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Whistler Arts Council comes of age

It looks like Whistler is growing up. After 40 years of chasing the Olympic rings, the Games are on their way. The struggle for recognition as one of the best ski resorts in the world is over. We have made it. But while for some people it may seem that we have finally arrived, for those people focused on the arts, Whistler is still on its way.

One of the hallmarks of a truly mature community is the provision of a balance of experiences. For the past four decades – maybe even longer – the emphasis in Whistler has been on the development of outdoor recreation opportunities. With that part of the equation figured out, the focus is shifting to cultural opportunities in the community.

Whistler has always been home to a number of enthusiastic, talented artists. But it has been a challenge for those artists to receive the recognition and resources required to support a strong arts community. Now, it looks like things are changing, and a revamped, revitalized Whistler Arts Council is leading the charge. At the same time, the Whistler Arts Council is being recognized as a role model for other councils throughout B.C.

The Whistler Community Arts Council has been around for over 20 years. Since 1982, their volunteers have worked tirelessly to provide arts and culture in Whistler and Pemberton. Every year, they have organized the Children’s Art Festival, the Missoula Children’s Theatre program, exciting performance series and numerous special events. They have also supported a number of local arts organizations and they have done all this with minimal financial support and maximum effort on the part of a core group of volunteers.

Joan Richoz is one of the longest-standing members of the arts council. Over the past two decades, she has held every executive position on the council; she is currently the treasurer. Richoz says the original impetus behind the arts council was to provide children with the opportunity to work with professional artists. Beginning with the Children’s Art Festival, the council’s mandate grew over the years.

"As well as the Children’s Art Festival, we started organizing performances, art shows, author readings, the Missoula Children’s Theatre," says Richoz. "We also provided art awards and bursaries to children from Whistler and Pemberton."

One such bursary allowed a young boy from Pemberton to attend a summer camp with the National Ballet.

All this activity inevitably led to burnout. While many members of the arts council came and went, a small group of committed volunteers slogged away at the task of bringing art to a community that was more focused on moguls than music. There was never enough money, time or space for activities and, despite the arts council’s best efforts; there was a definite lack of co-ordination of cultural activities.

In addition to the arts council, there were several other groups involved in the provision of arts events over the years – Tourism Whistler, the Resort Municipality of Whistler, Intrawest and the Whistler Centre for Business and the Arts. Often one group had no idea what the other groups were doing and this led to confusion and an inefficient use of resources. Finally, in 1999, the RMOW took a bold step and commissioned a cultural planning report from a highly regarded consulting firm.

Bob Kush is the manager of program services for Parks and Recreation in the RMOW Community Services department. He is also the municipal representative on the Whistler Arts Council. With over 30 years experience in recreation and cultural programming, Kush arrived in Whistler five years ago and he soon recognized that the arts community was struggling.

"They weren’t focused," says Kush. "And the Whistler Arts Council definitely needed some help. The municipality had set aside some money for an outdoor theatre, but it was decided that it would be better spent developing a cultural plan for the community. And we wanted the arts council to take a leading role."

With the wholehearted support of the arts council, the RMOW hired Professional Environmental Recreation Consultants (PERC) and Legacy Heritage Consultants to prepare a comprehensive plan for Whistler. The background for the report included a community workshop, extensive interviews, and research comparing Whistler with other resort communities.

Brian Johnston, the president of PERC, prepared the report on Whistler. Johnston says Whistler has a number of unique opportunities and challenges in developing the arts. On the plus side, Whistler has more arts and culture organizations than other communities of its size. There are also more resources. In addition to municipal and provincial funding, the arts in Whistler are supported by entities such as Tourism Whistler, Intrawest, and Millennium Place.

"This is a double-edged sword," says Johnston. "Having all these different groups means there is the potential for people to go in many different directions. It makes it hard to co-ordinate. And because of its role as a resort, Whistler has to have a broader mandate than a typical arts council."

Johnston quickly recognized that the Whistler arts community could save money and maximize resources by co-ordinating their efforts. The key to this coordination was a central body that could act as an umbrella organization. In the PERC report, the recommendation was that the arts council becomes that body.

In his report, Johnston wrote: "Some members of the community argued that the role logically lay with the Whistler Community Arts Council, while others felt the organization lacked the professionalism and community respect necessary to this function. Others felt that the Resort Municipality, through its Parks and Recreation Department, was in a better position to fill a leadership role. This view also had its detractors, who felt that the department’s strengths lay elsewhere: in recreation, sports and facility management."

Based on his experience with other communities, Johnston supported the idea of the arts council taking a lead role. In the report, Johnston says, "This approach reflects recent thinking that governments should curb their own growth, and that they should ‘steer, not row, the boat’; that is, they should ensure that services are offered, but need not necessarily offer those services themselves."

The report came up with 16 recommendations covering everything from funding to facilities. The three specific recommendations which the municipal council opted to support were: to develop the arts council as an umbrella organization for the arts community in Whistler; to encourage Intrawest, Tourism Whistler and the RMOW to become partners in the arts council; to hire an executive director for the arts council.

At this point, the RMOW again demonstrated its strong commitment to culture. With the encouragement of Kush, the municipality agreed to provide significant funding to a re-organized arts council. They promised $95,000 per year for three years to get the arts council on the right track. After three years, the arts council is expected to be self-supporting.

An important piece of the puzzle was hiring an executive director who had the expertise and experience to pull together all of the various groups and organizations in Whistler. Enter Doti Niedermeyer. Last July, Niedermeyer was hired to undertake the challenging role of reshaping the arts council. Armed with a background in arts administration and experience with the Nelson-based West Kootenay Regional Arts Council, Niedermeyer recognized the unique and exciting challenges in Whistler.

"The Whistler arts community hasn’t really been developed compared to a place like Nelson," says Niedermeyer. "But there are lots of opportunities here because there is a real community commitment to the development of the arts. The municipality is very supportive of the arts council’s efforts and they are a major player in promoting culture in the community."

For example, while both Nelson and Whistler commissioned PERC reports on cultural development, Nelson simply shelved their report, but Whistler has undertaken to implement some of the report’s recommendations. Also, last year, Nelson city council provided a meager $2,000 to their local arts council, while Whistler’s support was nearly 50 times that amount.

Niedermeyer does acknowledge that Whistler faces some real challenges in terms of cultural development. Unlike Nelson, Whistler has no educational institutions to attract artists. And the high cost of living in Whistler makes it difficult for artists to afford to live in the community. More and more artists are moving to Pemberton or Mount Currie where they can better afford to live.

Why is the RMOW so supportive of the arts? Partially, the municipality sees the arts as an important part of being a healthy, mature community. But a large part of their enthusiasm is also inevitably driven by the desire to increase Whistler’s popularity as a destination resort. Whenever the arts are discussed, Aspen, Vail and Banff are mentioned as examples of mountain resorts that have expanded their appeal to visitors through the development of arts and culture.

Niedermeyer recognizes that the arts council has to achieve a delicate balance, meeting the needs of two very different audiences – the local residents and the tourists. "We know that the arts can drive tourism," says Niedermeyer, "but our central focus is on the local community. The role of the arts council is to advocate for the arts in Whistler, grow the arts community from the ground up, and ensure a healthy community for the arts."

Niedermeyer sees the municipality’s youth as an advantage. She has found that people in Whistler are used to change and are comfortable with making decisions quickly. But this very youth is probably the reason why Whistler’s artistic resources are so under-developed. Towns like Aspen, Vail and Banff have developed their cultural community in conjunction with their recreational resources.

In the PERC report, Johnston wrote that in Aspen: "culture was not an afterthought but rather an integral part of the community’s reason for being." Aspen has a permanent population of 5,500 people (less than half the size of Whistler), but it is home to a diverse range of arts-related services. These include: the Aspen Music Festival and School, the Aspen Ballet Company and School, the Aspen School of Theatre Arts, Aspen Theatre in the Park, the Aspen Film Fest, Janus Jazz Aspen at the Snowmass Festival, the Free Snowmass Summer of Music, the Aspen Art Museum and the Anderson Ranch Arts Center, as well as the services of over 40 private art galleries.

Vail and Banff have similarly impressive cultural offerings, but both those towns, as well as Aspen, are much older than Whistler, and it seems when it comes to the arts, age is an advantage. Bob Kush of the RMOW says Whistler is making really terrific progress.

"When I look at where we are now compared to a year ago, we have come so far," says Kush. "Changes aren’t happening as fast as some people would have liked. So far we have been taking baby steps, but we are starting to walk and soon we’ll be running."

And Whistler’s success hasn’t gone unnoticed. Jeremy Long is the assistant director of the B.C. Arts Council, the provincial body responsible for giving out the province’s share of arts funding. Long says that the Whistler Arts Council is a model for other arts councils in terms of their relationship with the municipality. And this model is going to be increasingly important as other communities in B.C. look to cultural tourism for an economic boost.

So what is the Whistler Arts Council doing these days? Well, last month they launched a new logo and a new name. The 21-year-old Whistler Community Arts Council became simply the Whistler Arts Council. Niedermeyer is quick to emphasize that they are not taking the "community" out of the arts council; they just wanted to bring the name up-to-date. And their simplified logo goes along with it.

In February, the arts council undertook to organize Celebration 2010, an extremely successful event that saw the arts council bringing together a wide range of community arts groups to put on a world-class series of performances to celebrate the Olympic bid. It was the first time that the arts council tried out their role as community arts co-ordinator and it was an unqualified success. So much so that it was decided to continue the event, regardless of the outcome of the Olympic bid process.

Obviously with the 2010 Olympics on the horizon, there are going to be plenty of opportunities for growth on the Whistler arts scene. The Olympic Cultural Legacy program has millions of dollars available to community groups to develop cultural resources. Some of the short-term and long-term recommendations in the PERC report include the creation of a public art gallery, affordable live/work space for artists, a comprehensive set of facilities for the visual, performing, and instructional arts, and the development of a Whistler School of the Arts (similar to the Banff Centre).

And what will be the role of the Whistler Arts Council over the next few years? John Richoz, who has been with the council almost since its inception, is looking forward to the future.

"We want to provide resources to the arts in the community by being more of an umbrella organization," says Richoz. "We won’t be doing so much hands-on work. Rather we will be co-ordinating other groups to put on successful events."

Then, with a chuckle, Richoz adds, "We’re going to put Whistler on the map."



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