The Editor,
Re. "$3.9M dry-floor sports facility gets council OK" (The Tri-City News, July 31).
Automagically. In my industry, the world of arts and entertainment, we use this word to describe the general belief of the public that the sculpture they admire, the music to which they listen or the performance they watch has come into being instantly and without any effort whatsoever.
We think it, therefore it is. The muse speaks and the message appears. Oooh, aaah.
Of course, this is a rumour we started ourselves. How could artists incite you to think, feel and dream if you were also required to watch paint dry or sit through the decidedly unharmonious sounds of a choir's vocal warm-up? Instead, we mask the false walls and ragged seams and ask you to join us in an idea made "real."
And it is precisely because artists perpetuate this myth that a very serious problem exists for them in the Tri-Cities: space. Not space to perform, not space to exhibit, but space to develop, rehearse and work.
The city of Coquitlam has more than 75 sports fields and not one building where a community theatre group can construct and rehearse on a set.
All three cities have skating rinks, swimming pools and tennis courts but no studio space where an artist can dedicate two years to creating a mixed-media masterpiece. These groups and individuals can apply for grant money to purchase equipment and materials but not rent for a place in which to use them - if there were a place to rent.
So they paint in their garages. They sing, shoulder to shoulder, on Monday nights in Sunday school classrooms. They chatter out lines of dialogue in the dead of winter in the corner of an abandoned building with no heat or running water. And then they share what they have made because, even though the make-up isn't real, the message is.
Soccer teams don't practise on the neighbour's front lawn. Ringette isn't played in condo amenities rooms. And city council doesn't hold session in the local McDonald's while the tennis players try to string a net between cars in the parking lot. These groups request and receive the facilities they need.
Arts groups deserve the same respect.
Speaking of parking lots, I hear there is one available in Coquitlam: 25,000 sq. ft. of parking lot, as a matter of fact, that will soon have a roof over it and a dry floor.
Imagine what a little creativity could do in a place like that.
When do we move in?
Krista Pavane,
Port Coquitlam
(Editor's note: Ms. Pavane is the head technician at the Evergreen Cultural Centre in Coquitlam.)
