A new name is on the horizon for the Rotary Performing Arts Centre (RPAC) when the 10-year partnership deal with The Rotary Club of Okotoks and the Town of Okotoks expired on April 4.
This means that the facility’s name will change to Old Church Theatre to honour the building’s origins.
The Rotary Club of Okotoks has held the naming rights of the facility for the last 10 years and now that their contract is up, the Town of Okotoks is looking for a new partner for the historic building.
The naming rights partner will have its business or group’s name ahead of the Old Church Theatre’s for the next five years.
Allan Boss, the culture and heritage manager for the town of Okotoks is overseeing the naming rights partner agreement.
The role of the naming rights partner would be to support the building and the activities that involve it but more importantly it would be an advertising opportunity, according to Boss.
“The money would go back to the community,” he said.
The RPAC was a Methodist Church back when it was built in 1906, then became the Okotoks United Church in 1917.
After the church’s numbers started to grow they put the building up for sale in 2002 and was bought by the Okotoks Arts Council in order to preserve the historic building.
After renovations and fund-raising the arts council donated the building to Okotoks and was reopened in 2005.
In 2009, the building underwent a large structural project that required a $1 million investment and a subsequent $150,000 for interior remodeling.
The building was unofficially re-opened in November 2010 where the Dewdney Players production of Sorry Wrong Chimney performed and had an official re-opening about three months later.
Boss said that nobody has come forward with any partnership proposals yet, including the Rotary Club.
According to John Lockhart, a former president and current member of the Okotoks Rotary Club, they haven’t been approached about it either.
When the building was being renovated in 2005, the rotary club approached the town with $50,000 of funding which is what got them the original naming rights partnership.
The funds were put towards critical repairs to the building.
“Engineering around the foundation needed to be redone and a total reconstruction to build the staging,” Lockhart said. “That’s where we stepped in.”
Lockhart said they wouldn’t be interested in another piecemeal deal and would be more interested in a permanent naming partnership but that kind of deal isn’t what’s being offered by the town.
The deadline for submissions for naming rights is April 20.
