Cornwall budget creates art and culture co-ordinator position – Standard Freeholder

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The Cornwall arts and culture centre took another step forward on Wednesday.

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Through its 2022 budget, which it adopted on Wednesday evening, Cornwall city council agreed to set aside just over $21,000 for the creation of a new full-time art and culture co-ordinator position.

Seeing as how it’s expected the position will be in late-fall, the amount approved only reflected a few months of work. It’s expected the 2023 budget request will feature the art and culture co-ordinator’s full wage — about $80,000 plus benefits.

Although the position itself wasn’t fully defined as of this week, it would entail being responsible for the operating and day-to-day management of the facility. Administration is planning to hire a candidate seven to eight months prior to the arts and culture centre opening its doors.

Jamie Fawthrop, the city’s manager of recreation and facilities, told council the tender for the construction of the art centre at 159 Pitt St. is set to be issued later this week.

“That will set us up to bring a price to council in March,” he said. “We are expecting a 14-month construction period.”

It’s estimated construction would begin in spring 2023, which would therefore see the arts and culture centre open its doors in the fall of 2024. That’s if everything goes according to plan of course.

“The plan was to have this co-ordinator hired prior to the opening of the facility, so that when it does open, it’s ready to run, with program ready to be offered,” said Fawthrop. “Ideally, we would have someone in place seven to eight months ahead of the opening.”

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Coun. Claude McIntosh said he was weary of hiring someone that soon.

Council was reassured however that if construction delays — or any delay for that matter — are encountered, the position wouldn’t be filled until a later date.

“When the Benson Centre was built, it wasn’t like we built it and all of a sudden we introduced manpower to that,” said Mark Boileau, the city’s general manager, planning, development and recreation. “We had people that were helping with the project during its construction.

“There is a learning curve there and there is a lot of programming that needs to go into it.”

The last estimate provided to council showed the construction of the art centre would cost the city about $7.3 million. Fawthrop confirmed however, that the price tag could increase, in light of construction costs going up due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Aultsville Theatre was also featured in the 2022 budget. This year, the city will contribute $277,000 to its operations, an increase of $150,000 from last year.

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