The Lakes Artisan Centre, which was facing a tough decision on whether or not to keep its doors open, will be staying open for the foreseeable future.
Beate Marquardt, one of the founding members and artisans for the centre said, “We won’t be giving notice. We’ll stay open after September either by having three members act as six or by attracting new members as applications are expected soon.”
What that means is that some of the artisans with the centre who work in two different mediums like resin work and paintings, would be considered as two artisans instead of one for the purposes of display space within the centre, number of hours they work and their share of the rent.
Marquardt also said that centre is expecting new applications from artisans to come in soon and that would help with the rent as well.
RELATED: Lakes Artisan Centre fears permanent closure
The centre has been facing difficulty covering their overhead expenses including the rent, the electricity, interac charges and other miscellaneous charges to keep their doors open.
In July, the centre wrote a letter to the Village of Burns Lake seeking rent relief.
“We are a cooperative, and we share the monthly expenses, so with the reduced members and the reduced hours, it brought the expenses up,” said Marquardt.
During the village’s council meeting on Aug. 11, the council discussed the letter and later presented the centre with a couple of options that could help them cover the rent.
According to Marquardt, the village has presented them with a viable solution that doesn’t include rent reduction however, the centre won’t be disclosing any more details on this until a contract is in place, as per the village’s advise.
Priyanka Ketkar
Multimedia journalist
@PriyankaKetkar
priyanka.ketkar@ldnews.net
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