By Cathy Dobson from www.theobserver.ca The Observer
Artwalk has a reputation as the summer street party with a whole lot of volunteers and goodwill. Now it’s also the street party with a whole lot of money.
Ten years after the two-day festival started in downtown Sarnia, the Ontario Trillium Foundation has approved a grant of $130,000 over two years.
“Everything will be kicked up a notch,” said president Shawn McKnight who helped co-found Artwalk in 2002. “We’ll have more performers, a more professional stage area, more marketing, more of everything.”
Artwalk was founded as a way to lure tourists to the downtown in conjunction with a Tall Ships Festival on the waterfront. That first year was an overwhelming success with about 25 artisans demonstrating and selling their work. “It created a huge buzz in the arts community and has been incredibly well supported by the city,” said McKnight.
Over time, Artwalk grew and Christina Street had to be closed to traffic for safety reasons. A children’s village was added, street performers, musicians and an environmental component took off.
Last year, an estimated 25,000 people attended over two days.
“In the long run, the grassroots have built Artwalk and given the community a time and place to get together and celebrate the arts,” McKnight said. “It’s been working. It’s a true community builder, and now it’s going to be sustainable.”
The $130,000 grant has enabled the festival to hire downtown bookstore owner Billie Jo Gage as co-ordinator and to contract locally-owned Storyboard Solutions to do marketing and project management.
“We now have an opportunity to offer a free concert on Friday and bring in a headline act on Saturday,” said Chris Lewis of Storyboard Solutions. “We can go after more grant opportunities and pay for advertising for the first time.”
Artwalk will continue to depend on thousands of hours of volunteer time but some of the “relationship building” that brings in sponsors and makes the festival a success can be done by a paid person, said Lewis who has a professional background in event organizing.
“It feels great to see someone paid for great community work,” McKnight said. Gage, for instance, has volunteered her time to Artwalk for years and will now earn a paycheque.
“There’s always a danger of volunteer burnout and, over time, I saw that we needed funding. The Trillium grant is exactly what we needed,” McKnight said.
Artwalk 2012 takes place June 2-3. Visit www.sarniaartwalk.com for more information.
Observer Article ID# 3447780
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