The Estevan Art Gallery and Museum (EAGM) managed to increase attendance despite the financial and staff cuts they experienced in 2018.
The main successes and challenges of the past year were discussed during the annual general meeting March 12.
EAGM director/curator Amber Andersen noted that the meeting gave them the opportunity to talk about their financial state and also to discuss things that happened the previous year, in which growing interest was one of the greatest successes.
“We were able to grow our attendance, which was fantastic. We actually had to shift down from a staff of three to a staff of two, so the fact that we were able to do that and then also grow our numbers was really fantastic,” said Andersen.
In 2018 their visitor tally was over 11,000 as opposed to the 2017’s total of 9,788.
“Part of the focus was on the positives of growing numbers and obviously that we have as much or more interest than we had ever before,” Andersen said.
They also came up with some reprogramming ideas such as trivia nights that they are now doing and the Fall Family Festival, which was named one of the most popular events to the public, along with the Halloween Haunt.
They also discussed what needs to be done to successfully keep moving forward.
“Something that we are focusing on is that we do need to recuperate and focus on financials. That’s something that we are really working towards with our fundraising efforts with our Rafferty Rumble moving forward and also our sponsorship package,” Andersen noted.
Last year turned to be an odd one for the EAGM as they had a lot of new board members, lost some of their funding and had to take some time to reorganize.
“I feel that we had to take a year to figure out how to revamp some of our fundraisers. Also, I will say that we had 50 per cent new board of directors last year, so we kind of took our last year to figure out what we are going to do to make financials more positive moving forward. Equally, we also received a major cut in one of our operating grants,” said Andersen.
This year will show if the chosen approach will allow the EAGM to overcome the challenges they were facing in 2018.
