I hope to post my report on the James North Art Crawl later today, but before that I feel obliged to draw attention to some recent bad news that threatens to change the shape of Hamilton’s downtown arts community.

The Sky Dragon Community Development Co-operative at 27 King William has occupied a considerable niche in the local community since 2004, presenting exhibitions, events and a kick-ass organic cafe among other things. As with many of Hamilton’s cultural institutions, making ends meet is always a struggle, and as Sky Dragon has recently announced, survival has become a lot more difficult.

From the newly-established Save The Dragon blog:

“The Coop, and the community space it has sustained, the Sky Dragon Centre, are under substantial threat right now. Our current mortgage-holder is no longer willing to finance the project, and we have until April 18th to find new financing to keep the centre open. At stake is a first mortgage in the building the Coop owns at 27 King William St.. A refinance deal for $260,000 is what’s needed to keep the centre open, and its clear that no traditional financial institution (bank, credit union) will lend us the money. In four years with our current financier we’ve never missed a mortgage payment. In truth though, we have also scraped by month to month, and have had periods where we’ve been in the red.

“In the face of this existential threat, our little Coop and the community centre it supports need to evolve. The mud-puddle we’ve been swimming in is fast drying up, and its time to grow some feet and adapt to the changing circumstances.”

An impromptu meeting was held this past Sunday night, which I’ve only learned of after the fact (I spent my weekend playing ostrich with a job application) but Paul Antic at the James Street North blog has reported back with some valuable particulars though there’s clearly still a lot of unanswered questions in the air, particularly surrounding the fate of that particular stretch of King William, which seems to destroy a new part of itself with ominous regularity.

Paul’s immediate break-down of the issue points out that if 13,500 people each donate $20, they will raise the money needed to refinance the building. It’s a noble idea, but 13,500 is a lot of people, a hell of a lot more than what pitched in for George Bailey in It’s a Wonderful Life, and time is short. This may require a more radical solution, and hopefully one will be forthcoming in a second, larger meeting in the coming weeks. The date of this meeting is to be announced early next week, and I will be sure to update here when that information is known.

In the meantime, please keep your eyes peeled for updates on both Save The Dragon and jamesstreetnorth.ca, with added thanks to the latter being the first to report on this development.

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