A pirate ship — just no actual pirates — will be on Barrie’s waterfront this summer.
City council approved a motion Wednesday night to license the Art and Water Cultural Group to operate a children’s Pirate Life Theatre from the Barrie Marina’s transient basin dock next year, not far from the Spirit Catcher.
The group will be charged a $4,000 licence fee for its first year of operation and that fee will increase by five per cent annually during the three-year contract to offset the cost of utilities and city operating costs. The contract is effective May 1, 2024. The city can renew the deal for two additional one-year terms after its first three years.
Coun. Craig Nixon, who represents the city's downtown, said when he was approached by the group last summer he felt this was something that would be a great opportunity for Barrie.
“It creates another destination within a destination for our downtown core,” Nixon said. “The large ‘pirate ship’ docked at the Bayfield (Street) slip will offer programs for kids to not only watch live theatre on board, but also gets them out onto the water for a unique experience.
“It will employ up to 20 local actors and staff and will certainly be an attraction that our residents and out-of-town visitors will enjoy," he added.
Initial programming proposed for Barrie includes children’s theatre aboard the pirate ship, theatre performances and events aboard the pirate ship, Muskoka chair murals for new public seating, dockside musical performances and events, and the sale of food and beverages — ice cream, coffee, packaged snacks, etc. — and merchandise along with souvenirs at the dockside patio.
“In addition to their children’s programs, they also offer other events which can add to the many reasons for us to enjoy our waterfront,” Nixon said.
Founded in 2019 as a registered charity and living wage employer, the Art and Water Cultural Group currently operates in Hamilton, Ottawa and Toronto. It creates artistic experiences on the water for children and families, to support local emerging artists and to encourage audiences to reconnect with art and water.
The group presents live performance through theatre, dance and music.
It uses a modified houseboat that’s reconstructed to appear like a pirate ship, and will be located in Barrie transient marina, where the Serendipity Princess tour boat was once docked, at the bottom of Bayfield Street.
The group also hosts a seasonal dockside concert series with local and emerging artists, providing them a stage to develop their audiences in space at low and subsidized rates.
The Art and Water Cultural Group is funded, in part, by grants from federal and provincial agencies, but does rely on revenues generated by charging the public to participate in its programming and from the sale of food, non-alcoholic beverages, merchandise and souvenirs.
The group requires an exemption from Barrie’s parks use bylaw to permit the sale of goods from city owned parkland, authorized through the licence agreement.
For more information visit: www.art-water.ca
