A new facility for Emily Carr University
Posted January 23, 2013 10:14 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – Emily Carr University of Art + Design will be moving from its longtime home on Granville Island. The provincial government today announced $113 million for a new, larger campus on Great Northern Way in Vancouver.
Total cost of the project is $134 million, with the balance coming from the school and donors.
“I am committed, our government is committed, to making sure this institution becomes one of the world’s greatest institutions for the arts,” says Premier Christy Clark, speaking at the Great Northern Way campus that will become the university’s new home. Emily Carr will join BCIT, SFU, and UBC at that location.
“We want to ensure that not only do we change this neighbourhood, which it certainly will, but that we change our city and our country by attracting the best and the brightest to this institution,” she says.
Construction on the new school is due to start in May of 2014 with a tentative completion date of July 2016, creating an estimated 1,500 construction jobs.
At 26,600 square metres, the new school is designed to hold more than 1,800 students. The location on Granville Island, which opened more than 30 years ago, was designed for only 800 students.
The future of the old school is unknown, though Chancellor Jake Kerr says the intention is to keep the school’s ‘legacy’ alive on Granville Island.
“The bottom line is that Emily Carr has very much enjoyed being on Granville Island, we have a real presence there, and it would be our goal, and is our goal, to continue to have one after we have a new campus on Great Northern Way,” he says.
“What that will be — whether it’s a satellite campus, whether it’s a continuing-education facility, a library — we’re not sure,” he adds. “But we’re going to sit down with CMHC who are our landlords down there and start talking about it.”
The chancellor expects to meet with representatives of the federal-government agency next week to talk about the old school’s future.
“We’re not leaving Granville Island until 2016 at the earliest, so you’ve got three years to sort it out.”
This is the second major arts-related announcement this week by the provincial government. Yesterday, the premier committed $11 million to host a Bollywood awards show in Vancouver. That money was announced the same day that thousands of BC film workers rallied in North Vancouver, asking the government for more tax breaks to support the sector.
Today, the premier repeated her stand that BC taxpayers are doing enough already for that industry.
“The comparison, I think, is often with Ontario, which is engaged in a ‘race to the bottom’ to try and provide those tax credits” says Clark. “I think $285 million on the part of citizens and the province to support the industry — I think citizens are being generous with that.”
Despite deeper tax breaks in other parts of the country, Clark asserts that “much of that work will still be done here in BC, because this is where we are training the talent.”
A petition launched by the sector, part of its Save BC Film, has already received more than 26,000 signatures — less than 4,000 shy of its stated goal. The campaign can also be found on Twitter and Facebook.
