As the story goes, in October 2005, board members of the Golden District Arts Council (rebranded in 2004 as Kicking Horse Culture) participated with community leaders in an organizational assessment and strategic planning initiative.
This new group of supporters attempted to rejuvenate the 35-year-old arts council’s fortunes. As the weekend sessions closed, it became time to consider a new Mission. Participants broke out into pairs and imagined words to animate this new energy and direction for the arts council.
When the group reconvened and shared their brainstorming around the circle, Maggie Calladine and Bob Wilson reported back to the group, “We came up with three words … engage, energize, enrich. What do you think?” Time to open a bottle of wine and celebrate, said the rest!
The Town and Regional District voted unanimously to enter into this partnership, and the first agreement was signed in June 2006. This agreement between Kicking Horse Culture and our municipal leaders has grown and strengthened over the last two decades, fostering the realization of some powerful community dreams.
The Art Gallery of Golden was created in 2007 and re-opened in its current location in 2008. Also in 2007, KHC took over management of the Civic Centre and, in the next five years, raised over $1.1 million to support the Town’s restoration and rebirth of the dilapidated building as Golden’s dedicated performing arts centre and community gathering place.
Welcome to Engaged. Energized. Enriched. A KHC Scrapbook 2004 – 2024. It’s a collection of over 500 photos Bill Usher took, with additional images from Claire Dibble and some unknown contributors. “A picture’s worth a thousand words.” Over the last few months, Tammy Prather and Bill Usher have been scouring through various digital caches of images, looking for those snapshots and showing photos that would tell the stories of KHC’s Mission in action.
Curator Tammy Prather says, “Bill has taken thousands of images over the years, and we started going year by year looking for those images that showed folks in our community participating and enjoying moments together. It finally became apparent that the only title for the exhibit should be engaged, energized, and enriched.”
The Opening Artists’ Reception will be from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. on Friday, April 26th, at the Art Gallery of Golden. The exhibit will run from April 26th through May 25th.
