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4 . WATERW) CHMNICLE . Wednesday. Februlry 27, 2008 1 Gallery asks for review of funding deal "Groups like the K-W Symphony and the K-W Art Gallery are in line for budget support ahead of us. There's not even a line for us to join," Williams said, adding that regional entities are getting priority over the gallery, which is actually within the city borders. "There's no support for the home team.” The gallery is not looking necessarily for operating dollars, just an understanding of the current agreement. v "We're not coming in with an agenda, we lust want to find out how this process works. We need to have a discussion because we've never had one," he said. On top of that, the gallery doesn't even know which avenues are available to it to receive municipal funding he added. _ But the city provides little more than the building costs each year because of a funding process that excludes (KEG from applying for external grants It doesnt qualify for those external grants because it is housed in a city-owned facility, Robert I. Williams, the vice chair of the board of directors. told council on Monday. me do not qualify tor community cash grants, other than minor contributions," Williams said. Due to a complicated arrangement agreed upon in the early 1990s, the City of Waterloo owns the building that hous- es the gallery and covers the costs for it. terloo's Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery is stuck in W: strange limbo when it comes to receiving munici- pal grants, and gallery management wants to re- examine its deal with the city. . By GREG MACDONALD Chronicle staf 'mefshould at least-take a look at what the existing rela- tionship is, but we have to understand the history and where we are now before moving forward." City council asked staff to bring an outline of the history and details of the current agreement so that they could move towards a full review. . The discussion will have to happen soon if it has budget- ary implications, said Coun. lan McLean, V "There's no perfect time to do this but it will take us some timg to ptsél back the layers of this onion," he said. CCGG's-operating budget is about $800,000 per year. The gallery has received approximately $l0,000 from the city over the past four years, which averages out to a little over $2,000 a War. “We can spend that in about ten minutes," Achtemichuk "oir research has shown that in similar-sized galleries that municipal contribution is about 50 per cent of the open atir1gAut1get of the museum," he said. But a recession hit and the gallery turned to the city for help. The municipality agreed to complete construction of the Caroline Street building and retain ownership, leasing the fucilitytothegalleryior5oyearsattt ayear. Aside from a few educational grants every so often, that "tl',',',','? the extent of the city's support, Achtemichuk said. mpared to other galleries in the province, it's virtually nothing he added. “We just want to have a dialogue with the city to under- stand this agreement," he said. "No one at the gallery or the city__knows why we do things this way." The current agreement was reaEhed in 1992 just before the gallery's opening, said CCGG director Robert Achtemichuk. Gallery backers had raised provincial and federal dollars and, were relying onphiiar1thTpy for the remainder.