The Bus Stop Theatre on Halifax’s Gottingen Street is in danger of losing its home as the building that houses the theatre co-operative is going up for sale.
The Bus Stop’s executive director, Sébastien Labelle, is now looking to city hall for financial help to buy the property.
“If the Bus Stop were to go, it would leave a void in the arts community and in the neighbourhood as well because what the theatre provides is an affordable and accessible space, in particular to emerging artists and underrepresented communities,” Labelle said.
The Bus Stop Theatre is a busy place, hosting 235 days of events and programming last year alone, including theatre and dance performances, poetry readings, concerts and more.
Alex McLean, theatre and artistic director with Zuppa Theatre Co., says emerging artists need a space like the Bus Stop to experiment and make mistakes.
“I think people get that we need these spaces and that the city’s cultural fabric is one of the things that makes it a great city,” McLean said.
“I think sometimes there’s a tendency to think of those sexy new buildings that are purpose-built are the only way we address this need, and that’s one of the very important ways but that neglects the grassroots.”
The Bus Stop wants to buy the property in which the co-operative is housed for $750,000 but needs financial assistance. To be viable in the long run, the co-operative is asking for support from all levels of government, including city council, from whom they’ve requested $500,000 to help purchase the property before it goes on the market.
The current property owner, Clare Waqué with Walk-Eh? Enterprise Ltd., has given the theatre co-operative the first right of refusal to buy the property, but Labelle says the group is racing against the clock.
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“We need support from the municipality and other levels of government to make sure that we can secure the properties before they go up for sale because then nothing else matters, and it’s gone,” he explained.
The challenge for council is the timing: the 2019 operating budget was just approved, and a staff report recommends denying the financial request and directing the CAO and staff to work with the theatre company to secure future funding.
Coun. Lindell Smith represents District 8, where the Bus Stop Theatre resides, and he’s hopeful council can get creative and find a short-term solution.
“I really feel that council is now seeing how engaged this community is,” said Smith, as he and other councillors have been inundated by emails and requests for council to support the theatre group.
“I’ve been getting hundreds of emails in the past couple days and so options can be funding it (the full $500k) — but finding the money means we have to cut funding somewhere else — or maybe we get creative with the funding and figure out if it’s not two years, it’s a longer timeline that we release the funding.”
Council will vote on the funding request at next week’s council meeting. The Bus Stop Theatre remains optimistic that council will step up and help keep the curtain from falling on the theatre’s future.