City councillors want Sudbury to boost arts funding

Morning North5:53Council debates art gallery funding

Several city councillors weighed in on the merits of providing grant money to the Art Gallery of Sudbury.

Several city councillors want to see the Sudbury art gallery get regular funding from the city.

Currently the gallery applies for annual arts grants and this year it received $100,000 $20,000 less than it received the year before, and $70,000 less than it requested.

The uncertain funding is making it difficult for the art gallery to finalize plans for a new $25 million downtown facility, said city councillor Jacques Barbeau, who also sits on the art gallery board.

"This year-by-year funding, and leaving the art gallery on edge, year over year, is completely unfair."

He says a location has been chosen, but details aren't public yet.

Barbeau also said the art gallery is also looking to partner with the city in another way, by looking at options of having the gallery share a building with a new city library and museum that's being planned.

The art gallery is planning to re-name itself after Group of Seven painter Franklin Carmichael in tandem with building a new gallery.

But Coun. Terry Kett said he worried that, without city funding, the opportunity might be lost.

"We can't just sit idly by and lose the Franklin Carmichael art centre, he said.

We just can't do it. Not if we want to be the leader of northeastern Ontario that we've always wanted to be."

Points North6:09Art Gallery of Sudbury gifted paintings from the Group of Seven

The Art Gallery of Sudbury received seven paintings from Franklin Carmichael's family.