLA Randene Neill stated, “Powell River- Sunshine Coast is known around the world for its vibrant, talented arts community. By providing funding for the arts, we are creating opportunities for visitors and residents alike to come together, whether at a gallery, a concert, a book launch or a musical, and enjoy what makes their community great.”
That document noted that BCAC, an agency of the provincial government, “nurtures and supports arts and cultural activity in communities throughout B.C.”. It administers provincial funding to community arts in rural and urban centres, individual artists, professional performing arts companies, Indigenous artists and cultural organizations, art galleries, local museums and music festivals, supporting a range of activities while engaging with artists and communities to inform policies and programs.
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