PAVED Arts in Saskatoon goes green in its Riversdale home

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PAVED Arts

PAVED Arts will be greening its co-owned building with $95,000 from Co-op Community Spaces Community Spaces and $75,000 from the Canada Cultural Spaces Fund. These funds will provide a 28kW solar panel array in addition to insulating the roof and upgrading the heating and cooling systems.

In 2005, PAVED Arts and AKA artist-run jointly purchased and extensively renovated the former Toon’s Kitchen restaurant in the Riversdale neighborhood of Saskatoon. The organizations’ galleries and PAVED’s production centre serve Saskatoon with free public exhibitions and member services to local artists. Their 9000 sq/ft building is also home to BlackFlash magazine and a multi-function event space used by numerous community and cultural organizations throughout the year.

“Co-op Community Spaces is an exciting program that is making a difference across Western Canada and we look forward to seeing the completed project with Paved Arts this fall.” said Grant Wicks, General Manager with Saskatoon Co-op. “Saskatoon Co-op is supported and owned by members and customers right here at home, so it’s important that we give back and make investments in our community and people, which is what Co-op Community Spaces is all about.”

These investments along with $60,000 from the City of Saskatoon, and additional investments from Bullfrog Power and the Community Initiatives Fund, bring the total investment in this capital project to over $250,000.

“It’s great to see organizations like PAVED and AKA thinking long-term and showing commitment to the community by investing in sustainability – both for the organization and the environment” said Hilary Gough, Ward 2 Councilor.

In 2016, the board and membership of PAVED Arts pursued funding to contribute to the renewal of their co-owned building for the 21st century. Since gaining ownership of the building, Paved Arts and AKA artist-run have collaboratively worked to provide a valuable shared accessible space that provides opportunities to many community groups.

“We are extremely grateful to our many funding partners who have recognized the hard work of PAVED Arts and AKA Artist-Run to establish an important cultural hub in Saskatoon.” said PAVED Executive Director Alex Rogalski. “By producing green energy and reducing our environmental impact, our goal has always been to invest in a creative space that supports artists.”

The upgrades to the building will begin this summer and be completed by September 2017. While the addition of solar panels will make the building more energy independent, improving the building’s thermal insulation and using energy efficient cooling systems will dramatically decrease the carbon footprint. The cost savings from these initiatives will be re-invested into public programming and local artists.

Source: PAVED Arts