For just two dollars, people can become a member of the Kamloops Centre for the Arts Society.
Memberships began being sold last week to give people a way ti display their support for a new Arts building within the community. Executive Director of the Kamloops Art Gallery Margaret Crumka says “for the people that become members themselves, we’ve set up a way to communicate with you about what we’re up to. It’s a method for you to demonstrate your support in a really tangible way and sort of to be that group of people that are in the know about what’s coming up for us.”
Crumka says soon there will be a website where people can register, but in the meantime, board members will be signing people up. Crumka says it’s a demonstration that you care about the project. “We will be launching a significant fundraising effort once we have a business case in place… we, that work in the sector and have been working on the project for a long time know the value of this, but we need to be able to demonstrate that adequately.” She adds that they have had a good response through the first week.
Crumka says there are all kinds of reasons why the project that was proposed in 2015 went sideways, but this new initiative has a different feel. She believes the community realizes Kamloops is ready for more artistic activity. Having the Sagebrush be closed right at the beginning of dance season was really felt widely in the community. So we’re all hearing yes, this is going to go ahead this time, we’re not hearing as much from the people that weren’t necessarily for it in 2015.”