CACWL rings in its 50th year with Arts and Culture Giveaway Campaign
With a storied history and a cast of characters who were the stars of the Arts and Culture community in the 1960s and 70s, Community Arts Council of Williams Lake is proud to carry the vision for a thriving Arts community into the future.
To get our 50th year underway, we are giving back to the Arts and Culture community by giving away event tickets, course fees and more from our Member Groups, with funds from the Central Cariboo Arts and Culture Society (CCACS) support grants. With the CCACS’ generous support, we are purchasing directly from our Member Groups, cycling funds into their organizations, all while communicating the good work they each do in our community.
The giveaways get underway this week, with a lucky beginner potter registered in the Cariboo Potters Guild’s annual classes receiving a $50 bursary for their registration. Coming up, we’ll have tickets to the Williams Lake Studio Theatre’s Much Ado About Nothing, Cariboo Chilcotin Youth Fiddle Society show Celtic Routes and a Community Arts Council sponsored performance of Vancouver’s Nasti Weather, to name a few.
CACWL history leads us back in to the 1960s, where a dedicated group of artists banded together to create the Allied Arts Council, in order to gain strength as a collective organization advocating for the Arts. In June of 1968, the members voted to change their name to Community Arts Council, as they now represented six separate artist groups. On February 20th, 1969, the Community Arts Council of Williams Lake received Society status, making it one of the longest serving Arts Council’s in the region. The Council arose out of a driven group of artists and arts advocates, each striving to further arts and culture events and education, all while strengthening the clout of the member groups involved.
Founders of the CACWL included:
o Playwright and Players Club’s founder Gwen Pharis Ringwood
o Cariboo Arts Society’s Sonia Cornwall
o Publisher and Players Club’s Clive Stangoe
o Players Club thespian Anne Hornby
o Creative Pottery Club’s potter Anna Roberts
o Festival Society’s Hazel Huckvale
o Historical Society’s Janet Ketcham
o Glee Club member Art Roseman
o At the helm was President Mrs. Martha (Marty) Simon.
Throughout the year, CACWL’s highlights of our history will be released via our website, Facebook and other media, shining a spotlight on the vision and insight our founders had for the local arts community. We’d love to learn more about these Creative Ambassadors, so if you have a story to share, please get in touch!
To commemorate the positive benefit the Arts can have on us, CACWL Programs Manager and Coordinator, Venta Rutkauskas is encouraging the community to write a letter (or draw/paint, etc. anything on paper!) describing how art has served them in their lives. Venta will take the collection and create a piece of art out of the submissions. More on that story to come!