Ed Video Media Arts Centre may have to make cuts to its business to stay afloat if $20,000 isn’t raised.
The media arts production centre has been in Guelph for over 45 years. It’s a facility with video equipment, exhibitions and workshops for artists.
Executive director Liz Dent has been working at Ed Video since 2005. When she started it was in a $52,000 deficit.
Today, Ed Video has a $28,611 deficit, but the money it is trying to fundraise won’t go towards it.
It will go to operating expenses, programming and equipment to keep things running.
“If we were to stop functioning, they would lose the most. It's the artists in the community,” said Dent.
Ed Video has put together a GoFundMe page and it has raised $8,910 since Friday. With this amount of money it can pay for four workshops, four interpreters, four production grants, an exhibition, a youth program and a community partnership.
If the $20,000 goal is not raised in six weeks, Dent might be out of a job.
“We would have to let staff go. Probably me because I'm the administrative staff and everyone else is program,” she said.
The last thing Ed Video would hurt would be the programming, she said. The business would look to reduce costs and try to work something out with the landlord, said Dent.
She is supposed to retire in April but if Ed Video can’t afford to hire anyone to fill her role she might continue because “I'm not going to expect someone else to work for free."
Staff are paid to work 28 hours a week but often put in 40 hours of work. “And that's just the reality of working in the arts, working in the nonprofit sector. And working in a place where you're committed with your heart and your soul to the cause,” said Dent.
The business is still trying to recover from the pandemic but during it there was a lot of government support, Dent said.
Ed Video received a loan through the Canada Emergency Business Account (CEBA) which is an interest-free loan program for businesses. If the loan is paid back by Jan. 18 it could result in up to 33 per cent loan forgiveness, said on the government of Canada website.
It was paid back, Dent said.
“So we got pretty much everything we could then,” she said. “But the difficulty is that those have all ended and we are now working towards regaining our audience and our membership base and everything because everyone's sort of closed in. It just got a little harder.”
Since an equipment fund from the Canadian Council for the Arts is going to cease to exist come 2025 Ed Video will repair equipment instead of buying new equipment, said Dent.
“And so we have to look at our whole organization as a production centre. If we are not going to regularly get funding for new equipment, we're not sure if that's sustainable,” said Dent.
When it had grant money, $26,000 a year was spent on equipment.
The focus is going to turn to education through workshops, attracting more membership and having 50/50 draws to broaden its audience, she said.
She thinks sustainability is within reach.
About 300 to 350 pieces of work are created through the centre every year.
Dent hopes to reach the $20,000 fundraising target “so we don't go further in the hole.”
She would like the GoFundMe to help with publicity and increase participation “because in some ways we have always known that we are one of Guelph’s best kept secrets,” Dent said.
She also wants the community to know about Ed Video so it can attract the next generation of filmmakers.
Ed Video still has things planned for the next couple of months like hosting workshops and presenting an exhibition called Did You Eat? As part of its Pork & Screen symposium.
“I would like to get our membership back up. And just stabilize the organization,” said Dent.
