Casa anniversary celebrates the value of arts and culture in the city

By Steffanie Costigan - Lethbridge Herald Local Journalism Initiative Reporter on May 16, 2023.

Casa, the city’s prestigious art centre, celebrated its 10th anniversary on the weekend, and demonstrated just how important art is to a community as it reflects values, culture and life, and helps create a sense of awareness and identity for the community.
Casa held an open house Saturday, which included tours, live studio demonstrations, class samplers, art activities, face painting for children, and an outdoor concert.
Don Reeves, an honorary member of Casa, shared the impact the facility has on the community and how the tools it offers benefit the city.
“People look at what a community has to offer if they’re moving here, or employers are looking at locating here,” Reeves said. “They look at what’s available for their employees in terms of additional facilities. Everything here when we say multidisciplinary, you’ve seen today that this building has within its walls, and a lot of people don’t understand that this is not a performing art centre, it’s a community art centre. And the depth and breadth of what’s offered here is amazing to the community.”
Since opening, Casa has, because of high demand, experienced a long waiting list for booking the facility, which, at one point, was three years long.
Darcy Logan, curator of gallery services at Casa, agreed the facility is unique, but also affordable for local artists to access.
“Casa is really unique, and I know when we were looking at similar models for the building when we were in the planning phase and looking what other municipalities had done to find a model to base it on, there was nothing like it, no multidisciplinary facilities,” Logan said. “Casa is just incredibly affordable to get all those amenities, and access pass is, you know, $200 a year, which is unheard of. We’ve tried to make it affordable so the Casa can be like an arts incubator, a place where people can learn and live and grow the arts in our community.”
An outdoor concert for the anniversary event was held in the evening and featured Oscar Lopez, a classical guitarist who played at the grand opening of Casa in 2013. Brad Gorick, operations manager of Casa, said access local artists have to the centre and their ability to spread awareness about Casa is virtually unlimited.
“I think it’s important for people to just know what the building is, what goes on in the building, and it’s a pretty good showcase of the people that are going through,” Gorick said. “And so just that they know that it’s a resource that the city has that they can access, it’s here 24/7. They can access it, they can make art, they can look at art, listen to music, dance. It’s all kind of throughout the building. So, take advantage of it.”
Funding for Casa was provided by three levels of government: $6 million by Federal Build Canada; $14.9 million by the provincial MSI program; and $200,000 by the City of Lethbridge.
Reeves said adding a performing arts centre to the facility in the future is also being considered.
“Performing Arts Centre has been on the drawing board, if I can use that term, for a while, but it’s expensive. And we don’t have the funding for it. So, we would need support from federal and provincial governments, as well as the city.”
The performing arts centre being considered would cost about $75 million, Reeves noted.

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