After 16 months of behind-the-scenes work, the group wanting to bring a dedicated performing arts centre to Haliburton County is ready to go public with a freshly-refined plan – and it wants to hear from people, again, on what they want in a new space.
The Haliburton Highlands Arts Centre Foundation (HHACF) is holding a public open house at Pinestone Resort today, Oct. 30, from 5 to 7 p.m. and board member, Beth Kipping, said there’s lots of “exciting information” to unpack with the community.
It’s been almost three years since HHACF presented results from a feasibility study that suggested the Highlands community could sustain a 400-seat arts facility. Tabled in November 2022, the project was pegged at about $48 million for a theatre space, rehearsal hall, professional backstage facilities, front of house lobby with concessions, office space for theatre management, and music studios.
“When this was presented and the price tag came out, everything went hush in the room. So, we had to start figuring out a way to have a facility that fulfills our wishes and needs up here but try to bring the price down as much as possible,” Kipping said. “We don’t need the most glamorous building on earth.”
Kipping said HHACF’s latest proposal is for a $30-35 million build. If all goes to plan, it will be located on a 14-acre parcel on Wonderland Road, near the intersection to County Road 21, that Dysart et al township sold to the group for $1 in June 2024.
It’s been all-hands-on-deck for HHACF since then, Kipping said. She estimates the group has spent about $200,000 on the feasibility study, various public engagements and communication plans, preliminary site plan, and environmental and traffic studies.
The next step, she said, is formally submitting a zoning bylaw amendment with the township.
Talks with the municipality have gone well so far, Kipping said – with HHACF making a commitment last month to have shovels in the ground by summer 2030.
“It’s an exciting time – we’ll get a sense of how the public feels at the open house… then, over the next few months, we’ll be having meetings and interviews with our stakeholders to review what they want in a performing arts centre, so that we’re all totally on the same page,” Kipping said. “Then it’ll be sitting down with our architect to see how we can do this as cost-effectively as possible.”
Kipping said the group hopes to tap into government grants and philanthropist donations to cover at least 75 per cent of the cost – with the remaining 25 per cent to be paid for by the community. HHACF has hired the Peterborough-based Dennis Group to lead the charge on fundraising.
Consultancy firm DM Wills has been assisting with the technical reports, helping to move things forward, though Kipping said HHACF will be hiring a project manager, who will work hand-in-hand with the architect on a detailed design before going back to Dysart council for final site plan approval.
Kipping said the group hopes to iron down construction and annual operating costs sometime next year. She’s hoping there will be enough money to build a storage unit, which she said could also include space for a dance studio and residential units.
“We have had talks with different housing companies – we don’t know what that would look like right now, but we want to make something work where we wouldn’t be the landlords,” Kipping said. “We’re hoping to have that all sorted out in the next few months.”
During the feasibility study, it was claimed a new performing arts centre could generate about $1.2 million annually for the local economy – Kipping said it will create jobs and give people a reason to visit Haliburton County. She said a professional building would help to attract bigger name acts than the 210-seat Northern Lights Performing Arts Pavilion (NLPAP) at the high school can bring in.
Kipping said she sees a new arts facility as a need, rather than a want.
“We moved to Haliburton 17 years ago – at that point, the arts scene was quite vibrant. But it’s exploded since then,” she said. “We’ve outgrown what the NLPAP can give us. Having a new facility is not going to stop them from having stuff happen there – they can co-exist, giving the community two excellent facilities to utilize for the arts.”
The open house runs 5 to 7 p.m., with HHACF holding its annual general meeting right after, from 7 to 9 p.m.
