Hello, Madam Chair and committee. I am Joshua Beamish, the artistic director of Ballet Vancouver. I offer additional insight as a past member of the City of Vancouver's arts and culture advisory committee, with a subfocus on spaces.
Ballet Vancouver, the new operating name of Movement Dance Productions Society, is mandated to revitalize our city's access to professional classical ballet. We operate with gratitude on the ancestral and unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh first nations.
Emerging from the pandemic, our organization has seen remarkable growth. From 2023 to 2025, our per-performance attendance rose by 50%. This season, our transition to Ballet Vancouver prompted another 50% increase. In just one year, our individual donations have risen by 1,600%. By April, our organization's 2026 year-to-date actuals had doubled our entire 2025 operating budget. With half the year still remaining, our 2026 actuals are expected to quadruple those of 2025.
Budgetary jumps of this magnitude are extremely rare. These figures illustrate an objective reality: Our public wants access to professional ballet. They are readily engaging as donors, subscribers, single-ticket buyers and outreach participants. This is a homegrown Canadian success story driven by the celebration of our nation's cultural sovereignty.
Our performances are self-presented at Vancouver Civic Theatres through rental grants to offset occupancy. At first glance, our 2026 grant suggests an encouraging 107% increase. However, our venue usage increased by 275%. This paints a troubling picture of the Canadian cultural ecosystem. The theatre rental grants program was not given a budget increase for 2026, and our growth could not be accommodated at a viable level. Our 2025 subsidy rate was 57%. Despite community enthusiasm, this subsidy is now just 33%. This has upset the sustainability of our presentation model.
Given limited theatre availability and rising presentation costs, we are challenged to add performances. At our current pace, we will outgrow the 668 seats of Vancouver Playhouse within just two seasons. With no 1,000-seat venue for dance, we are faced with cutting performances to expand to a 2,700-seat space. Our audience, conditioned to the increased date flexibility and intimacy of a smaller theatre, would have fewer options to attend our work in a venue four times the size.
To address this, Ballet Vancouver has joined the Vancouver Cultural Precinct planning committee. Under the leadership of Suzanne Anton, the former attorney general of B.C., this coalition joins over 30 organizations across dance, opera, music and theatre. Combining new builds with renovations to existing structures, the committee envisions a four-venue complex encompassing discipline-specific halls at 400, 900, 1,750 and 2,000 seats.
The need is urgent and significant. Between 2001 and 2030, Vancouver's population will have risen by 67%, with residents spending more on performing arts than the national average. Vancouver's last new major performance venue was built in 1997. Three decades have passed. With venues at capacity, arts groups cannot secure the dates they need to program effectively.
While Ballet Vancouver's example of rapid organizational growth is unusual, sector-wide artistic limitations also present a compelling case for reimagining the city's cultural landscape. Vancouver must move beyond a generic approach to outfitting presentation venues. Increased fly space and backstage areas would enable the programming of larger-scale work with greater production value. Similar to London's South Bank or Montreal's Place des Arts, such community amenities as restaurants and cafés would further activate public interest and contribute revenue.
Action is overdue. Canadian Heritage has an opportunity to react to the pulse of public enthusiasm and recognize circumstances of extraordinary growth. Infrastructure support is vital, but what is the purpose of investing in venues if organizations cannot afford to use them? This vision will be inconsequential if affordable rental access is not simultaneously considered and addressed.
To secure and celebrate our cultural autonomy, there must be responsive, agile support for the unprecedented.
Thank you.