At the last Council meeting (Feb 7) Airdrie City Council was brought forward a presentation in support of creating a new ad hoc arts committee (ad hoc is a committee that is formed for a specific reason). 

Jennifer Lutz, Team Leader of Community Development for the City, says now is the time to create the committee. 

“It's a good time to take a look at how we're representing the arts community and culture. That was really the genesis for this report.” Lutz continued on, “We feel, with the level of activity in the last couple of years, that we need to revitalize arts in Airdrie and rebuild allies and local leadership.” 

Lutz and her team suggest a collaborative process to create a safe, effective, and efficient environment where stakeholders can strengthen relationships, build trust, and are comfortable sharing their hopes, fears, and ideas at the table. 

“What the Community Development Team is proposing, is the formation of an ad hoc arts assessment committee. This would be interim, it's a working group comprised of art culture and heritage subject matter experts who would assess the design and provide recommendations to the Council on an appropriate supporting structure.” 

Lutz says, if the City Council chooses to accept their recommendation, they are looking for members. They would be looking for public members based on their knowledge of Arts or their expertise, or profound interest in contributions to art. 

“We are requesting a one-time budget request for 2022 of $35,000. We feel that neutral facilitation is important to this process. A lot of that money would be to support facilitation, marketing, hosting costs, meetings, recording, and the committee.” 

According to Lutz, this would be a working group that would have a start date and end date with the expectation that they would bring back recommendations to Community Services Advisory Board (CSAP) and Council with a midterm check-in on building a future structure.

After a couple more questions, Airdrie City Council decided to endorse the idea of a new ad hoc arts committee and the budget request of $35,000 dollars. 

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