City of Kelowna, 1997
Management study for Community Theatre
The City of Kelowna has been operating the Kelowna Community Theatre for 35 years. Built in
partnership by the City and the community at large (individual citizens raised much of the capital),
the community continued to feel a powerful sense of ownership of the building. The City had grown
rapidly over the past decade. Wanting to determine how the Theatre might be a cornerstone of the
developing cultural district and a force for cultural tourism, the City called for a study to suggest
how the Theatre might be managed to achieve these goals and engaged Lamont Management to undertake it.
Analysis of population growth and tourism traffic indicated a good opportunity for audience growth.
A review of the Theatre's operations and consultations with user groups revealed a facility which,
while used often at relatively low cost to the City, had no operating methods or policies in place to
develop its business. The Theatre was operated within the Leisure Services Department by union staff
taking direction from a number of City management personnel. There was no designated Theatre Manager,
no mission statement or mandate, no articulated objectives for the Theatre beyond "cost recovery".
The Theatre's physical appearance was decidedly un-theatrical. No lights, posters or signage
proclaimed it a theatre.
Lamont recommended a three point strategy to position the Theatre to become a gateway to the Cultural
District and a leader in tourism development. The first was to develop a new mission for the Theatre
based on developing and promoting the arts in the community, serving the community's artists,
audiences and citizens, and operating efficiently, proactively and responsively. The second
recommendation was to give the Theatre the mandate and the resources to operate as an integrated
business unit dedicated to quality service to audiences, clients and performing artists. To make
this recommendation work, we said the Theatre must have a manager empowered to manage, market and
promote the theatre. Finally we recommended that the Theatre's physical image be upgraded to identify
it as the premier cultural facility in the Cultural District. Kelowna City Council accepted the
recommendations and engaged a manager for the Kelowna Community Theatre to give effect to them.