President Ken opened the meeting with a toast to the Queen, Canada and Rotary, and then led members in reciting the ‘Four-Way Test’.
Today’s Speaker:
Tim Jennings - Executive Director/CEO of The Shaw Festival:
Alan Walker introduced the meeting’s guest speaker, Tim Jennings.
Bio
A respected and awarded performing arts manager with more than 35 years of international professional experience, Tim Jennings is a passionate social advocate known for his creativity, financial acumen, leadership skills and energy. He joined the Shaw Festival as its Executive Director in 2015.
Tim was also appointed to the Lord Mayor’s Niagara-on-the-Lake COVID-19 recovery advisory group and regularly collaborates with similar groups regarding arts and tourism across North America. Additionally, with the assistance of the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy, he created the Education and Community Outreach Specialists program and rehired many of the Festival’s independent contractors as summer employees who worked the remainder of the season as ambassadors for The Shaw, creators of online content and artist educators in education and outreach programs.
Presentation
2019 was the best year ever for the Shaw Festival. The Shaw Guild has approximately 330 members to help support the Shaw Festival. When Covid hit, the Shaw Festival helped make and then donated 2,000 PPE gowns plus masks. Fortunately, an astute move by Tim to purchase pandemic insurance in 2016 allowed the Festival to keep most of its artists and workers employed during the Covid outbreak. Tim highlighted the importance of the Festival. Specifically, he noted that in NOTL, 14% of people work in arts, culture and heritage vs a normal average of 2%. Approximately 40% of the audience at a performance is from the US. Post pandemic, Tim realizes the importance of getting people back together to help relieve the mental stress from Covid. He is also looking to hire a more diverse group. He originally planned to reopen the Shaw Festival on May 1, but it is now more likely to reopen later in the summer, including a series of outdoor concerts.
It was asked “what can our Rotary club do to help the Shaw Festival?” Tim responded with “Rotary means a sense of community. Let Shaw know where Rotary sees a need, as Shaw is a center point to help other groups. Shaw is there to serve public good.” It was also asked “How do the actors rehearse safely?” Tim replied “the actors rehearse via Zoom. However, they hope to be able to practice in person in early June.” Tim hopes to get ‘priority vaccines’ as the Shaw is in the top 20 employers in Niagara.
