Capital Regional District, 2000-2001
Performing Arts Facility Needs in the Capital Regional District
Victoria performing arts facilities had been the subject of innumerable studies over the years, twenty-nine of them between 1976 and 2000 on the subject of the Royal Theatre alone! Lamont Management was asked to answer a question posed by the CRD’s Performing Arts Task Force, to wit; how best to achieve a suitable large performing venue to serve the people of the Capital Regional District.
The work included updating the inventory of performing arts facilities in the CRD, meeting with stakeholders, analyzing market trends, benchmarking other Canadian municipalities, looking at demographic forecasts, and wrestling with the problem of how to meet needs with existing and/or longed for new facilities.
In the final analysis, the future looked like a single venue would not do the job in the long run, and Lamont recommended the following strategy:
make immediate minimal improvements to the Royal (at the very least, replace the seats) to end audience discomfort (summer of 2001)
simultaneously begin the process to build a new multipurpose lyric theatre/concert hall/road house (target for completion in 5 years)
rehabilitate the Royal as a concert hall after the new lyric theatre/concert hall/road house is completed, when the demand is clear (probably 10-12 years)
The report also recommended that priority be given to a new home for the Art Gallery and that a 300 (plus) seat producing theatre, and an (up to) 100 seat flexible studio space be developed.
Finally, the report recommended that the CRD establish a masterplanning exercise to create and implement a plan to develop arts facilities for the region over the next generation.
In 2001, Lamont Management was asked to develop an operating pro-forma for a performing arts centre designed to accommodate the Opera and the Symphony.
Subsequently the CRD decided it has a role to play in the development of the arts. In January 2003 the first Regional Arts Strategic Plan was published, including a section on facility planning.