Here is the summary of articles posted in the Febraury newsletter. this was sent by email today (Feb. 12)

McKee House – a new home for DCMS

Delta Community Music School will be moving to a new location in March 2010. After about 8 months of discussions and negotiations with the Corporation of Delta, we will be moving from our present location on Haviland Street to the McKee Heritage House on Arthur Drive and 47^th Avenue. Many of our members may be aware that we have been looking into the possibility of finding a new home for the music school for many years.
Over the last decade, we have taken over more and more of the available office space on the second floor above the carpet store. We currently have the complete upper floor.  Over the last 15 years, our DCMS board has searched for several alternative locations for the school. Since the spring of 2009 we have been seriously looking at the McKee Heritage House as a possible site. It seems a natural fit to be in the same block as the community centre, senior’s recreation center, public library and the Boys and Girls Club.

After a summer of negotiations, with Delta Parks Recreation and Culture, we entered into a fall trial period where the house was being used on a trial basis for lessons and several of our teachers moved over to use the space. The use of the house has now been approved by the PRC commission and Council and we will be moving to our new location at McKee Heritage House during the Spring break of March 2010.
Look for an Open House event to be held at the house this Spring.

We Need Your Help!!

To Help with the Move to the McKee House we need volunteers and donations for the following:

1) Painting
We will be doing some minor painting of the trim throughout the house. We need volunteers to assist with this during the first two weeks of March.

2) Donations – we need a few furnishings for the new house
book cases – similar to Ikea “billy” book cases, under 48” high, we will also need a “kitchen table” for the faculty area.

Thanks to Annie Rambo for her amazing efforts in the past few weeks to keep our schedules in place, bills paid and the school running. Thanks to our board members. Allen Moy, Jo James and to Annie Rambo for assisting with the search for a new office administrator. Thanks to Pat Rogers, Allen Moy and Jo James for their work with the negotiations with the Corporation of Delta with our upcoming move to the McKee Heritage House

Volunteers

Thanks to all the parents who help with our recital receptions. We who teach at DCMS really appreciate those get together moments after the recital and having a chance to talk to our students and parents. There is precious little time to interact with parents because of busy schedules in our modern lives; these reception events are sometimes the only chance we get to talk to you. Thanks to Jo James for organizing these events for us and to all of you who come to help. Your efforts are appreciated. A few extra hands make less work, so it is important that we continue to have your support.

Thanks to those who helped out with our BBQ at Save-on-foods this past fall. They stood in the cold and wind and a drop or two of rain to raise over $225 for the school. Thanks to Eileen Day, the Brush, Gulick and Sawyer Families, Marcey Passmore, and Agnes Bauer. More than half of that money was from donations made while DCMS students serenaded the shoppers.

We look forward to a very challenging and exciting year of hiring new staff, moving to new locations and continuing to provide quality music lessons for our communities.

The Demise of Arts Funding

Like most arts organizations in BC, the DCMS did not receive any gaming funds from the province for this year after more than 20 years of support. All of the arts education organizations in Delta and Richmond that I know of have been affected by this. With our current economic climate, it is likely it will be some years before any of us receive any provincial funding again. What is really sad that even in 2007 before any of these grant cuts, BC had the lowest per capita funding for the arts of all the provinces in Canada. My concern is not for cutting grants to “lazy artists”, but of the underlying impact this will have on parents and families who are struggling to pay for music lessons, soccer, hockey and a mortgage I have been volunteering for the British Columbia Association of Community Music Schools for the past 2 years, and part of my volunteer contribution is their website and blog. If you are interested in reading about the arts cuts, and what it means, have a look at the blog. You will find the link at www.bcacms.bc.ca

Bottle Returns

A reminder that you can donate your returnable bottles and cans to the DCMS. There is a receptacle to deposit them in our main waiting room. The nickels and dimes from this do add up over the course of the year. Items ranging from furniture for the studios to our vacuum cleaner and even computer software have been purchased with these funds. Thanks to our board and those of you who drop off your bottles to us every month.

South Delta Jazz Festival and Workshop

Look for more information soon about our seventh annual South Delta Jazz Festival and Workshop. This year’s event will be from July 6 – 10, 2010 and we are planning for most of our regular faculty to be on hand once again this year including Rob Kohler, Jared Burrows, Brad Muirhead, and Alan Matheson

Our Jazz Ensembles will be presenting a concert and fundraiser for the festival in late April.

RCM Exam results

Congratulations to our RCM Exam Students.

Claire Preston – Grade VI (clarinet) – first class honours

Andrew Ward – Grade VIII (clarinet) – first class honours.