The Smithers Art Gallery Creation Station’s lease isn’t being revoked.
At tonight’s (Tuesday) Smithers Council meeting, the town addressed the gallery’s expired lease, which is currently in “overhang.”
Gallery Manager Nicole Chernish said they have been able to do a lot with the space in the last five years.
“We’ve been able to start offering after-school programming, daytime programming, summer camps… So what we’ve asked council for is to extend that for not just a five-year lease, but for a 10 year lease.”
She added the gallery is looking into grants to improve the creation station.
“At the most basic level, we would love to make that space more accessible. Right now, certainly people who have mobility issues can get into the space but it would be lovely to have automatic doors, it would be nice to have bathrooms that are more accessible…”
The gallery sent a letter to the council on Feb. 14th, requesting this change as their lease expired this month.
At the Feb. 14th council meeting, there was a recommendation to let the gallery rent the space monthly temporarily.
Tonight the council said that if no termination on their lease occurs in the next three months, they will keep it for six months total.
Town staff are looking into possible uses for the building, including having the building shared between the gallery and something else.
The staff has been researching what the lease market value on the property is and will compile a report by April.
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