Kali Weber knows she has some big shoes to fill when she takes over as the new general manager of the Dekker Centre Aug. 20.
“He was there when the Dekker Centre opened its doors,” said Weber of outgoing general manager Moe McGuinty. “He has incredible insight into what type of shows work in the Battlefords.”
The Dekker Centre announced in June that Weber would be taking over from McGuinty. The transition to the new boss has been playing out over the last couple of weeks.
Weber has been “in the middle of training” with McGuinty and going over all the things that need to be done to keep the Dekker Centre humming, from programming to marketing strategies and sponsorships, the financial aspect, grant funding and the technical aspects, among others.
“It’s been an honour and pleasure to learn from him,” Weber said of McGuinty, who notes that she has been “just learning as much as I can before Moe takes off, about pretty much everything.”
Her first official day on the job will be Aug. 20.
Weber has deep roots in the Battlefords, having grown up and worked in the community most of her life.
Her main work background in education. She holds a dual education/theatre degree from the University of Regina, and has been teaching at the North Battleford Comprehensive High School. During her time there she has been active coaching the high school drama club and became interested in arts management.
She eventually decided to go back to school and enrolled at Grant MacEwan University in Edmonton, Alta.
“That program trains you to manage arts organizations, whether that is a museum or a concert venue or in this case, a performing arts centre,” said Weber.
While studying, Weber worked with a number of arts organizations. Those ranged from small independent theatre companies to working with the City of St. Albert. That city has the Adren Theatre that programs 38 shows a season and also hosts the Alberta Children’s Festival for the Arts.
“I just spent the last year trying to learn as much as I can about managing arts organizations from a variety of different positions,” said Weber.
The Dekker Centre opportunity was the logical next step in her career path.
Weber is also co-chair of the North Battleford International Street Performer Festival. She described her roles as to program all of the artists who will appear as well as having responsibility for the grant portion that is needed to keep the festival going.
The festival runs July 27 and 28. Due to construction further up the street, the festival will be located a little further south this year on 101st Street, between 11th and 12th Avenues.
“That’s actually the block we started the festival on, in 2014,” said Weber. In future years, however, the festival will like to return to the central park/library area, which has worked well for them in recent years.
“We really do like the green space,” said Weber. “It’s wonderful for allowing people to spend longer periods of time there due to access to shade.”
While her new role at the Dekker Centre will be a change for Weber and the Dekker Centre, easing the transition is the fact she does not have to worry about programming shows to put on this coming season.
The 2018-19 season is already booked, starting with the Claire Lynch Band Sept. 28 and including performances by Heather Rankin, Whitehorse, David Vest and Kenny “Blues Boss” Wayne and many more.
Weber says her role will be to “execute that program, and then I will start planning probably this fall and into the winter the shows for next year.”
She has some definite ideas about what kind of shows the Dekker Centre should host. A particular focus will be to program more shows aimed at families.
“I’ve always been interested in programming for children and youth, programming for families,” said Weber. She expressed interest in perhaps programming a “dedicated family series, whether that be like musicians for young children, theatre for young children, that kind of thing.”
Weber has made it known the intention is to maintain the diverse range of shows being programmed.
“We try to create a program that has enough variety to interest everybody,” said Weber.
