The Tom Thomson Art Gallery is bleeding red ink.
Just how much exactly, remains to be seen.
Linda Myles Gallinger, chair of the volunteer board of the Tom Thomson Art Gallery, confirmed the likelihood of a 2017 year-end deficit to Owen Sound City Council at its meeting at the Harry Lumley Bayshore Community Centre Monday night (Oct. 30).
Gallinger says the board learned of the looming shortfall from its business administrator at an Oct. 10 meeting and since then have held two special meetings to put in place an action plan to reduce the amount before year’s end.
“We were on the cusp of incorporation and expansion, however we now understand we need to take a step back,” Gallinger tells Bayshore Broadcasting News. “We need to work closely with the city and make sure that we have a strong financial foundation, and a sustainable revenue stream for the future.”
City manager Wayne Ritchie says the Tom Thomson Art Gallery board asked city staff for assistance to “reconcile how much the deficit may be.”
“City staff are undertaking that review at this time and we are not in a position to say with certainty what that amount is,” Ritchie explains. “Certainly, Council and all of Owen Sound’s residents appreciate the value of the Tom Thomson Art Gallery as a valuable asset to the city and we will be proceeding to try to come up with what the deficit position is at this time.”
“And depending on that, what future plans are (to) fund that deficit.”
Ritchie says the city’s review should be complete before the end of the year.
This is the second straight fiscal year the Tom Thomson Art Gallery will post a deficit. In 2016, the shortfall was $85,000.
Mayor Ian Boddy says the news of another deficit came as a shock to city council.
“Though we don’t have a final calculation of how much that is, any deficit is disappointing,” Boddy says. “We were of the belief that things were going well and it kind of caught us off guard.”
Meeting minutes from the Tom Thomson Art Gallery’s Oct. 10 board meeting say budgetary concerns first arose in September. The minutes explain the budget was optimistic on revenues with the assumption the Art Gallery would be incorporated by mid-2017 — allowing access to more sources of funding.
In September 2017, Art Gallery staff were concerned and held a meeting with the Director of Corporate Services.
The minutes point to “running expensive exhibits and programs without confirmed revenue” as the contributor to deficit. Further, it says almost every program has overspent and is under revenue.
There’s no immediate indication of what the implications are because of the expected shortfall. Gallinger assured “the doors will remain open” at the Tom Thomson Art Gallery.
The Gallery plans to spend the final quarter of 2017 raising funds and mitigating expenses to help reduce the deficit.