Art Center's Financial Burden Relieved By Town Council

You've hear it time and time again, and know it from experience: times are tough. And the arts, an industry in which few experience truly booming times, are no different.

The hub of arts in Windsor, the Windsor Art Center, has continued to provide the community with programming that includes music acts and art exhibitions from artists from throughout the region through these tough economic times, and requested a bit of help from the Town Council to continue to do so.

On Monday night, the Town Council voted unanimously to give the Art Center the help they needed, deciding to defer rent payments that were scheduled to begin this month.

In 2008, the Windsor Art Center signed a five-year lease with the town of Windsor, securing the Freight House on Mechanic Street as their venue for bringing the arts to Windsor residents. Pursuant to the agreement, the Art Center has been responsible for the payment of all utility charges from the start of the lease agreement, and a $500 per month rental payment scheduled to start in June 2011.

Utility payments have been made without exception, said Town Manager Peter Souza Monday during the Town Council meeting, but the Art Center's board of directors requested that the Town Council delay the initiation of the monthly rent payments until next year.

While the Art Center has continued to provide quality programming to the community, financial difficulties have manifested in the inability to "secure multi-year funding commitments to the degree needed to allow them to comfortably begin paying the $500 monthly rent and still present a full calendar of exhibits," according to town documents.

Souza encouraged the Council to vote in favor of the request. The first five years are tough for a start-up organization, he said, but the Art Center is "on their way to long-term sustainability."

With the Council's decision to approve the request, the Art Center will continue to pay utility payments as they have done, and will begin paying $500 a month for rent in June 2012.