Leaders and managers of Ontario-based nonprofit organizations are now invited to apply to the Arts Facilities Mentoring Network! Applications are open, as of July 2, 2014.

If managing a building is part of your job now, or in the near future, you should apply for this game-changing experience!

Mentorees benefit from access to specialized knowledge that can help resolve facility management challenges. The Arts Facilities Mentoring Network can also be a springboard to launch you into new, complementary areas of skill development that you may not have thought to explore on your own.

This is the exceptional value of a human connection; one-to-one conversations are fertile ground for some major “Aha!” moments that organically arise as you share questions and ideas with a mentor from outside your organization.

Don’t miss this opportunity to get connected, through the Arts Facilities Mentoring Network! The Arts Facilities Mentoring Network coordinators will match you with a mentor based on your learning objectives. During the inaugural Arts Facilities Mentoring Network sessions in 2013, participants gained technical, business, and interpersonal skills to help them tackle anything from planning a capital project, to HR, marketing and sales.

Where could mentoring lead you?

To find out, apply today! Click here to see application details, overview and FAQ for the Arts Facilities Mentoring Network.

If you wanted to find resources to help with your arts facility right now, where would you look? You have likely found that Google results are often too general or not applicable to your situation. ArtsBuild has identified the need for arts-facility specific material because your facility needs are unique. Introducing: Resource Library!

Organizations have told us that they need information on topics such as: hiring contractors, conducting feasibility studies, forging partnerships and building community engagement. The new Resource Library meets this demand with a free, online, searchable collection of resources curated by experts.

ArtsBuild helps Ontario’s arts organizations build, manage and finance sustainable arts facilities, and our Resource Library supports these program areas. For example, Resource Library is a perfect companion for PLAN IT | BUILD IT, a tool authored by Katie Oman.

Katie developed the PLAN IT | BUILD IT components, using her expertise as a strategic facilities planner for the arts and she curated a glossary of the most relevant and helpful terms to help organizations dive into capital project planning with ease. Resource Library adds timely case studies, forecasting, templates, and grant writing supports to help inform decision-making and planning through the PLAN IT | BUILD IT process.

Click here to visit Resource Library – for everything facilities related.

As you may have seen in our recent communications, ArtsBuild Ontario has exciting announcements to share, including new partnerships. Artscape Toronto and Magnus Theatre of Thunder Bay have joined our Asset Planner for the Arts program to gain valuable tools for proactive facility management.

What’s your approach? We all know that “a stitch in time saves nine”, as the saying goes, but where and when should the HVAC be patched up? Should you repair or replace those heritage windows? What’s the best value?

This is exactly where Asset Planner for the Arts comes in.

The Asset Planner for the Arts program includes an assessment of your building and a 2-year license to robust, cloud-based software that simplifies tracking and supports decision-making. Systems this powerful and polished are normally only available to large organizations and municipalities, but makes it accessible to nonprofit arts organizations with a significant subsidy.

You are only a few steps away from having an accurate snapshot of your facility’s current condition and easy to read capital forecasts. With Asset Planner for the Arts, you can reduce your risk with a proactive approach, and manage your limited budget with confidence.

Watch our intro video and contact Lindsay to register while this special program is available.

With a speedy response from Google, one can easily find a great deal of information about Mackenzie Hall. The address, current events calendar, a programming overview and links to even more detailed information. Even with all of that information just finger flicks and nanoseconds away, there is so much more to be said about Mackenzie Hall.

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Some things are timeless, ageless, and truly grand.  And while theatre as an art form is a perfect example of this, theatres themselves, tend to have an expiration date–especially ones that were built well over a century ago.  Such was the case of The Grand Theatre in Kingston. Built in 1879, the time had come for a major overhaul that would preserve and maintain the grandeur of this historic building while simultaneously expanding the space for an ever-growing audience.

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