Khyber Building: Updates and News
City Staff will be presenting a “staff report” to City Council proposing a operational model for the Khyber (or as they call it 1588 Barrington). The meeting will take place on Aug 3rd at 10am. See the agenda here: http://www.halifax.ca/council/agendasc/100803rcAgenda.html follow the link to see the City Staff report.
The Cafe and Cinema that we have been developing ideas and programs for has not been mentioned anywhere in the document. However there is mention of using space in the building for HRM-organized arts activities (mailbox painting contests?). The KAS belives that it is important to keep the 1st floor of this building open as a meeting place and as a hub to encourage critical dialogue as it has been for over 40 years (Khyber Cafe, Khyber Club etc….). Will it be the same as an HRM-run gallery? Will that really re-activate this building as it says it will in the document?
The Khyber Board of Directors is stronger and more experienced than it ever has been, we are ready to make this place one of the most prominent contemporary art-centres in the Atlantic Provinces! Please review this document and contact your Councilor to give them your feedback.
Thanks for your continual support to The Khyber!!
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July 19, 2010
We may be presenting to City Council on August 3rd. Maybe. We’ll see if the date gets pushed again or not…. In the mean time you can support us by coming to the screenings and shows coming up.
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July 13, 2010
-This article is actually a few months late: http://www.metronews.ca/ArticlePrint/478801?language=en
June 6, 2010
-new cinema space: http://afcoop.ca/2010/06/new-independent-cinema-space-in-halifax/
April, 29 2010
Discussions about a possible independent cinema on the 3rd floor have come up. Please take the time to fill out this very short survey made by KAS Cinema Committee and tell us about your Cinema habits: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/7NKTH6S
There has also been talk about a cafe on the first floor. For this to happen we will some need major public support. Things seem to be slowly progressing, hang in there and we will get this place up and running again!!
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March 15th, 2010
HRM’s Cultural Affairs Office is pleased to announce that the FINAL
REPORT of the “1588 Barrington Street (aka the Khyber Building) -
Feasibility Study of an Artist-Run Centre and Alternate Options” was
released on HRM’s website this morning, and is available at
http://www.halifax.ca/crca/FeasibilityReport.html.
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Jan 12, 2010
Khyber building’s future waits on public input
The public speaks out for the future of Khyber, council still to vote on historic landmark.
Laura Parlee, Jodie Shupac
Jan 12, 2010
The historic artist-run centre, the Khyber Building, may be going through some changes next month.
The 122-year-old building has only been in use 28 per cent since November 2005, when the Halifax Regional Municipality had to revoke a facility management agreement with the Khyber Arts Society. The HRM restricted their use of the building to one floor because the society wasn’t holding up it’s end of the bargain.
“For the amount we want to do, it’s not enough space,” says Daniel Joyce, Interim Director of the society, chuckling at one of the Khyber’s recent events. “We have to serve cold drinks out of buckets of ice.”
Joyce often gets calls and emails from artists wanting to show at the Khyber, but they only have limited time and space. Now, the city and the society have commissioned a feasibility study to find the best way to get the doors of the building opened again. The study outlines five possibilities for the building, as well as costs, benefits, the necessary restorations and benchmark comparisons to artist-run centres in other cities.
- KAS owns and operates building
- HRM owns; KAS operates under a facility management agreement (takes part in maintenance etc.)
- HRM Owns; KAS has lease as sole tenant with right to sub-let
- HRM Owns; KAS is one of several tenants
- HRM Owns; lease with other organization as facility manager; KAS may or may not move elsewhere
The HRM Culture and Heritage Development office organized two public meetings last month, to educate citizens about the options.
“Every project that HRM works on we try to seek input from the public,” says Christine Lavoie from HRM Culture and Heritage Development. “It’s critical that the public gets to tell us what it is that they want, what they’re looking for what they’re ideas are.”
After the meetings, an online and mail-in survey was made available to Haligonians to give residents their say about the building’s future. Since then, the HRM has received 234 responses, and more are still coming in.
“The city has stepped up a bit more in the last couple years, I think they’ve slowly been recognizing the importance of having a cultural entity like the Khyber, that can do events for the community and help foster artists and foster musicians,” says Joyce.
But it’s been a long journey. Joyce says it was frustrating watching the city come and change the locks on all the doors in 2005.
The deadline for the survey was Friday, Jan. 9, but the results probably won’t go before council until early February. Lavoie says it will take a while to tabulate and put together a report on the results. Joyce is optimistic the city will vote in the society’s favour.
“Originally the Khyber was supposed to be a multi-purpose three-floor venue where there can be recording, community events, art galleries, a meeting space, cafes, bars,” says Joyce.
“Our mandate is to promote contemporary arts, so that could mean anything. Now, we really only have the ballroom gallery…so it’s primarily visual arts right now and then bands and music once and a while.”
He hopes the city will choose the third scenario, in which it would own and maintain the building and have the society as the sole tenant. Ultimately the society hopes to achieve a progressive agreement with the city where the society can gradually take more responsibility for the building, and when able, buy it.
He says the society is already underfunded and in its present state wouldn’t be able to afford all the necessary restorations for the building.
The report outlines several immediate changes that would need to be made in order for the building to be fully functional, accessibility being the main issue. The report says the building will need:
- more washrooms
- better ventilation
- an elevator
Joyce says if the city can take the reigns, the society will be free to focus on programming.
“We want to start a licensed cafe on the first floor,” he says. “Open up this space too so the whole second floor can be used as a gallery, then the third floor like an independent cinema, like it was in the ‘70s and ‘80s.”
NSCAD student Gillian Berry says Halifax has huge potential for the arts.
“There’s a lot of potential in Halifax for there to be more. I think it’s growing, but there’s definitely room for more growth in that area,” says the third-year interdisciplinary student.
She says buildings such as the Khyber create a community and a space where artists can come together.
“It provides a venue and organization for different groups of people and just draws everything together more. With any kind of music, dance, or fine arts there’s always people doing new things but you never know about what others are doing. I think it’s essential,” she says.
Joyce agrees. ”If you’re going to be promoting your culture, this is the kind of place where culture is fostered and where it happens. It’s not just in tourist shops with their folk art,” he says.
“I think there’s a really bright future ahead. There’s going to be some major changes in the next couple of years and with the support from the city we’ll really be able to do some amazing things.”
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Thu, Nov 26, 2009
Khyber and the city: public consultation!
2 consultations wednesday, December 10 from 1pm-3pm and 6:30-8:30 at the Bloomfield Centre.
Posted by Sue Carter Flinn on Thu, Nov 26, 2009 at 4:11 PM
It’s no secret that the Khyber ICA and HRM have endured a rocky relationship, but today feels like the beginning of a whole new love affair, or the most passive-aggressive Sid and Nancy-style punch-up around.
Today, And Still Counting an exhibition of paintings by Garry Neill Kennedy, in collaboration with the Khyber, opens at City Hall. You might remember his numbered paintings, which played on city landmarks and politics, that lived in the windows of the Khyber building last spring during renovations.
Is it a coincidence that on the day of the exhibition opening, the city released a draft report on the potential operating scenarios for the Khyber building? Prepared by the Toronto consultants, TCI Management, you can take a look for yourself at http://www.halifax.ca/crca/FeasibilityReport.html. Copies are also available at the Bloomfield Centre, the Khyber or by calling 490-4083.
Admittedly all those numbers and scenarios are going to take awhile to digest—-the biggest restoration and construction expense is the inclusion of an elevator for accessibility purposes—-but the one positive thing I took was that the majority of people interviewed for the report are united in thinking that the building is under-utilized and should be maintained somehow for cultural purposes.
But I do have to wonder about the page-sized, full-colour photos selected for the report: a small cluttered storage area, the well-worn staircase, a grotty wall streaked with graffiti (I have no clue even where this is). Where are the photos of the Ballroom Gallery and those gorgeous mouldings? Of crowds of people participating in concerts, art performances and openings? How about art? If I had never been in this building, and this was all the visual evidence I received, I’m not sure that I’d be as interested in preserving the space as an arts centre.
So now it’s your turn to get involved. Read the document then take part in public information sessions on December 9 (1-3pm or 6:30pm-8:30pm) at the Bloomfield Centre. Results from these public sessions will feed into the consultants’ final report and recommendations to council, so if you care anything about culture, heritage, or the future of Barrington Street, read and participate.
