Dear Burnaby Arts Council Members and Supporters,
As you may be aware, our Executive Director resigned from Deer Lake Gallery and Burnaby Arts Council in June 2024. Since then, BAC and Deer Lake Gallery has been operating and running its summer programming and exhibit with volunteers, interns, and our BAC Board of Directors. At the same time, BAC and Deer Lake Gallery have experienced unprecedented, disappointing, and unsustainable funding from sources that have historically upheld our operations each year. This leaves us in an untenable financial position, which sadly requires us to close the Deer Lake Gallery until further notice.
While the gallery is closed, the BAC Board of Directors remains committed to rebuilding our financial plans, strategic plan, and programming goals, with the aim to reopen the gallery in 2025. We will continue our summer programming until the end of August, and will run our Winter Craft Festival in November 2024.
We value your membership and ongoing support of Burnaby Arts Council. As a BAC member, we invite you to our Annual General Meeting on Tuesday, September 24 at 7pm at Deer Lake Gallery to discuss the state of the arts in Burnaby, the role of the BAC, and ways we might move forward as an arts community.
Thank you for your support, and we hope to see you at our AGM.
Maria Anna Parolin and Wendy Cormack, Co-Chairs
Burnaby Arts Council
If you are interested in contributing to Burnaby Arts Council financially, please visit our website:
deerlakegallery.ca/support/
If you are interested in joining our Board as a director, you will find an application here:
deerlakegallery.ca/about/staff-and-board/
If you would like to purchase a tote bag, art prints, or artist publications, please visit our online shop: deerlakegallery.ca/shop/
