Peterborough Examiner Referrer

Artisans Centre won’t get grant

Group feeling the sting after being rejected by city

JOELLE KOVACH EXAMINER REPORTER

The administrator of the Artisans Centre, who applied for a city grant and was turned down, says she “takes umbrage” at a city councillor’s remark that some applicants submitted poorly written proposals yet expected to get money.

“Every time we apply, we always wait with bated breath … We never think it’s a shoo-in,” said Julia Szabo.

Coun. Keith Riel, who’s been on the jury that decides about community investment grants, made the remark at a committee meeting earlier this month.

Szabo said she never feels entitled: she said she thinks it’s worth applying for 100 grants, if there’s a chance one will be successful.

Now the Artisans Centre — an artist-run centre in Peterborough Square where artisans can use studio space and equipment to work, and where classes are taught to the public — is left short of money.

The centre received city grants of

$5,000 in 2021 and $9,250 in 2022, according to Szabo.

This year they applied again, she said, and weren’t recommended for funding by the jury that also includes Coun. Alex Bierk plus 11 community members.

On Monday at a city council meeting, the list of groups recommended to receive money will be up for final approval from council — and Szabo plans to speak.

The city received 25 applications for maximum $15,000 community investment grants in 2023 — up from 12, a year ago.

While all 25 met the eligibility criteria, only 20 groups are being recommended for funding.

Eight more groups received the second and third year grants under previously committed multi-year funding.

The Artisans Centre was turned down and so was The Theatre on King, which had received $15,000 last year.

Many local artists decried the lack of funding recommended for The Theatre on King, and earlier this week Coun. Alex Bierk responded by saying the city would look for “alternative” options to fund them.

If that’s possible, Szabo wonders whether the Artisan Centre could be considered too.

“We’d like to be part of that conversation,” she said. However Szabo said she doesn’t want any funding to be taken away from any other “deserving” arts group.

In the meantime she will keep applying for other grants from elsewhere, she said, although this year’s been “pretty lean” in terms of available funding.

This week an Change.org petition was posted online to urge council to save Theatre on King from the potential closure it faces for lack of city funding.

More than 1,400 people signed the The Theatre on King petition in four days. It can be viewed at bit.ly/3lKhvrU

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2023-03-24T07:00:00.0000000Z

2023-03-24T07:00:00.0000000Z

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