A nearly $40,000 provincial grant has helped Stratford’s Off the Wall Artists Alliance recover from the COVID-19 pandemic and ensure its theatre-arts-training programs continue into the future.
Thanks to nearly $40,000 in provincial funding, Stratford’s Off the Wall Artists Alliance theater arts training group is beginning to build back its programming following significant setbacks during the COVID-19 pandemic.
On Friday, Off the Wall board members, staff and students met with Perth-Wellington MPP Matt Rae to show the MPP how a $38,500 Community Building Fund grant from the province and the Ontario Trillium Foundation has helped the organization recover from the pandemic’s impact on its ability to teach the backstage skills needed in theater production and return to pre-pandemic revenue levels.
“I’m happy to be here today to recognize the Off the Wall Artists Alliance for the great work they do and what they’ve been able to achieve with the Ontario Trillium grant they received,” Rae said. ” … With this grant, (Off the Wall) was able to adapt to the pandemic measures, continue to operate their facilities and deliver programs in new and innovative ways.”
The funds were used to hire staff focused on health and safety requirements as well as support facility rental costs and the purchase of technical equipment and computer software to deliver online programs when in-person activities weren’t possible over the past two years.
However, Off the Wall estimates its revenues fell by roughly 80 percent after March 2020 and, when programming resumed last year, it was at a significantly reduced capacity.
“Most of Off the Wall’s courses involve hands-on training, a lot of physical work and close proximity between students and instructors,” Off the Wall board co-chair Michele Boniface said in a press release. “We’ve done a lot to adjust our physical teaching environments and have added many new protocols to keep everybody safe, but COVID set us back significantly.
“While we strive to build back to pre-pandemic revenue levels, the Community Building Fund grant is easing the pressure of a facilities rental increase. The funds are also helping Off the Wall return, safely, to full operations by covering costs for a full-time health-and-safety coordinator and financing equipment to improve air quality in our teaching spaces.”
And for Off the Wall’s students, that funding and all the extra work the organization has put into improving safety to ensure programming continues is a big deal.
“I hope to someday be a professional prop maker,” Stratford prop-making student Sachi Belle said. “I went to university for design for the theater and performance creation, but because I graduated during the pandemic and so much of my degree was online, I thought it would be really good to refresh some skills.
” … It helped me to get into university (back in 2015) and now, hopefully it will help to jumpstart my career now that I’ve graduated and get back out there after everything shut down.”
For 18 seasons, Off the Wall has offered a wide range of inclusive and accessible theater production courses to help develop the skills of professional, volunteer and novice theater artists. Work by Off the Wall’s students has contributed to many local theater productions and museum installations, and many of the instructors are the same professionals who help stage large and complex productions at the Stratford Festival.
