A proposal to create a new arts and wellness centre in the town of Arborg is causing excitement, even though it's only in the early stages. Carissa Remple's putting together a proposal for the facility's creation and presented her ideas to Council last week. While she's still exploring the opportunity, she's excited about the possibilities. She says the facility could house everything from a theatre space and classrooms to a quilting room, yoga studios, and possibly a meditation garden. Remple also notes there seems to be a demand for artists to do residencies, so a studio apartment is another possibility for the centre. 

Carissa Remple (submitted photo)

Remple pitched the idea due to her life-long passion for the arts. However, she also feels the creations of the arts and wellness centre could have an impact on the community as a whole. Through her psychology studies, she saw a positive correlation between involvement in the arts, and general well-being. Remple also notes a position with Arborg's youth centre also provided a glimpse at how the arts can improve community wellness.

"Previously, I was the director of the Bridge Youth Drop-In Centre here in Arborg. In my time there as well, I saw that art was a way for teens to really open up. There were many times I could see teens being more able to talk about stuff they were struggling with when there was art involved."

A location for the new facility, and just how the project would be funded have yet to be determined, but Remple says she'd like to see ground broke on the centre next fall. While there's still room for discussion on many of the aspects of the proposal, she says there's been no shortage of discussions taking place throughout the region regarding the centre's possible creation.

"I've been talking to a couple organizations about potentially working with us out here. That has been very positive. It sounds like there are a lot of actors, actresses and things like that who would be really interested in coming out here and doing programming for us. So far, the feedback has been very positive,"

Arborg Mayor Randy Sigurdson is one of those in town excited about the proposal. He says their community development corporation is always looking at bringing business into the community, and it's always exciting when an idea comes forward. While he says Council's generally in support of the idea, but hope to see more details coming forward in the near future.

"Council is very interested in listening and finding out about it, and hopefully, make it all become a reality."

Sigurdson says Council is holding off on making a firm decision on the proposal until more of the details are in place. Just how the centre would be funded at this point isn't known, but Remple says there are a number of possibilities including grants, investments, or operating as a non-profit organization.