History
Origin
1969
Beginning in 1969, members of the White Rock Painting and Sketch Club, White Rock Players Club, and White Rock Overture Society met to discuss the need for an arts society and plan its implementation. On January 29th, 1974, these members formed the Community Arts Council of White Rock and District.
They immediately began looking for a home. When they petitioned the City of White Rock for one, they were offered the Burlington Northern Railway Station. However, they feared that they would have to wait decades for it to become available. Fortunately, Burlington Northern Railway donated the station to the city the very next year. The city split the building, which reopened on October 22, 1976, between the Community Arts Council and two other organizations. In 1979, however, the other two organizations moved out, giving the Community Arts Council a whole building to itself. It became known as the Station Arts Centre.
The Semiahmoo Centre of the Arts
In 1984, the White Rock Players Club requested funding from the White Rock City Council to renovate their theatre. The Council refused, but the Mayor of White Rock offered to support a larger project: rebuilding the theatre to accommodate the Community Arts Council. Talks between the White Rock Players Club and Community Arts Council over this project, dubbed the Semiahmoo Centre for the Arts, continued until 1995, but never came to fruition.
From Place To Place
Earlier, in April 1991, the Community Arts Council had left the Station Arts Centre to make room for the White Rock Museum. This left them without a building until the International Care Corporation offered them a space on Pacific Terrace; the new building opened in November.
They left the Terrace in 1995, then set up a fundraising office on 16th Avenue, followed by a larger space on Roper Avenue. The Roper building had room for administrative offices, a gallery, and the Picture Loan program; a pottery workshop was available through nearby White Rock Elementary. In 1998, they moved again into a warehouse complex on 24th Avenue, which they called the Artery. At first, it offered a gallery, a gift shop, and art classes. Later, White Rock Elementary shut down the pottery workshop, forcing the Council to move it in-house and close the gallery and gift shop to make room.
2002 brought another move, this time to Russell Avenue. In 2005, they moved again to Windsor Square Mall, where they had previously run exhibitions. Changes to how the province awarded grants in 2010 cut the Council’s grant income—its primary source of funding—in half. They petitioned the City of White Rock for a lease in Centennial Park, which they received; they moved into their new facility there in 2012, having closed their Windsor location in 2011. The Centennial Park location remained open until 2018.
Today
The Semiahmoo Centre of the Arts
In 2009, the Community Arts Council renamed itself the Semiahmoo Arts Society to reflect both local First Nations heritage and its own geographic location. Its identity remained the same: a volunteer based arts advocacy organization serving White Rock, South Surrey, and the Semiahmoo First Nation.
The next year, the City of Surrey offered the Semiahmoo Arts Society a role in planning the expansion of the South Surrey Recreation Centre. In 2014, it began operating the Centre’s Arts wing, as it continues to do today.
