The group attempting to bring a professional-calibre arts centre to Jasper is looking forward to the opportunity to promote the idea more broadly in the community and it hopes to begin a feasibility study for the potential facility within the next year.

Attendance was minimal at the annual general meeting for the Jasper Performing and Visual Arts Society (JPAVAS) but with a membership of less than 30, society president Ken Walker was hardly expecting hordes of people at the Old Fire Hall. Walker, as well as the rest of the JPAVAS executive were returned to their posts by acclamation during the course of the meeting, which served to update members on the progress and direction of the group.

Since being formed last year, JPAVAS has already seen significant strides made towards the realization of its vision. Through the facility review process undertaken by the municipality, it was determined that the Old Fire Hall and the adjacent land was the preferred space for a potential arts/conference centre in Jasper. The municipality has further entered into an agreement with JPAVAS and the Jasper Artists Guild that the groups will have until 2008 to develop a plan for such a facility, with the collaboration of both the local administration and Jasper Tourism and Commerce.

“Thus far the response has been enthusiastic, and thoughtful,” said Peter Lynch, the vice-president of JPAVAS and the group’s representative on the tripartite committee that is meeting to determine how to proceed. Lynch admitted that the committee had not met often, but that the will existed to work together.

“There is a strong sense of collaboration; everyone sees a cultural centre as a sort of missing element in Jasper. It is a commonly-held goal.”

With only two years to develop a plan, Lynch said that the key next step was to create the terms of reference for a feasibility study, something that JPAVAS will try to do through communicating with its various member organizations like JAG, the film club and the historical society.

“There needs to be a wish-list of what we are proposing,” said Lynch, who travelled to the B.C. interior last year to visit arts centres in Kelowna and Vernon. The message he brought back for JPAVAS was simple: plan carefully, and think long term.

“Proper planning and execution is everything,” he said. 

Of course, the group needs to raise money, not merely for the study, but eventual construction as well.

“We’re not going to build an arts centre on bake sales and donations,” said Walker. The group is hoping to organize a “Jasper Arts Showcase” sometime in 2006 to raise money and promote the idea of an arts centre, and the group will continue to seek funding sources for the project.