The MAC is open for business.
That's the message the from interim board member Dave Klinger of the Oceanside Community Arts Council, at the McMillan Arts Centre in Parksville.
An official interim board will be elected on November 25, but the current group has already started actively pursuing people and groups in the community to collaborate with the OCAC and rent space at the McMillan Arts Centre (the MAC).
"We've got a beautiful space here so lets use it," Klinger said. We'd like to see this place open from nine in the morning to nine at night with groups and all weekend, including churches — we've got a pulpit too."
Klinger said the new interim board may look at dividing the umbrella organization, the OCAC, from the MAC and create separate committees. Visual arts exhibitions and series like the MACoustic Folk night and Stories for the Telling will continue to be hosted at the MAC. The only thing that has been cancelled is the newly started pub night, Klinger said.
Coun. Mark Lefebvre, the city's liasion to the MAC, said Wednesday: "If the plan is to keep the building they are going to need a significant source of on-going funding . . . that's a money pit."
Klinger said last week there had already been 10 people putting their names in to run for the interim board, when only seven are needed. That means an election will take place on November 25 at 7 p.m. at the MAC, where members can vote, and where new memberships will be sold at the door.