The Old School House (TOSH) is facing some financial hardships and an amendment to its lease with the Town of Qualicum Beach is just the latest challenge it will need to weather.
The arts centre functions as a self-funded organization and relies on its membership, corporate sponsors and donors to keep the doors open and programs running, according to executive director Illana Hester.
The COVID-19 pandemic disruption impacted revenues and programming has been restructured since then, Hester said.
“We’re just trying to keep art in session and try and support the arts, and try to support the community,” she said.
Although the town is responsible for the building’s exterior, TOSH is not funded by the town and pays to use the building, according to Hester. TOSH also pays for maintenance to the inside, such as $1,000 charge recently when the hot water tank failed.
“We are like a real heartbeat of the community that I think people don’t realize or know — I think people think this is a town-funded organization,” Hester said.
A new five-year lease started on Jan. 1, which has a lease rate “reflective of the non-profit status of the TOSH Society,” according to a statement and FAQ released by the Town of Qualicum Beach.
“The current TOSH gift shop primarily sells art and is not intended to compete with local businesses,” the statement said.
Council specified that retail sales at TOSH will be limited to the sale of bundled art supplies to minimize overlap with the business community, according to the statement.
“TOSH is struggling financially as it is and Illana’s been trying to use a lot of different means in order to make this building feasible and we just are not getting anything but grief from (town) hall,” said Dawne Brandel, a resident artist at TOSH. “(Town) hall has really not been kind.”
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Without a history of public funding, TOSH did not qualify for government relief dollars during the COVID-19 pandemic and relied on cash at hand to make it through, according to a recent fundraising appeal email from TOSH.
Currently three per cent of its budget comes from public grants, which must be used for programming costs, rather than operating expenses.
“Due to this fact, you will have seen shifts in our programming, as we are unable to continue to maintain programs that suffer a shortfall without funding,” the email said.
Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s been difficult to find enough volunteers to run the gift shop, Brandel said.
Visitors to the arts centre may have noticed the gift shop has disappeared from the ground floor, and gift shop items are now spread out around the building.
In its place is a brand new print studio, home to the only publicly available printing press north of Ladysmith, according to Hester.
The town has leased the building to the society for more than 35 years. The new lease rate was increased to reflect 2023 insurance rates, plus three per cent escalator for prior years, according to the town statement.
The new lease also includes the reinstatement of a member of council as a non-voting member of the TOSH board.
