HRM seeks public input on Khyber Building

The Halifax Regional Municipality is asking members of the public to read a draft report on the potential operating scenarios for the Khyber Building downtown.

The historic building at 1588 Barrington St. has been the home of the Khyber Arts Society for the last 15 years. The building is owned by the municipality, which decided to review how the facility should be run.

The 82-page report, prepared by consulting firm TCI Management, is an attemptto analyze the costs and benefits of five potential scenarios for the building. They are:

• Khyber Arts Society owns and operates the property.
• HRM owns; Khyber Arts Society operates under a facility management agreement.
• HRM owns; Khyber Arts Society leases as sole tenant with a right to sublet.
• HRM owns; Khyber Arts Society becomes one of several tenants.
• HRM owns, leases with other organization; Khyber Arts Society considers moving elsewhere.

The municipality is asking people to read the report and participate in a public information session at the Bloomfield Centre in Halifax on Dec. 9, at 1 p.m. or 6:30 p.m. Surveys will be available at the sessions and must be completed and returned by the beginning of January.

The results of the survey will be incorporated into the consultants' final report to Halifax Regional Council.

Since the review process began two years ago, the Khyber has been largely unavailable to the arts society and other groups wanting to hold events at the building.

The report said approximately 28 per cent of the buildingis currently occupied by two groups, the Khyber Arts Society and the Heritage Trust of Nova Scotia, which has a limited presence throughout the week at thebuilding.

"At present the building is vastly underutilized," the report concluded.

Garry Neill Kennedy, a former chair of the Khyber Arts Society and a former president of the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design University, said waiting for the consultants' report has been hard on the society.

"The Khyber's broke. We need some support," he said. "We've been existing on events. Our two interim directors have been doing one event after another to keep the doors open.

"I think intentions are good but the tradition of public funding has not taken strong roots in Nova Scotia yet."

Colleen Wolstenholme, who currently chairs the board of the arts group, said the Khyber prefers the first scenario mentioned in TCI Management's report.

"Ultimately we would really like to be the manager of the building, and even owner of the building at some point in the future in order to provide Halifax with a sort of cutting edge centre for contemporary art of various genres like music, visual arts, cinema, video, different things, poetry," she said.