The Watson Art Centre recently released the results of their Community Survey. Overall, it looks like people of the Parkland definitely understand the Watson's importance, and they want to see it going strong.
Cam Bennet, Watson Art Centre Chairman, said they wanted to get the results before their Annual General Meeting last week to talk about them. This year's survey didn't have many respondents, but they were from all across the Parkland.
"It was about a two or three week period a couple weeks back, took us a little while to sort of get to the results, we had our AGM coming up so we wanted to have those results for our AGM, and then once the AGM was over, then we released them to the public just a few days ago...we had 37 respondents from the community, but interestingly enough, there was responses from all over the region, it wasn't just the City of Dauphin, we're finding out more and more that the Watson is a regional hub," said Bennet.
The survey shows some consistently positive ratings for the Watson: 4.06/5 for Overall Experience, 4.78/5 for Importance to Dauphin and the Surrounding Region, and 4.42/5 for Value to the Community. Additionally, 32 of 37 respondents supported municipal taxpayer support for the Watson, and 34 of 37 respondents said public support for arts and culture facilities is important.
The feedback wasn't all pats on the back. Bennet said they did receive a few criticisms and feedback points that they'll discuss in the near future, and they also got a lot of different requests for types of programming people want, like workshops and classes, and community lectures or speaker events.
Though surveys like this - where people answer if they want - always have a higher than usual level of bias, Bennet said he'd definitely support partnerships with groups like the Dauphin Neighbourhood Renewal Corporation or the City of Dauphin to complete a more impartial survey of the community.
"It's a self-selected survey, so we expected people that had complements to answer. There were a few criticisms or suggestions that we'll take into a board meeting and discuss...one of the things that I think the Watson needs is more hard data, to really get an understanding of where we sit in the community, what we do well, what we can do better," said Bennet.
Bennet also wanted to thank the community for showing the Watson so much support over the years. They wouldn't be anywhere near where they are now if it wasn't for the generous community support they've received.
