Past and present Port Arthur Rotary Presidents with the Executive Director of the Art Gallery - (CJ Goater/Acadia Broadcasting)
Thunder Bay’s waterfront art gallery is a step closer to hitting its fundraising goal.
The Port Arthur Rotary handed over a cheque for $100,000 at a ceremony on Thursday.
“Port Arthur Rotary has been anticipating this moment for the past four years in order to fulfill our 100th-anniversary pledge to the new Waterfront Gallery,” former Port Arthur Rotary president, Shelley Crawford, said “As our Centennial project we will leave our legacy in the naming of the ‘meeting room’ in the new Thunder Bay Art Gallery, and we encourage others to support the capital campaign of this award-winning facility.”
The pledge from the Port Arthur Rotary matches a prior donation of $100,000 from the Fort William Rotary.
The gallery is still in the middle of a capital campaign to raise the required funds to finish the facility.
At this time the gallery was unable to provide a set number as to how far away they are from their fundraising goal. In June the gallery reported being roughly $5 million short, so it is unclear if new costs have arisen.
The idea for a new gallery was first mentioned in 2009 before planning got underway in 2012. The original opening date was set for 2019, but the COVID-19 pandemic and waterfront environmental investigations ultimately delayed construction.
The current goal for the project is completion by the end of 2025.
Over the past couple of weeks, work has resumed at the building site for this year’s building season.
Funding for the project has been provided by all levels of government and the community. An initial commitment from the city of Thunder Bay of $5.7 million has led to commitments of over $40 million from the federal and provincial governments.
The waterfront project was originally estimated to cost roughly $50 million, but increased construction costs have pushed the price tag up closer to $60 million.
