Stratford’s Off the Wall (OTW) will use $48,100 from the Ontario Trillium Foundation's (OTF) Resilient Communities Fund to update recruitment efforts.
Matthew Rae, Member of Provincial Parliament for Perth-Wellington, announced the financial boost Friday, so the arts organization can continue to support creativity in the community.
“Our provincial government is proud to support a resilient and strong arts community in Stratford,” said MPP Rae. “Off the Wall has been a consistent training and development resource for local creatives and I’m glad to see that the $48,100 Resilient Communities Fund grant has helped support their continued efforts to provide lasting and strategic support to our local arts community.”
According to a media release, the investment will help the threatre production arts training company improve outreach with modern marketing and fundraising to attract more revenue and new participants. That includes a refreshed website, new graphic design, and fund content.
“This OTF grant is transformative. At Off the Wall, we came to realize that we needed planned growth and more sophisticated marketing, programming and fundraising strategies,” said OTW Board Director Michele Boniface. “Over the past 20 years our passionate volunteers have fueled our success, but we need to add professional staff and a more strategic response to changes in the marketplace so we can continue to train up the next generation of backstage professionals.”
The plan is already showing results, with higher than expected enrolment in new workshops and the fall roster. Off the Wall added new and shorter workshops to complement core programming. The hope that will make it easier for students to fit classes into their busy schedules.
Last year, OTF invested more than $110M into 1,044 community projects and multi-sector partnerships.
