Geoff Scott, producer and founder of Tri-Cities Community Television (TCCTV), prefers to be behind his video camera, capturing the people, places and things that make Coquitlam and the rest of the Tri-Cities area so special.
But in the wake of the Coquitlam Foundation’s awarding of a $3,500 community grant to Scott and his organization in 2011, he has been spending a little time on the other side of the camera, too.
That’s because Scott was able to use the grant money to launch the “Arts in Coquitlam” segment in his regular Tri-Cities Magazine show on Shaw Television. And this, in turn, helped generate some positive publicity for Scott and TCCTV, most notably a feature article in the Tri-City News –complete with a photo of Scott and the new camera that the foundation’s grant helped him purchase.
From the Coquitlam Foundation’s perspective, it’s a genuine win-win-win success story: a grant from the foundation’s Coquitlam Builders’ Trust fund helped a deserving local organization promote and publicize our community’s burgeoning arts and culture scene which, in the end, helped draw attention to the Coquitlam Foundation’s philanthropic work. It’s all good!
Scott has been producing the magazine show for five years and is currently assisted by 20 volunteers and a board of directors.
The “Arts in Coquitlam” segments vary in length and, understandably enough, have focused on promotion and coverage of events at Coquitlam’s two major arts centres: Place des Arts in Maillardville and the Evergreen Cultural Centre in Central Coquitlam.
“Our coverage also included Festival du Bois, Minnekhada’s Arts in the Park event, ArtsConnect’s Regional Arts Summit, and Coast Sound Music Academy,” Scott says.
In all, the segments totalled more than six hours of original programming, and each segment aired a minimum of 10 times over a two-week period.
Scott also points out that Tri-Cities Community Television covered a variety of other events throughout the Tri-Cities in 2011, from Treefest and Canada Day celebrations to all-candidates’ meetings and events at the Mackin House museum.
“These stories were not directly related to the Coquitlam Foundation’s grant to produce ‘Arts in Coquitlam,’” Scott says, “but seeing as the foundation’s grant constituted half of our revenue last year, its contribution was very much responsible for us being able to provide this service to the community.”
He says the momentum created by the Foundation’s grant led to the City of Port Coquitlam’s decision to invest $3,000 in TCCTV to help it develop a strategic plan. The City of Port Moody is also working with the organization to find ways to provide support.
“All these small steps forward have cumulatively spelled success for Tri-Cities Community Television in 2011,” he concludes. “They can all be directly attributed to the Coquitlam Foundation being the first organization in the region to find a way to contribute to our efforts. We are very grateful, indeed.”
Photo of Geoff Scott by Diane Strandberg, courtesy The Tri-City News