BCBUSINESS.Ca JUNE 2014 BCBusiness 19
probably 2016. The City gave it to us
for $1, but they're also providing $7
million to help kit out the interior we
need—it's over $13 million to do that.
We very much hope that Canadian
Heritage (Canadian Heritage is a gov-
ernment ministry) will provide $2.5
million and then we'll fundraise for
about $3.3 million between the Arts
Club and us.
How do you see Bard's role in the
local arts community?
In the ecology of theatre in Vancou-
ver and British Columbia we are,
without overstating it, a pretty impor-
tant part of it. We provide hundreds,
if not thousands of weeks of employ-
ment for a lot of people in a year. Our
actors at Bard often get contracts of
25 weeks. Most theatre companies
would off er up to fi ve weeks, possibly
eight. Look at the Vancouver Opera,
the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra.
They all get paid because they come
and play at Bard, and so on. It really
enriches the community. I think the
very existence of Bard has really
helped many cultural and artistic
institutions here in the city.
Are there any dream partnerships in
Canada that you'd like to work on?
I think a closer collaboration with the
Stratford Festival or with Soulpep-
per in Toronto, with the National
Arts Centre—those will be the sort of
relationships that we'll be seeking in
the coming months and years. It'll
be a good cross-pollination to have
those audiences see what we do in
the West, and vice versa, and for our
performers and designers and direc-
tors to work in diff erent communities
across Canada. It's good for them,
it exposes them to diff erent theatre
scenes and it just makes it all better.
•
This interview has been edited and
condensed.
The 2014 Wine Festival Bacchanalia Gala Din-
ner and Auction raised $400,000 for Bard on
the Beach. (Pictured left to right are Christopher
Gaze; Sophie Lui, Global TV anchor; and Harry
Hertscheg, Vancouver International Wine
Festival executive director.)
p14-21-Frontlines_june.indd 19 14-05-01 2:59 PM
