Province Grants Extension to Harcourt House

The piece by Cory Schachtel in Urban Affairs (Harcourt House Needs Help, August 10, 2022) was absolutely well written and down to the point, especially in the context of a similar situation at CKUA Radio, and extremely helpful in our [W.E.C.A.N./Harcourt House] campaign. Our fundraising campaign on GoFundMe is progressing well: we have raised nearly $32K of the $70K goal as of this very moment.

The very reason for launching our crowdfunding campaign on the GoFundMe platform was to demonstrate grassroots community support in Edmonton and from across Canada for the Society’s goal to secure a sustainable permanent facility for Harcourt House Artist Run Centre in Edmonton. This broad community support for this important community project is needed in our negotiations with all levels of government, prospective corporate sponsors, private foundations, and other funding sources/streams to secure the rest of funding to make Harcourt House permanent and secure. Please help us spread the word that fundraising has begun to help us secure ownership of our home at Harcourt House and direct people to our GoFundMe Fundraiser.

Recently, the Hon. Nicholas Milliken, the new Minister of Alberta Infrastructure, visited Harcourt’s facilities, had a chat with our tenant artists, and then met with the representatives of Harcourt’s Board and Management (including yours truly) to discuss the future of Harcourt House. Three days later, we received the letter from Minister Milliken. The Minister has generously granted the W.E.C.A.N. Society/Harcourt House Artist Run Centre a one-year extension to our lease, which will give us until November 30, 2023, to accomplish our fundraising goal of $3.5 million and make our home permanent and stable. In short: the first, major step has been accomplished; now it’s time for a heavy-lifting fund development campaign. I would like to express my thanks to Urban Affairs and to Cory personally, please forward our words of appreciation to Cory for his invaluable media support.

Yours in Art,
Jacek Malec + The Harcourt Team