This is the document that was approved at the YAS Meeting of June 24th and mentioned in the Minutes.
June 24, 2017
At the regular YAS meeting of June 24, the following two items were discussed and approved by the Membership.
1. Notice of Relationship: Yarmouth Art Society – Yarmouth Arts Regional Council
2. Motion of Support for Downtown site as the preferred location of a new Arts and Cultural Centre
Notice of Relationship:
The Yarmouth Art Society (YAS) understands that there will be a meeting between stakeholders and the Architects proposing conceptual plans for an Arts and Cultural Center at the Downtown location. We support the creation of such a centre in Yarmouth. In the past, while individual members have had an opinion the YAS itself had taken no official stand on location.
However, it has come to our attention that Arts Council is claiming that they represent artists and artisans in our community and, therefore, we collectively support a Parade Street facility. We did participate in the study done by the Arts Council when James Colbeck was President. However, we consciously said we support a new arts and cultural centre with no location implied.
At present we support th’YARC by having a Membership, running a print facility, and having a yearly show in the lobby. We do not use the facility for meetings or workshops because of time or activity conflicts and lack of appropriate space.
Using space at th’YARC (a building) does not imply that we feel we are well represented and supported by the Yarmouth Arts Regional Council (an organization). The facts are that over the years the YAS has lost control of the gallery space which is now decorated as a theater lobby, lost control of the upstairs arts room to storage, and lost representation on the Board with the Colbeck period restructuring.
In addition there are no initiatives on the part of the Council to support our Society or any consultation with us on what our needs might be. We only represent a portion of the artists and artisans in our region but we think they are in the same position of not being represented by the Arts Council.
Motion of Support:
The following motion was discussed and unanimously passed:
“The Yarmouth Art Society supports the construction of a new Arts and Cultural Centre at the Collins Downtown site.”