WHAT OUR SUPPORTERS SAY
Avon Maitland District School Board
"We understand and value the importance of the Arts both in education and for the community and we believe such a Centre will be of significant benefit for our students as well as the Stratford and area community."
Jennifer Stewart, Theatre Artist
“How wonderful would it be to have an Arts and Culture Centre in Stratford! . . . Artists who now have to leave the city to create (myself included), would be able to stay in Stratford, to work and to create their art from their hometown. I believe that Stratford is a magical place where a group of people can have a dream, and with hard work and determination, they can really make that dream come true!”
Music and Opera Appreciation
“SACC represents our shared artistic beliefs. We recognize the importance of culture in our communities and Music and Opera Appreciation presents culturally vital programming that enhances the quality of community life through music education. . . The Arts and Culture Centre would provide the necessary scope for our organization to thrive and grow into the future.”
Perth County Players
“For us, a new performance space would provide our productions with a suitable venue for our performers (a proper stage), our crew (enhanced lighting and sound capabilities) as well as our audience (comfort). The concept of a hub would provide Perth County Players and many other organizations a ‘performance home’ which could be shared cooperatively amongst arts organizations.”
Stratford Concert Band
"We enthusiastically endorse the project of the Stratford Arts and Culture Collective to bring a multi-use performance facility to the Cooper Site. Stratford has a vital tradition of arts- related activities. . .We believe that ALL artists in Stratford deserve spaces in which to create, innovate and perform, and the SACC's proposal for an Arts hub would truly serve those needs."
Stratford Summer Music
"We at Summer Music have utilized existing community spaces for our events for the last seventeen years, and will continue to do so in future seasons. But there have been artists we have been unable to present due to venue size and amenity restrictions. We believe a well designed performance hall would offer more options to presenters, such as Summer Music, allowing for expanded programming choices."
Carla Coles, Artist and Author
"Artistic persons in conjunction with proper space and tools to develop our projects, can only serve to better our art and our everyday."
Kiwanis Festival of the Performing Arts
“The Kiwanis Festival of the Performing Arts Stratford would benefit greatly from such a facility. It holds the potential of becoming a prime location for our programming. Many of our young performers exhibit outstanding talent and deserve to be recognized as promising and upcoming performers in our community.”
Off the Wall Stratford Artists Alliance
"Having worked in the arts and culture sector in Stratford for 15 years, I know there is an unfortunate void in affordable spaces for artistic expression. SACC’s efforts towards developing a shared, multipurpose facility will benefit all cultural groups and, indeed all citizens."
Playmakers! Theatre School
“Playmakers! is one of many arts groups in our city that will benefit directly from a dedicated, well-equipped, flexible and affordable space, zoned for public assembly, of the type envisioned by the SACC. . . . Such a centre would increase Playmakers! capacity to serve the young people of our community. In a properly-equipped space such as the new community arts centre, increased numbers of children and youth will experience—and demonstrate—the magical transformation that live theatre brings to their lives.”
Stratford Concert Choir
"As a 90+ choir, it is sometimes challenging to find a performance space that can accommodate our large size, especially when guest choirs or orchestral musicians join us."
Stratford Writers Festival
“A new culture centre would be an ideal place for us to host our Festival, and bring the literary and artistic scenes together in one central space. This ideal venue would allow us to grow our festival, offer increased programming, collaborate with other local artists and groups, and bring in even more talented authors and artists to the community.”
Festival Sounds Chorus
“There would be so many benefits to having a dedicated Stratford Arts and Culture Centre! To have a dedicated Arts and Culture Centre would mean that all groups could be more visible. With one great venue, more eyes would be focused on the happenings in one venue, which could mean more audiences for all groups.”
Mmmm Composers In Concert
"The Arts and Culture Centre would be of immense benefit to us as composers and presenters, providing us with amenities which have not thus far been locally available. . .we feel that the Centre will itself be of untold benefit to the City of Stratford and its cultural development."
On Stage Dance Studio
"Stratford is a community that is rich in culture and this potential space would be well used and embraced by all our organizations. This venue would offer wonderful opportunities not only for us but for all the great cultural groups in this area."
Springworks
"We are extremely excited about the possibility of a mid-sized theatre that can be added to the city’s more ad hoc venues. We are currently unable to host various scales of puppetry work as there is no venue with the technical functionality or seating capacity to warrant some of the amazing international artists we would like to present here. We look forward to the exciting opportunities being considered at the Grand Trunk site."
Stratford Festival
"Today we have a wealth of small festivals, independent artists and producers, and amateur arts organizations - all of whom would greatly benefit from modern facilities in which to showcase their work. Stratford also has an abundance of ardent supporters of the arts, creating a solid audience base for users of a new centre, an audience that could be augmented by the hundreds of thousands of people who visit Stratford each year for plays and musical events."
The Provocation Ideas Festival
"A dedicated centre would significantly enhance PIF’s ability to present innovative, interdisciplinary work that brings together performance, dialogue, and community participation. It would allow us to deepen our programming in Stratford, expand year-round offerings, and better engage diverse audiences. More broadly, this initiative represents an important investment in Stratford’s cultural future—strengthening its creative ecosystem, supporting emerging and established artists alike, and ensuring that bold, locally rooted ideas can be shared, experienced, and celebrated."