The Rails End Gallery is asking Dysart for some extra funds for its green projects.
Each year the local gallery asks Dysart et al for funding to help with the operating costs, and this year is no different with one exception. At the regular meeting of the council in Dysart et al, the art gallery asked council for $52,000 in funding from the municipality. According to Laurie Jones, the director and curator of the gallery, $50,000 of that is for their operating costs, which came to roughly $186,000 last year, and $2,000 for what the gallery is calling “Greening the Gallery.”
According to Jones, the added funding would help cover the costs connected to increased staffing for the public access water bottle refill station, cover a portion of the performance fees for ‘Enviro Drum Percussion’ at the Haliburton DrumFest, and offset the costs to re-mulch and amend their plant garden. Jones says the gallery has been enacting green projects for several years now, adding that they are actively looking at ways to be a “greener gallery.”
Jones says that although the county and the Haliburton County Development Corporation also offer some funding to the gallery, Dysart et al is the main funder and the municipality accounts for 25 to 30 per cent of its annual income. Haliburton County gave the gallery $2,000 towards festivals in the past and HCDC contributed funds to specific projects through grants.
Dysart et al council is expected to consider the adding funding at their next budget talks in February
