Parksville has been selected as the host city to kick off BC Culture Days in 2024.
Organizer Pattiann Withapea hopes to hold five fun and creative events in the city and presented her plans to council’s Oct. 16 meeting. She also requested its proposed budget be considered when council looks at the 2024 municipal budget.
“This year we operated with a very minimal budget and had to scale back from the original plans, but we maximized the impact in terms of community engagement,” said Withapea. “This is a testament to the success that we achieved in the previous two years. We need the support of the City of Parksville to ensure success going into 2024.”
One proposed idea would be a community mural project to honour Truth and Reconciliation Day.
The family focused event would feature artist Adam Lewis of the We Wai Kai nation, complete with a live painting event and public participation, Withapea said. Part of the focus would be demonstrating the difference between graffiti art and vandalism.
Withapea said a similar event in Campbell River saw “awesome” public participation.
Also planned is the ever popular Exquisite Corpse collaborative art project, which involves three artists working together to paint a figure on three sections of one canvas — the twist is they can only see about an inch of what the other has done, resulting in creative results. Forty-five artists worked on 15 paintings in the last event.
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Other proposed events include a Steampunk Miniature Metal Sculpture Workshop and an Art Banner Crawl.
The total estimated budget for the events, plus administrative and advertising costs is $29,000, according to Withapea’s presentation.
“As the kickoff city, we will receive $5,000 along with all of the T-shirts, banners, signage, all of that for our opening day event,” said Withapea.
She added the caveat is Parksville organizers must match that dollar amount through public funding.
“I’d just like to request that the proposed budget for 2024 be moved forward for consideration by council for the 2024 budget,” Withapea said.
Mayor Doug O’Brien said it would be helpful for council if Withapea could provide information, along with a budget request proposal, on measures of success from previous BC Culture Days events.
“What type of attendance you had, what impact it had on our community,” said O’Brien. “If there was a paragraph to describe successful events of the past and how you measure that success.”
Parksville council will hold budget planning meetings in the spring.
The next BC Culture Days is scheduled for Sept. 20 to Oct. 13.
This was the third year Withapea has organized BC Culture Days in Parksville. She is a juried member of both the Federation of Canadian Artists and the Society of Canadian Artists.
Withapea has represented Canada twice at the Global Art Festival and recently attended the International Sculpture Symposium in India.
