Tuesday, February 7, 2017

Lights, Curtains, Funding ... as Lester Centre celebrates Year 30

It was a weekend of festivities capped by some funding
announcements for Prince Rupert's Lester Centre

The Lester Centre celebrated it's 30th Anniversary this past weekend, as the city's artistic community gathered to put on a show for area residents that highlighted the importance of the city's Arts Centre to the fabric of the city.

The near three hour celebration on Saturday night featured many of those in the community that have stepped onstage over the years taking part in a range of productions.

It all made for a night that provided a tribute on what the Lester Centre has meant to thousands of actors and musicians, as well as appreciative audiences through the three decades of entertainment in the city.

In addition to the applause from the crowd that took in Saturday night's celebration, the Lester Centre was also the focus of attention for two important community partners over the last few days.

As we outlined on the blog last week, the City of Prince Rupert announced that a new funding agreement had been reached between the City and the Lester Centre, securing stable funding for the Centre for a three year period. With City Council approving the three year contract that will direct $125,000 per year to the Arts Centre as part of the Community Enhancement Grant process.

Monday, the  Prince Rupert Port Authority joined in on the review of the celebrations of the weekend, with Port President and Chair Don Krusel, noting the importance of the facility to the North Coat.

“It would be hard to find a resident of Prince Rupert or any of our outlying communities that has not benefited from the Lester Centre for the Arts since it was established almost 30 years ago,”  ... “As a primary venue to participate in municipal affairs, enjoy the arts or actually get on stage and perform, this facility is invaluable to the thriving communities of BC’s North Coast. PRPA is pleased to support the Lester Centre Society in ensuring the Centre will be here to fulfill this role for another 30 years.”

As part of that salutation to mark thirty years, the Port also reviewed some of its financial commitment to the Lester Centre in recent times, with the Port of Prince Rupert having now delivered close to $400,000 to the facility through a number of key infrastructure investments for the facility.

The most recent item knocked off of the Lester Centre to do list was the replacement of lights and curtains for the facility, a $229,000 project which saw the Port Corporation provide funding of $114,500 towards.

More on that funding announcement from Monday can be found here.

You can review some of those previous initiatives from our Archive page dedicated towards the Port's Community Investment Fund.

The Port of Prince Rupert, is just one of a number of the city's large industrial organizations that gives back to the community through the year, in some cases providing financial assistance towards community projects that takes some of the burden off of area residents.

Updates on events that are set for the stage at the Lester Centre of the Arts can be found throughout the year on our North Coast Events page.

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