Campbell River Art Gallery may be muzzled, but community speaks out

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - The city of Campbell River intends to remove the Campbell River Art Gallery’s (CRAG) tax exemption, and will not allow the gallery to make a presentation at the October 12 council meeting where the final decision will be made.

At the September 28 meeting, Councillor Ron Kerr moved to have the CRAG’s exemption and that of the Vancouver Island Mental Health Society removed because of their ‘bad behaviour.’

There was no one available to comment when Cortes Currents phoned the Vancouver Island Mental Health Society

In an interview with Cortes Currents, Sara Lopez Assu, Executive Director of the CRAG states the city demanded the gallery tell the homeless people sleeping outside of their doors to leave.

“I have no vested interest in allowing people to sleep in our entrances,” she explained.

Assu does not intend to confront the homeless people. The RCMP advised her that it would be dangerous for gallery’s staff, who are all women, to do so. The gallery’s board of Directors told city council they are tennants of the Centennial Building, whose responsibility ends at the door.

Instead of hostility, the gallery developed relationships with the people sleeping at their door.

This includes telling them, “We need to open at 10 AM, please make sure that you’re packed up. Please don’t leave any messes for us.” 

While the city will not allow the gallery to make a presentgtion, 142 of the hundreds of letters defending it are in the correspondeance section of the October 12 meeting.

The first letter is from a woman expressed her astonishment that council is granting a 50% exemption to a golf course, while ‘stripping all of the exemptions for the two organizations that are actually being proactive in providing services and addressing solutions to help mitigate the ‘downtown issues.’

That is followed by someone writing, “I was very disappointed to read that the Campbell River Art Gallery may have their entire tax exemption removed. To deem such an important part of our community ‘a bad neighbour’ and ‘having an extreme detrimental effect on businesses and visitations downtown’ is outrageous.”

The third correspondent states, “There is a large community of artists and art supporters who are shocked at this decision. The Gallery will suffer and its existence will be jeopardized by the impact of a large tax bill. The CRAG is an incredible asset to the art and culture scene in Campbell River and surrounding area. Its importance cannot be overstated as it encourages and educates local artists, local and surrounding populations, and visitors through art exhibits, art lectures, and special events.”

In a post thanking the community for its support, the gallery alludes to coverage by the CBC, Times Colonist, and CHEK News.

It also states, “For those interested in learning more about the CRAG’s Permissive Tax Exemption loss, in the caption is a link to an interview with our Executive Director.

The link leads to her interview with Cortes Currents. https://cortescurrents.ca/campbell-river-moves-to-remove-tax-exemptions-from-the-art-gallery-and-mental-health/