Government of Canada Announces Funding for the Stratford Shakespearean Festival of Canada
STRATFORD, October 10, 2002 -- John Richardson, Member of Parliament (Perth-Middlesex), on behalf Minister of Canadian Heritage Sheila Copps, today announced funding of $250,000 for the Stratford Shakespearean Festival of Canada's Audience Relationship Building Project."The Government of Canada is committed to support access to the arts for all Canadians, and to foster creativity, diversity, and excellence," said Mr. Richardson. "Moreover, we are helping to ensure that arts organizations can attain further stability, so that they can focus on what they do best: create and promote great art for Canadians."
The Audience Relationship Building Project will allow the Stratford Festival to develop the tools necessary to communicate with its patrons and expand the Festival's level of consumer support. The Audience Relationship Building Project has four components: a customer satisfaction study; a one-to-one dialogue customer telephone survey; new box office software; and a data analysis program.
The Department of Canadian Heritage is providing this support through the Canadian Arts and Heritage Sustainability Program. This program is guided by the principle that professional Canadian arts and heritage organizations have the will and ability to provide for their own long-term survival. The Canadian Arts and Heritage Sustainability Program supports projects that will improve and consolidate the organizational, administrative and financial situation of non-profit arts and heritage organizations.
Funding for this project was provided for in the December 2001 federal budget and is therefore built into the existing fiscal framework.
Information:
Sonya-Kim St-Julien
Press Secretary
Office of the Minister of
Canadian Heritage
(819) 997-7788
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