The Arts Court may be getting much needed renovations, with a new film and video screening room, new performance space and an underground parking lot but there will be no room for the Ottawa Art Gallery.
Yesterday, the city’s corporate services and economic development committee
approved the upgrades to the Daly Street building, which houses many of the city’s arts and culture organizations.
The Ottawa Art Gallery, currently housed at Arts Court, would move to a new, larger home elsewhere, possibly out to Lansdowne Park.
The two projects will get $12 million in funding that was originally earmarked for a downtown concert hall, which has run into numerous delays and difficulties.
The committee agreed to add a recommendation that a concert hall remain “an important cultural priority” for the city.
For supporters of the concert hall, the loss of the funding was “a bitter pill to swallow, and they don’t want to go from being the city’s number one cultural priority to being off the radar,” said Coun. Diane Deans, who introduced the amendment.
