City councillors will have to figure out what they want the city’s role in the local arts and culture scene to be before Kitchener’s symphony and leading performance venue can start patching up their differences, a consultant says.
Duncan Webb of Webb Management Services presented his 90-page report to councillors Monday.
The report examines the Centre in the Square, the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony, and the “paralyzed” relationship between the two sides, which deteriorated last fall when they sparred over “calendar control” at CITS.
It recommends a number of measures each side can take to begin repairing the relationship – something both the symphony and the venue have said they want to do – but speaking to councillors, Webb said the city would have to make up its mind first.
“You own this building,” he said of CITS.
“It’s up to you to decide what you want it to do for your community and your taxpayers.”
Councillors voted to work with CITS on re-examining its mission and mandate, to look at reducing the complement of councillors on the CITS board from three to one, and to bring in an independent facilitator to mediate the scheduling issues.
Both sides will likely need to compromise to resolve those issues, Webb said.
Marcus Shantz, the chair of the Centre in the Square board, said the issues were indicative of larger trends in the arts and culture industry.
“I believe that these tensions exist because both organizations believe that they are competing for scarce resources,” he said.
Also suggested in the report is that the symphony return its base of operations to Centre in the Square.
