Raise the Hammer

Hi Folks
Jeremy from the ICCA here.

So to answer a few questions:

(1) who would pay for this?
To date the ICCA has worked for two years on this project for the grand total of $0.00 from the tax paying public. Two private donors did invest $60,000 in our early research - so that cost you nothing. For the past year we've been working with a team of consultants that the City selected through an open RFP process. They did tons of work and have an incredible reputation. So no fix there.

As for further stages - yes we would expect the City, Province and Feds to play a financial role but by no measn should they foot the full bill. All of the properities the ICCA is involved in include some form of private investment - I would expect the same in this case. So the Spec articles that state this will cost the City $21M are way off. In the end we'd ideally see the City earning money back from this project.

(2) who would run this thing?

Highwater was quite right in that this idea came from the ICCA - so we are going to assert some leadership here. When you have a great idea and champion it through the labyrinth of city hall you can run a project too. That said we would not run the entire project.

The education component would be run by whichever group stepped up to the: Mohawk, McMaster, NSCAD, etc.

The venue would likely go to open tender or to a partner that steps up and accepts the financial obligation of building that component of the project - again, if you put in you get to take out.

The ICCA would focus on managing the studios, incubator project (as a growth target for our new Cossart Exchange program), and the community interaction component of the facility.


Long story short. We're still in the "sort out some key details" stage of this project. If you want tog et involved in some way it's no secret how to get a hold of me.

Jeremy Freiburger
Imperial Cotton Centre for the Arts
905-548-0111