With St. Patrick’s Day as the backdrop, a celebration was held on Friday night for Off the Wall’s (OFW) recovery from the pandemic, as well as a $29,000 Resilient Communities Fund grant awarded last year by the Ontario Trillium Foundation (OTF).
Funds from the grant are being used to help OTW create an outdoor teaching space, purchase outdoor furniture, hire a health and safety coordinator and buy health and safety equipment and supplies for participants and staff.
Off the Wall is a collective of Stratford’s theatre production arts specialists and offers training to students of all ages, who aspire to enter the theatre world or want to explore a personal interest. Courses range from set design and prop building to artistic welding and shoemaking.
“This grant will support our Health and Safety program, both inside the classrooms and outdoors in our fresh air teaching space,” said OTW board co-chair Michele Boniface.
“We’ve learned so much already about how to leverage our strengths and deliver programs when the odds were against us.”
Boniface said the upcoming summer will see OTW restored to a full roster of theatre production arts courses.
Perth-Wellington MPP Matthew Rae attended the event at Factory 163 in Stratford to congratulate OTW on work completed since receiving the grant.
“It is wonderful to see the Province of Ontario and the Ontario Trillium Foundation continue to support the important work Off the Wall does in our community,” the MPP said.
“This funding has helped Off the Wall continue to provide programming so many individuals and families enjoy. Their resiliency and determination are inspiring.”
For the last 19 years, OTW has offered a range of theatre production courses for career and volunteer development, and for personal interest. Many of the instructors are behind-the-scenes artists, who help stage large and complex productions at the Stratford Festival.
Ontario Trillium Foundation (OTF) is an agency of the provincial government. Last year, OTF invested nearly $209 million into 2,042 community projects and partnerships. Visit otf.ca to learn more.
