FRIDAY FEATURE: Dear Santa, I don't need electronics or the latest apparatus, Nor products, perfumes, more clothes or kitchen gadgets.
My senses are filled with Christmas commotion, What I need most is artistic promotion.
I create art as a living. I also promote the work of others. There are many other artists, businesses, organizations and volunteers doing the same.
The City of Richmond, Richmond Art Gallery, Richmond Arts Coalition, Community Arts Council, the guilds and societies are all doing a great job supporting and creating opportunities for arts and culture in this city, but a lot more is needed.
From government and large companies to the general public, all sectors need to support our community artists, artisans, performers and local businesses of all kinds.
We love to visit the unique shops and studios, go to events, sales and shows; we need to support them if we want them to continue.
Purchasing a work of art, buying a locally produced product, or seeing a performance goes beyond community support, these can become heirloom treasures and memories to last a lifetime.
My wish list for the arts in Richmond includes:. More exhibition/performance spaces where work is shown, performed, promoted and sold. Art galleries, museums and public art promote tourism.
. More regular, local content in the Richmond Art Gallery's program.
. More financial incentives; allow original art to be included in investment portfolios, have subsidies and grants available for purchasing art to be displayed in public spaces.
. I'd like to see companies develop annual art budgets with which they can start a collection. Artwork could be given as corporate gifts and employee bonuses. Art can be rented to fill their walls, it's all tax deductible. Art in the workplace shows that management cares about the company's image.
. I'd like hotels, restaurants and shops feature artists by hanging paintings, showcasing sculptures and hosting live music and entertainment.. And most importantly, please get the arts back into the education system. It promotes well-being, happiness, a sense of accomplishment, and creative thinking.
Jeanette Jarville Artist
Dear Santa, We are the members of Pathways Clubhouse. We have written our letter to you as a group - with each of us contributing a particular wish.
. There was a time when I was confused, in a state of psychosis and wanted to live on the streets and give up on everything. I stayed at shelters in Richmond and Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. Vancouver's Downtown Eastside is a scary place, especially if you are suffering with a mental illness.
My Christmas wish is that the City of Richmond create more housing and shelters for people suffering through the hard knocks of mental illness.
. I am a senior and my wish is for more affordable housing and less rent increases.
. My Christmas wish is that more people, young people in particular, understood the impact of mental health and concurrent disorders - a concurrent disorder refers to a mental health diagnosis and an addiction.
I am aware we cannot change our past, but we can change the future. Everyone has their own path to walk, we have to find and stick with what works best to bring the most happiness into our lives.
. I wish that Santa would fly over Richmond and transform the whole of the Garden City Lands into a giant sports complex. It would include a 5,000-seat hockey area, a huge aquatic complex, a curling rink and many, many all-weather soccer fields. Plenty of parking too!. All of us are hoping, Santa, for a world where there is greater empathy and understanding regarding mental illness, and that the stigma attached to those diagnosed with a mental illness is reduced.
Those of us with a diagnosed mental illness need social and employment opportunities, the grace of full citizenship and the ability to be fully accepted as individuals in our thriving community.
Pathways Clubhouse Richmond Branch, Canadian Mental Health Association
Dear Santa, As we take time to catch up with family and friends over the holidays, it is always valuable to reflect on where we have come from and where we would like to go.
Here is my wish list for the city of Richmond, the town where I was born, and the city where my business is based: My company, Ashton Service Group, was very pleased to see a mobile business licensing program come to Richmond this past fall.
In the coming year, I wish that this program will be expanded from the current six municipalities, to include all of the Lower Mainland.
Many bright, young people are leaving Richmond for employment and housing opportunities in other regions of the Lower Mainland.
I believe that it is beneficial to encourage our youth to raise a family in the same town that raised them. I wish that, in the future, we will be able to retain our young, talented minds and encourage as many young families as possible to lay down their roots here in Richmond.
The Ashton Service Group is proud to be part of the Richmond Caring Companies network and I truly believe that government cannot do it all, and a vibrant dynamic society depends on a strong and healthy business community.
The successes of the two are inherently linked and I wish that other local companies will do what they can to give back to our great city and its people.
Donating time and money goes a long way, but so does giving opportunities to people who are down on their luck and just in need of that fortunate break.
Thank you and have a Merry Christmas Richmond!
Brian Williams Chair of the Richmond Chamber of Commerce and owner/president of the Ashton Service Group
