The President of the Foundation, Michael O’Brian, has been a long time friend and advisor both to MOA and the UBC Faculty of Arts, and a dedicated supporter of the arts in Vancouver. Both he and his wife, Dr. Inna Vlassev O’Brian, are avid art collectors and actively involved in community affairs. “We are extremely fortunate to have friends like Michael who are so enthusiastically helping MOA to expand our scope in the acquisition and display of traditional and contemporary world arts and cultures,” says MOA Director Anthony Shelton.

On Thursday, Western Star Auctions will help the school auction off furnishings valued at over $48,000 after Derek Trethewey offered up the contents of two of his own homes he recently sold to help finance the young dance company’s work.

As the developer behind The Cove Lakeside Resort on the Westside, The Lakes in Lake Country and The Outback Resort in Vernon, Trethewey is no stranger to success, but keeping others at the top of their game has long been a trademark of the businessman as well.

Located on the second level, Satellite Gallery is a joint project of three institutions: the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery and Museum of Anthropology (MOA) at the University of B.C. and Presentation House Gallery in North Vancouver.

Satellite has been able to open thanks to financial support from the Michael O’Brian Family Foundation. It’s paying the bills for the space, estimated to be about $100,000 a year according to Michael O’Brian, the foundation’s president.

“You know what excites me? I really do think that the arts generally are so important to a community,” O’Brian said.

In response to the funding crisis in the local arts community following cuts earlier this year, CHUM Radio Vancouver, which includes 103.5 QM/FM, The Beat 94.5 and TEAM Radio, reconstituted the ArtsFACT Board and charged it with the task of distributing the fund, with the entire $500,000 to be distributed within the local arts community.

The Canada Council for the Arts and the National Youth Orchestra of Canada announced the Michael Measures Prize Tuesday in Toronto.

The prize is being established with a $1 million bequest from Michael Measures, an Ottawa classical music lover who died in 2008.

The first award is to be given in summer 2011 and will go to a musician aged 16-22 who has completed the summer training program with the NYOC.

“This gift will ensure that our contemporary arts program is not just located in the Downtown Eastside,” said SFU president Andrew Petter, “but also is a vital and contributing member of the neighbourhood.”

Half of the donation will support the university’s capital campaign and help secure cutting-edge teaching and performance facilities for students and community arts groups, a press release said.

The other $5 million will help create programs aimed at engaging the Downtown Eastside community through the Goldcorp Centre for the Arts Community Endowment.

When the school opens next month in its new location, two of its major performance spaces — a cinema and a world art centre — will bear his name.

The 350-seat Djavad Mowafaghian Cinema, equipped with the latest projection and sound systems, will showcase student film projects as well as festival and community film screenings. It will also be suitable for lectures, panel discussions and large classes.

The Djavad Mowafaghian World Art Centre will be an acoustically sophisticated venue that will provide a dramatic setting for the performance and study of world music.

When the campus opens next month it will have the 350-seat Djavad Mowafaghian Cinema and the Djavad Mowafaghian World Art Centre.

Mowafaghian made his fortune as a developer in Iran before he moved to Vancouver in 1987. His foundation has supported many projects in B.C. and around the world, including B.C. Children’s Hospital.

In the European context those some-ones were the church and/or the aristocracy, before governments somewhat reluctantly inherited the role of patron of the arts.

Most of us are accustomed to thinking of performers and patrons as separate species. Some perform; others pay.

But it’s not always that simple. The great court of Louis XIV was kept busy with court dance and theatrics, and Louis expected his entourage to take a vital part in his high-class amusements.

In more recent times, Gilbert & Sullivan societies and amateur groups devoted to the Broadway musical raise funds, produce, and perform, with lines of demarcation rather blurred.

This is also true of Cantonese opera. Many of that art form’s great patrons are also performers themselves.

The $10,000 grants were announced Monday in Ottawa.

Tétreault, 17, has studied violoncello with Yuli Turovsky and given solo performances with chamber ensembles such as Musici de Montréal, Orchestre l’Orchestre Métropolitain and the National Academy Orchestra of Canada.

Kozciki, 31, who won the award for English-language theatre, has had film, television and voice assignments with production houses in Vancouver and Calgary.

“I was speechless,” Anne Geddes, president of the Parks and Recreation Foundation of Victoria, said when told about the donation. The foundation, which is spearheading the campaign, first approached the Calgary-based communications company in January.

“It’s just the best news ever.”

The contribution brings the campaign within $50,000 of its goal.

The agreement with TD will introduce ‘Students Are Stars Seating,’ an initiative that allows students to purchase tickets for $20 – a savings of 40-60 per cent depending on the seats selected, with a valid high school, college or university ID.

“We are thrilled to have TD as our partner,” says James Cronk, managing producer for Theatre Under the Stars. “As a non-profit outdoor theatre it is a challenge each year to keep ticket prices affordable while costs increase. We have a great need for supportive corporate sponsors and partnering with TD is a giant step forward in making theatre more affordable to members of our community.”

Now in its 64th year, TUTS is the iconic summer tradition performed at Malkin Bowl in Stanley Park. It has long been an affordable and unique summer experience for Vancouverites yet its need for additional support was apparent. The organization recently announced that it had received an unprecedented 10-year lease to occupy Malkin Bowl year-round with a major theatre renovation starting in October 2010.

The Maple Ridge company provides professional sound, lighting equipment and crew for events, concerts, theatrical productions and parties.

The purpose of the sponsorship is to broaden the bases for more organizations to continue with their events by compensating the effects of deep cuts to  arts and culture and dwindling corporate and private sponsorship, said Peter Tam.

Teck Resources Limited, Canada’s largest mining company, has donated $1 million to the Museum for its three-phase redevelopment, the Britannia Project, which aims to transform the historic mining site into a vibrant internationally recognized destination.

“On behalf of everyone at Teck, we are pleased to be able to support the BC Museum of Mining and the terrific work that it does,” said Don Lindsay, President and CEO of Teck Resources. “The museum plays a vital role in preserving the history of mining in B.C. and educating the public about the incredibly important contribution that responsible mining makes to people’s lives.”