Good morning, Madam Chair and honourable members of the committee.
Thank you for the opportunity to appear today. I have the honour of being the program, culture and events manager for the Town of New Glasgow and Glasgow Square Theatre, a municipally owned venue in a rural community within northern Nova Scotia of just under 10,000 residents.
Our theatre is the only professional arts and cultural space within the town and a central part of our downtown core. I approach this work from the perspective of managing a rural municipal theatre in which cultural programming is a daily balance of artistic value, community access and financial responsibility. Our venue is fully municipally funded by the Town of New Glasgow, with approximately $400,000 in annual support. While modest compared to that for venues of similar capacity, this funding has remained stable despite increased financial pressure. For 2026-27, there were no cuts, and over $40,000 has been committed for capital upgrades.
I am grateful for this support, but I recognize the ongoing challenge municipalities face in balancing culture with complex social issues, policing, fire services and other priorities. Cultural funding is increasingly required to demonstrate measurable value despite its broad community impact.
At a local level, a sold-out show extends well beyond our stage. A sold-out show means hotel stays, full restaurants and increased activity for our downtown core. In rural communities, venues like ours are both cultural anchors and economic drivers.
One challenge is access to federal funding. Many programs, including those under the Canada music fund, exclude municipally operated venues from direct operational support. While infrastructure and show-specific funding exist, there is a growing need to include wider federal support for municipal cultural spaces that carry both public service and fiscal responsibility.
We are fortunate to receive regional support through Music Nova Scotia's community presenters program, which helps offset artist guarantees for Nova Scotian artists and strengthens the ability to take performing risks while maintaining access to live performances.
We are also proud members of the Atlantic Presenters Association, a member-based, multidisciplinary arts organization that connects performing arts presenters across Atlantic Canada through shared programs, resources and professional development. The APA is essential in strengthening collaboration across a geographically dispersed region. Without this network, presenters would be far less connected, making it significantly more difficult to share artists' knowledge and opportunities across Atlantic performing landscapes.
Our programming focuses heavily on emerging and local Canadian artists. While these artists may draw strong support in their hometowns, that does not always translate into ticket sales in smaller markets like mine. As presenters, we often take intentional financial risks on culturally important programming that may not fully recoup costs. Wider federal operational support would help reduce this burden and allow greater investment in impactful programming for our community.
A further pressure is the impact of large-scale ticketing platforms and dynamic pricing. As major touring acts become increasingly expensive, many Canadians are forced to choose between one major event and several smaller community performances, typically priced at $20 to $40 at our venue. Once that discretionary spending is used, support for local venues declines, limiting access to emerging artists and straining grassroots spaces.
Despite this, we are seeing growth at Glasgow Square. Through consistent engagement at regional and national industry conferences, we have strengthened relationships with artists and agents alike and positioned ourselves as an active presenter of emerging talent. This has resulted in a year-over-year ticket sales increase for us of approximately $60,000.
However, increased sales do not always translate into profitability, as some shows are intentionally programmed for artistic development rather than commercial return.
To address affordability, we've launched Moments for Everyone with our regional library. It provides people with free access to tickets using their library card, with 15 to 25 tickets redeemed per show, absorbed directly through our operating budget. Many participants tell us that it's the only way they can regularly access live performances within our community.
We're also investing in emerging artists through Songs from the Square, a monthly showcase featuring two Atlantic Canadian artists with guaranteed performance fees. It reduces barriers for artists to get on our stage while offering a pay-what-you-can model for our audiences.
Beyond culture, our venue supports broader community goals, including the attraction and retention of health care workers through Healthy Pictou County, a community-based health recruitment and retention initiative focused on recruiting and supporting health care professionals in Pictou County. We have seen that access to cultural life can influence decisions for these professionals to stay in or relocate to our region.
In closing, Glasgow Square Theatre is the heartbeat of our community. As we mark 25 years, we continue to navigate aging infrastructure and audience development while remaining committed to our mission.
We believe that the value of venues like ours is measured not only in ticket sales but also in cultural and social economic strength. If rural performance spaces disappear, the next generation of Canadian touring artists will lose early-stage discovery platforms and emerging artists will lose essential stages to grow and sustain their careers.
Thank you.