How can I donate to Health Arts Society?
By calling Raymond Aucoin at 778.385.4552 or sending a donation to:
Health Arts Society
1254 West 7th Avenue
Vancouver BC V6H 1B6
You may also make a donation online:
Registered Charity # 81014 0749 RR0001
Are the performers paid?
Yes
Why should performers be paid? Wouldn’t they do this work as a service?
A great many performers have visited health care sites as volunteers, but artists cannot be expected to give away their services on a regular basis. This is not presumed of health care staff or any other person who works for a living. Health Arts performances are professional, consistent and regularly delivered. It is entirely appropriate and necessary that the work of performer partners of the Society be paid for.
Is a range of genres available?
Programmes usually feature from one to four performers offering a wide range of genres including Western classical music, light music, jazz, Chinese music and spoken word.
How do you know the work is beneficial?
The delighted reactions of audiences and staff have been assurance enough that the programmes are beneficial, but we are not surprised by the responses. After all, we provide performances for people like all of us but who are isolated from access to arts by reason of illness or frailty. Although health care site staff do their best to provide a living environment that is stimulating and interesting for patients, health authorities have not established formalised and budgeted quality of life programmes for people in long term care. Elders in residence will probably be spending the last years of their lives in an institution. These are people who made our place for us, we think we should be making life engaging and enjoyable for them.
What do the events cost per patient?
Taking into account the costs of running Health Arts Society and building the Society’s project to develop new quality of life interventions the cost for each person attending an event is less than $14. This is little more than the cost of a movie ticket, and much less than the cost of producing most concerts. Concert tickets usually cost patrons about 40%-60% of the cost of putting on the concert. So a $20 ticket represents a cost of $40 to the presenting society. In the case of Health Arts events the patrons pay nothing but the total cost is much less than is required to present arts events to well patrons.
I have other questions. How can I get answers to them?
Raymond Aucoin, Managing Director of Health Arts Society, will be pleased to try to answer all questions about the work of the Society: call 778.385.4552 or email raymond@healtharts.org
