Colin MacDonald and executive director Gord Stewart inspect the space phone at the Big Little Science Centre.

(JENNIFER STAHN / iNFOnews.ca)

KAMLOOPS - There is room for collaboration between science and the arts according the president of the BIG Little Science Centre, who says an all-encompassing performance centre would be an ideal outcome.

Jim Hebden says the science centre society supports a performance arts centre, but strongly believes the science centre has a place within that building.

“The publicly run facility should be more inclusive by having as many attractions as feasible to ensure maximum public use of taxpayer dollars,” Hebden says in a letter to council. “We believe incorporation of a science centre within the performing arts centre would be an excellent addition.”

In his letter he notes the centre could become a ‘fusion of diverse types of human endeavour,’ pointing to how science is thinking about the world around us creatively. With increasing attendance records, now in excess of 170,000 people, he says adding the science centre would also help draw in families.

The science centre has struggled to find a permanent home in recent years. It has been moved between schools as the school division needs change and is currently located at the former Happyvale School, 655 Holt St, where it moved in the summer of 2013.

The letter from Hebden will be forwarded to the committee looking into the performing arts centre.

A public open house was held last year and in the fall council approved a study that would look at the feasibility of a performing arts centre. Consultations are being held with various groups to determine the needs and ideal location of the facility. Potential locations already identified include the former Kamloops Daily News building, Hotel 540 and Thompson Rivers University.

It is expected an initial approval of the project will be required in early 2015 so that detailed development, part of phase two of the feasibility study, can be done ahead of a fall referendum, which will likely be needed in order to approve the public debt portion of the project.

To contact a reporter for this story, email Jennifer Stahn at jstahn@infonews.ca or call 250-819-3723. To contact an editor, email mjones@infonews.ca or call 250-718-2724.

News from © iNFOnews, 2015