PEISummerside’s two largest theatres have signed a new funding agreement with the city that promises to invigorate the local cultural scene and grow youth engagement in the arts.‘It’s an investment in the citizens of tomorrow,’ says College of Piping officialThinh Nguyen · CBC News · Posted: Jul 20, 2025 5:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 4 hours agoFrom left, James MacHattie, executive director of the College of Piping; Summerside Mayor Dan Kutcher; and Mary Dennis, executive director of Harbourfront Theatre, pose for a photo after signing a five-year funding agreement between the city and the two performing arts venues. (Submitted by City of Summerside)Summerside’s two largest theatres have signed a new funding agreement with the city that promises to invigorate the local cultural scene and grow youth engagement in the arts.The 500-seat Harbourfront Theatre and the College of Piping and Celtic Performing Arts of Canada, which includes the 294-seat Scott MacAulay Performing Arts Centre, will each receive $90,000 annually over the next five years.In return, both organizations have committed to working together, with a major focus being the expansion of youth programs in Summerside.James MacHattie, executive director of the college, said plans are still in the early stages, and it’s not yet clear what those joint programs will look like.Mainstreet PEISummerside theatre collaboration projectSummerside’s two major theatres – the Harbourfront Theatre and the College of Piping and Scott MacAulay Performing Arts Centre – are teaming up. The new joint funding agreement with the City of Summerside will see them collaborate on several exciting new projects. Leaders from both venues share what’s ahead.But he said the two venues plan to come up with fun and creative ideas to get more young people involved.”It’s an investment in children. It’s an investment in the citizens of tomorrow,” MacHattie told CBC’s Mainstreet P.E.I. Deal offers a sense of stabilityFor both organizations, $90,000 a year represents a slight increase over what they received from the city in the last fiscal year.Mary Dennis, the executive director of Harbourfront Theatre, said the city has been one of the theatre’s main funding partners since it opened nearly three decades ago.Mary Dennis hopes the collaboration between Harbourfront Theatre and the College of Piping will lead to strong programming that gets more youth in the city engaged in the arts. (Richard Matthews)However, she said past support has been allocated on a yearly basis, making this the first multi-year agreement of its kind for the theatre.”It’s super important for being able to just budget and plan,” she said. “As a not-for-profit organization, you always need to be able to know where your resources are coming from, and to have that stability over the five years just makes planning and programming so much easier.”MacHattie agrees. The five-year deal will allow the college, which also operates as a non-profit, to plan with greater confidence, he said.He noted that some funding can dry up from year to year, leaving arts organizations scrambling to adjust. That uncertainty makes it difficult to take creative risks or increase programming.”We’ve got to be quite safe because, you know, a couple of flops, and we’re in big trouble,” he said.”But having this stability here, and as we’re working on some of the other areas that we need to as a college, we’re getting much, much closer to achieving our goal. “As I try to increase our donor base and our sponsorship base to this really sustainable level, then we can start to do some more exciting things and really focus on programming that really reflects what our mandate is.”More than a sports townWhile this funding agreement formalizes the partnership between the two venues, MacHattie said Harbourfront and the college have long had a collaborative relationship.The Scott MacAulay Performing Arts Centre, officially opened in July 2018, is located at the College of Piping in Summerside. (The Scott MacAulay Performing Arts Centre/Facebook)They’ve regularly supported each other’s programming, offered advice and shared ideas.”Mary and I sometimes just go through our horror stories and our successes to remind each other that we’re not alone,” he said. “We can only be stronger if we work together.”He hopes the agreement involving Summerside’s two major arts venues signals the strength of the city’s vibrant arts and culture scene, on top of the programming offered at the much larger Credit Union Place.”People always talk about Summerside as being, ‘Oh, it’s a sports town.’ Sure, we’re a sports town, but we’re a lot more than that, too,” MacHattie said.MacHattie said he’s glad to see the city recognizing that.”If they’re comfortable signing something for five years, it shows that they’re recognizing the importance that we have for the city, for economics, for the communities, and of course, at the heart of both of our organizations, it’s the next generation of audience goers and performers and supporters of the arts coming through,” he said.With files from Mainstreet P.E.I.
Summerside’s 2 major theatres secure 5-year city funding with focus on youth arts programs
