A number of groups in Lacombe are working together to bring what they feel is a much-needed facility to the City.
Lacombe Family and Community Support Services (FCSS), Lacombe Daycare Society, the Lacombe Performing Arts Centre Foundation as well as Parent Link and Small Wonders Family Dayhomes, which are programs under FCSS, are banding together for a project to build a cultural community centre in Lacombe with spaces for the performing arts as well as children and family programming.
The project, known as the Cranna Community Culture Centre, or C4 Initiative has proposed to use plots of land owned by the City of Lacombe and Wolf Creek Public Schools for the location of the building.
As such, the initiative has been working with both parties to obtain the necessary approvals. Lacombe City council recently voted to hold the requested plot for a period of two years while structural developments are being drawn and Wolf Creek Public Schools have provided C4 with a letter of intent to enter into negotiations to secure the land for the purposes of the C4 Initiative.
Susan MacDonald, executive director of Lacombe FCSS, said that the vision is for each of the partners involved with the C4 Initiative to have their own space or some kind of connection with the building.
She and Grant Harder, president of the Lacombe Performing Arts Centre Foundation, said that the groups involved currently have no existing facilities, do not have enough facilities, or need to update and upgrade their facilities.
The Lacombe Daycare is one such example.
“The building is old,” said MacDonald. “It is in need of replacement in a bad way.” From the arts perspective, Harder said a community theatre is a necessity as there is currently a huge lack of performance space in Lacombe.
Harder gave the example of this year’s Lacombe Music Festival, which had over 1,000 participants.
He said the Festival used churches, space at the Canadian University College, and other small venues scattered around the City to host the event.
“The arts community in Lacombe makes do,” said Harder. “But the venues are inadequate.”
MacDonald said she envisions the C4 Initiative as a community gathering place, or a hub of activity for the City.
She said it would be a great advantage for children to head to daycare or a before and after school program and be able to take music lessons or participate in other performing arts in the same building.
“There is so much potential,” said MacDonald.
It is too early to tell yet what the building will look like or all the features that it will have.
However, at this point Harder and MacDonald said they would like to see daycare, before and after school programs, a performance space and space for Parent Link in the building. Harder also said he would like to see classrooms useable for teaching music lessons and spaces to display visual art. MacDonald said that rooms for miscellaneous community use would also be desirable.
C4’s next step is to get some feedback from the community to see what else the building should include and what other issues may surround it. They will then be able to start drawing up designs.