IDEA Grant program (Innovate, Develop, Experiment, Access)

Launch of a new CRD Arts grant program - looking for good IDEAs



January 19, 2011 (Victoria, BC) - The CRD Arts Committee announces the launch of the IDEA Grant program. IDEA grants (Innovate, Develop, Experiment, Access) are a new, three-year pilot program of flexible, small arts grants. Each IDEA grant will provide up to $1,000 in support of proposals that offer a potential arts impact within the CRD. IDEA grants will encourage new arts activity by supporting innovative ideas, one-time opportunities and will provide new access for organizations that are ineligible under other Arts Development programs.



“A small investment can make the difference between whether art happens or not,” said CRD Arts Committee Chair Vicki Sanders, “IDEA grants will build the arts capacity of organizations that until now we’ve been unable to support but which contribute to our communities in big ways.”



The first deadline is March 4, 2011 with a second deadline in June. Applicants must be registered not-for-profit organizations and based in one of the eight CRD municipalities that contribute to the Arts Development Service. The application form and grant guidelines are available at www.crd.bc.ca/arts.



The CRD Arts Development Service is supported by eight municipalities: Victoria, Saanich, Oak Bay, Esquimalt, Metchosin, Highlands, View Royal and Sidney. For further information please see www.crd.bc.ca/arts.

Sanders and Capek Annual Art Exhibit

I was again pleased to have a successful showing with watercolour artist, Peggy Capek at the Saanich Municipal Hall during the first three weeks of July. For the past ten years we have made this an an annual event. Peggy is well know for her children's book illustrations. I squeeze my passion for photography into my busy life as a Saanich Councillor. Prior to my being elected to Council I had been on Saanich's Arts Advisory Committee for ten years. It was a pleasure as a Councillor to be the chair of the Arts, Culture and Heritage Committee.

Saanich has a vision that recognizes the value of culture in a healthy community. It offers artists many opportunites to showcase their work. The Municipal Hall has a display case and two galleries. The newest addition is the Gallery Cafe at the Cedar Hill Recreation Centre. In April and May, Artists are showcased during B.C. Arts Week with a Arts event the Cedar Hill Recreation Centre and a month of studio tours. Early in July the community had the pleasure of a fabulous display and sale of artist's works at "Gorge on Art". This a annual event that takes place along the full length of the Gorge Waterway.

Heritage renovation, a labour of love!

Hard work pays off for heritage devotee

By Erin Cardone - Saanich News - February 06, 2008

Saanich Coun. Vicki Saunders stands in the partially finished basement of her Stan Wright Place heritage home.

Dunc Malcolm/News staff

Heritage Week highlights importance of remembering history

Despite the problems – original hardware tossed away, the price tag that tripled, graffiti on the walls and appliances – Vicki Sanders says the renovations to her 1937 family home are worth it.

Though she’s been at it for 16 months and still isn’t finished, Sanders believes the finished product will be worth the pain, when she can say she’s restored the home to its original state.

“If we didn’t have our history to learn from, where would we be,” said Sanders, a Saanich councillor and advocate for preserving historical homes.

“But we can’t save them all.”

Feb. 18-24 is Heritage Week across the province. The intent is to raise awareness of buildings and artifacts from B.C.’s past. To mark the week, Saanich is releasing walking maps that point out houses of note in the Gorge neighbourhood.

When Sanders’ parents bought their house at 3956 Stan Wright Lane, it was a holly farm. Soon after, they got rid of the holly and landscaped the yard. Through the ‘60s and ‘70s, her mother updated the interior, installing vinyl windows and linoleum floors.

When she got married, Sanders and her husband bought the old home.

“There’s a lot of sentiment there,” she said. “This was my parents’ house.”

Since Sanders began the home renos in late 2006, she’s discovered unscathed fir floors under the carpeting and a ‘30s-era medicine cabinet from the bathroom.

“We’ve been very true to getting it looking exactly as it did,” she said.

She’s had the five-and-a-half-foot-high basement lifted to an inhabitable height, repainted the exterior, replaced the windows, exposed the fir floors and revamped an old light fixture she remembers from her childhood.

Though the renos are coming along, Sanders declined to wager a guess on when the work might wrap up.

Sanders’ house is on Saanich’s Heritage Register. It’s a document originally compiled in 1991 to include 280 heritage buildings. At that time, property owners had no say over whether or not their building was put on the registery.

It was updated for the first time in 2006 to add another 56 houses and other structures.

Sanders hopes more heritage houses will be preserved and restored as time goes on.

“People have to realize if they want to do heritage, they have to be prepared,” she said, citing unexpected costs and other setbacks. Still, for Sanders, the end will justify the means.

“I’ll look back on it and say it’s been worth it.”

ecardone@saanichnews.com

Advocating for arts regionally and locally...

Cash could assist artists

March 26, 2008

Vicki Sanders takes in an exhibit by Angela Wyatt at the art gallery in the Cedar Hill Rec Centre.

Don Denton/News staff

Regional funds target lesser-known artists

Finding ways to promote and fund community artists poses a challenge for municipalities, says Vicki Sanders.

As a member of the Capital Regional District’s arts committee, Sanders said guilds and large organizations of artists are easier to find, but smaller groupings need help too.

The regional arts committee put together a plan for a three-year pilot project for community arts funding that would give community organizations the financial assistance they might need to get ahead.

“The individual artists don’t have the ability to do large funding themselves,” Sanders said.

The arts committee’s funding (the amount hasn’t been worked out yet) would be directed at all types of artists, from painters to sculptors to filmmakers and actors.

Paul Scrivener, executive director of the Victoria-based Community Arts Council, said he’d like to see that money put toward space to exhibit local artists’ work.

“In terms of funding, the city and the municipalities certainly lack facilities,” Scrivener said. “We (would like to give more) visibility to community artists as well as emerging artists.”

The council represents more than 900 artists in Victoria, Saanich, Esquimalt and Oak Bay.

“A lot of (current funding) goes toward more professional artists, but what we’re finding on the grassroots level is there’s thousands of people who participate.”

Seven municipalities in the region will contribute to the funding pot when it’s set up sometime this year, Sanders said.

Currently, the CRD’s arts budget for promoting regional arts is just shy of $2 million.

“We haven’t ironed out the details, but the concept’s there,” Sanders said. “Nothing coming out of the CRD is happening overnight.

“There’s been rumblings out in the (arts) community that nothing’s happening, (but) Saanich is encouraging these community artists. This is a first step for this program to take place.”