Downtown Halifax Cultural Complex On Track To Open In Early 2022
HALIFAX – After many starts and stops, the multi-level and multi-discipline cultural hub The Light House Arts Centre (LHAC) and its streaming service, Light House Go, are on track to open in spring 2022.
The Centre finished its first phase of construction, a 37,000 square foot television and media production studio, in late 2019. This Hour Has 22 Minutes quickly booked the studio for its 27th season.
They are in the middle of its second phase, constructing two dance spaces and a 10,000 square foot performance hall. The final phase will involve the construction of production offices and creative co-working spaces for non-profit cultural organizations and for-profit start-ups.
“We were lucky that the first component of the complex, the television studio, remained online and started generating revenues for us once it was complete,” says Marc Almon, Founder and Director of Business Development and Community Relations. “If we had flipped it and we built the performance hall first and then the television studio last, it would have been a disaster for us.”
Almon says with the Centre providing physical space for people to create content and art, it made sense to also have a virtual outlet, in the form of Light House Go, to reach audiences and help connect artists with those audiences.
The streaming service will be free for the first year, then implement a subscription model.
“There are no broadcasters in Atlantic Canada, other than like Eastlink, so that means it’s very hard to get something commissioned in this region unless you’re getting one of the broadcasters in Toronto,” he said. “Our line of thinking is that artists need a commissioning agent – they need somebody to help empower them to make art.”
With virtual and filmed entertainment becoming content staples throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, Almon thought Light House Go would be an exciting opportunity to utilize the Nova Scotia Film Industry Tax Credit and Film Incentive fund to commission live performances, from dance to music to theatre.
The Centre has received $180,000 in start-up capital, the majority of which will go towards commissioning new content and paying artists, and it has already commissioned a dance video from a local dance group, The Woods.
“We’re putting an awful lot of stress on our artists over the last couple of years to expect them to handle all of the technical details, the logistics, the fundraising required to do this kind of work properly,” he said. “We really want to take that burden off the artists as much as possible and put in the right structure so that they can just focus on what they do best, which is performing.”
Almon hopes that by showing the Centre can provide the service and be of value to Nova Scotian creators and audiences, they could attract the support of public or official broadcasters.
“It’s been challenging for us to be honest with you, we’ve been lucky to have the supports offered by the Canadian government,” he said, adding many of their competitors have been laid low by the pandemic. “We’ve learned a lot from the closure and the challenges, but we’ve managed to keep getting going through it all this way and we’re almost at the finish line.”