3:58pm

It's official. As of 3:58pm, the washrooms are finished. We are having a glass of wine to toast surviving the renos. Bless Delores Mori for being the unofficial project manager for the entire month of May. She must have felt like she lived here and it was her own bathroom. There will be a string of violin players using the facilities tonight, but then tomorrow night is the official opening.

New toity and new gadget

With the addition of a couple of snazzy doorknobs, the bathrooms are finished. The exhibition "The Crooked Trees of Alticane" opens tomorrow night, and so I'm just relieved that we will in fact have a washroom to officially open at that time. Yes, I saw the word "relieved" and just left it there. It felt strange to get back into the swing of things here at installation time. We all moved a bit slower than usual, and had to ask ourselves "gee, what am I missing here?" We have a video presentation of the artist in a five-minute talk on the show. Very soon we will have the equipment to feature an audio tour as well. Exciting times!

The Long Road to Toilets

Methinks I predicted things a little too early. This morning brought a happenstance meeting with the contractor, and our new date of completion for the washrooms is May 31. Apparently the tile guy is a perfectionist (which we don't usually mind around here) and is therefore taking another full week to finish his part of the job. Looks like the June 3 opening reception truly will be the unveiling of the bathrooms. Do I hear $100 to cut the ribbon and have the first visit?

Bathroom Musings

My e-grammar needs work, but I've just started a Twitter account as SAGAcurator, so that people can follow the mysterious inner workings of the gallery. For instance, the floor and wall tile on one bathroom is complete - it looks fantastic despite being a week behind schedule. For those of you who are concerned about tearing out bathrooms in this historic building, rest assured. The design is very classic, not trendy, a little retro, with good quality hardware and fixtures. The various floor, tile, plumbing, drywall and electrical contractors have been coming and going, popping in and out in between six or seven other jobs. Bless them, they wander into the main gallery and say "gee, nice room. This used to be the library, ya know." Does this mean I can mark another visitor on the tally sheet? The smell of glue sent me fleeing last Friday, but I'll be back in the office Tuesday in preparation for the amalgamation meeting on Wednesday the 25th. I think we'll still be using the "Court-a-potty" but maybe by Friday we'll have one functioning toity. Ah, the joys of renovations.

CAGE conference

I have just returned from the Canadian Art Gallery Educators conference in Calgary. It was fantastic, not just because the case studies were inspiring and the tours of other facilities were wonderful, but because the other attendees were just an amazing group of people! There were only about 15 of us, but from big and small galleries all over Canada; Halifax, McMichael, Winnipeg, Edmonton, Burnaby... and then me - from little ol' Salmon Arm. The others were specifically educators, titled Program Managers and the like, there representing a larger staff at their home gallery. Still, I felt very welcomed and encouraged by this professional development organization. At the AGM, there was discussion on how to further extend the learning from each other, and whether symposia were the way to go (given lower attendance due to shrinking budgets all over the arts sector). But ultimately we decided that the networking and the sheer fun of getting together, talking, sharing, touring and getting inspired is worth the trip.

"Art Galleries are not eligible."

The sentence couldn't be more clear. It is the 2011 BC Gaming grant eligibility requirements on their website. I was directed there by Ursula Cowland from the Ministry. I asked her in a recent email "Hey, people keep asking me if we're getting our gaming money now that Christy Clark has announced she's returning the funding... so, are we?" Ursula replied "Well, that money has already gone where it's supposed to go, mainly to the "Family First" initiatives." It seemed promising that she then suggested I check out the new "Fairs, Festivals and Museums" section of the grant guidelines. But when I got there... "Art Galleries are not eligible." I blinked a few times and then gave up the faint hope that someday the province would find a way to fund us.

TONAC & Money

Yesterday I travelled to Kelowna for the annual Thompson Okanagan Network of Arts Councils meeting. A typical meeting, we gave our reports and noted the absence of more than half of the Arts Councils. Nice to see that the Kelowna group is getting some youth action, having done a very cool installation event in an old motel, the "Mad Hatter," in March with a bunch of UBC-O art students. The issue of the moment is how BC Arts Council distributes provincial money. Our per capita grant has been cut in half as of last year. Apparently they are putting more of that money into the performance grant (money for ACs that do a good job fulfilling their mandate). But I think it's all smoke and mirrors. When you change a formulated funding system, you can easily reduce the total and no one really notices. Except, of course, the little guy at the end of the line who wonders why they have to cut back their programs in order to survive.

Then we discussed the recent Christie Clark announcement "hey everybody! gaming grants are coming back!" Whee! Oh, wait a minute. Are we suddenly eligible again? That's how they dumped us two years ago, by changing the eligibility requirements to youth-only programs. Funny, but I can't seem to find that information. I'm not sure I'm willing to spend two weeks writing a gaming grant application only to get zero and find out we still aren't eligible. A little clarity would be nice, Premier Clark.