Do the downtrodden of West Van not deserve VSO?
Re: “Dribbled money to get direction” [Arts Notes, Nov. 9-16]. This slanted article, through quotes from Burnaby Mayor Derek Corrigan and others, implies that the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, while “unfairly” receiving the highest ($36,000) of the GVRD grants to arts organizations, does not serve the GVRD’s needs because it is based in Vancouver and therefore is not “region-serving”. As a member of the VSO, I have just checked my schedule for this season and would like to make the article’s author, GVRD members, and readers of the Georgia Straight aware of the fact that the orchestra will be performing concerts this season in Surrey, Maple Ridge, Tsawwassen, North Vancouver, West Vancouver, Burnaby, and at UBC. In addition, the VSO will play educational concerts for many thousands of schoolchildren from all over the GVRD who are brought in to the Orpheum Theatre by bus. Personally, I think that’s not a bad return on the GVRD’s investment of $36,000, which, by the way, is about 1.5 cen
