Prince George Symphony Orchestra executive director Ken Hall said he’s grateful to have city council's support.
“We don’t have concrete plans just yet,” Hall said about the Sept. 25 vote to increase city arts funding by $200,000, to be divided between four local organizations.
“One of the main things I want to be doing with it is to increase our audience development and our communications. I think that’s an area that we’re deficient in and could really stand to get someone in the office to focus on audience development and patron care and those kinds of things and be a little bit more directed about things – like letting families know about family events. And for audience development if we see someone come to a show for the first time, we don’t want to send them an email asking them to join our board. We want to send them an email that says thank you for coming please come back to this show. We think you’d like it.”
The Prince George Symphony Orchestra would like to encourage a stronger relationship to the symphony.
“We’d like to invite new people in and once they get here, take care of them and make sure they would like to come back,” Hall explained.
The conversation about the importance of arts in Prince George is shifting, he added.
“This council is recognizing that the arts is important to the fabric of this town and the future of it,” Hall said. “I think the Mayor even commented that we want to grow and one of the things we have to do to grow is to make sure we have a thriving arts community and that’s something we all agree with. We’re really grateful to see the conversation moving the way it is and really happy the city values what we do.”
It's not like the city wasn’t funding the Prince George Symphony Orchestra before, Hall was quick to say.
“But this is a huge help,” Hall said. “It will help, hopefully, to move us from struggling to keep the staff from burning out to feeling like we’re making head way.”
For information about the PGSO shows including those geared to families, more intimate shows and the big production of Sweeney Todd coming up in November visit www.pgso.com/.
When four local arts organizations came together to ask for a boost to their annual funding, city council unanimously approved an additional $200,000 on Sept. 25, 2024.
In addition to the symphony, the arts organizations taking part in the Sept. 25 delegation to council included the Community Arts Council of Prince George & District, Theatre NorthWest and the Coldsnap Music Festival.
Council voted to increase the amount they receive - it was $267,528 in 2024 - by $200,000, to be divided under the same proportions as existing funding.
