Richmond arts facilities needs assessment
A vibrant arts community will set the stage for Richmond’s aspiration to be Canada's most liveable, appealing, and well-managed community.
The Richmond Cultural Centre. (Happy Cities)
Richmond is a quickly growing and incredibly diverse cultural hub within the Metro Vancouver region. The City hosts several major art venues, including the Richmond Cultural Centre and the Gateway Theatre. Like many cities in the region, Richmond struggles to keep up with local and regional demand for access to arts facilities—in particular, spaces for dance, theatre, music, and visual arts.
The City of Richmond engaged Happy Cities to conduct an arts facilities assessment to highlight current and future needs for the arts community of Richmond. The assessment focused on identifying gaps in visual and performing arts spaces to ensure the arts community can continue to grow and flourish.
The purpose of the needs assessment is to:
Identify need and opportunity
Accommodate growth
Guide investment
A member of the Richmond Weavers and Spinners Guild at work at the Fabric Studio. (Happy Cities)
Happy Cities conducted a physical inventory of spaces and identified venue features such as types of stages, seating capacity, and available technical equipment. These findings helped to support data on facility use and priorities that arose during focused engagement with Richmond’s art community. Happy Cities identified gaps and detailed recommendations for future investments.
Final recommendations have been presented in the Richmond Arts Facilities Needs Assessment for City Council approval.
From conversations to recommendations
A number of key deliverables helped to assess local needs and to inform detailed recommendations in our final Richmond Arts Facilities Needs Assessment. These supporting pieces included:
A local background report exploring the City of Richmond’s existing art facilities and relevant municipal policy.
A regional context report exploring art facilities in Metro Vancouver, as well as assessing the region’s gaps and needs.
An extended round of engagement to hear from the Richmond arts community through a survey, one-on-one interviews, and site visits.
A detailed engagement summary report which summarized feedback received from the arts community.
An inventory of facilities that identifies the features and equipment within each art space.
An evaluation framework for decision-making on future investments into arts facilities.
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