TIFF can bank on record $11 million from RBC TheStar.com - entertainment - TIFF can bank on record $11 million from RBC
April 16, 2008
Martin Knelman
It has been an unnervingly long time since the Toronto International Film Festival Group has made a major funding announcement about big cheques for Bell Lightbox, coming soon to a former parking lot near you, at the corner of King and John Sts.
But get ready for a big one. That Lightbox is about to get a jolt from the Royal Bank of Canada. According to my spies, its deal with the TIFF Group commits RBC to $11 million over a 10-year period.
That ranks as the largest amount any single bank has put into any one Toronto arts building. But it escalates what has become a fascinating trend over the last six years as banks increasingly become major players in the cultural world.
"There's nothing to announce," Piers Handling, CEO of the TIFF Group, said when apprehended on a downtown street yesterday. "No deal has been signed."
Perhaps, but the terms have been approved, with only fine-tuning of details remaining to be settled.
Certainly the deal is a breakthrough, but the cineastes still have a long way to go before they can declare victory. Even with this mega gift, TIFF's $196 million campaign (which includes operating costs and an endowment fund) is at least $40 million short of its target.
Finding the money has not been as smooth a process as festival folk imagined when they entered into a partnership five years ago with the family of Ivan Reitman (which owned the parking lot) and the Daniels Group, the developer.
And Lightbox – joined to a huge condo complex – won't be ready until 2010, four years later than originally announced.
Luckily there is one group that can be counted on for its deep pockets and taste for art: our friendly bankers. So forget the outrageous interest fees they're charging you. We need them.
TIFF is not the only group that has counted heavily on banks to fund its projects. RBC has also given $1.25 million to expansion projects at the Art Gallery of Ontario and the Royal Ontario Museum, as well as $1 million to help the Canadian Opera Company build the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, and $500,000 for the National Ballet School's new digs.
The opera house also got seven-figure cheques from CIBC, Scotiabank and TD Canada Trust. The Bank of Montreal gave $625,000 for the building and another $1 million to cover the gala opening celebrations.
TD not only contributed to the opera house but also gave $1 million to each of the ROM, the National Ballet School and the AGO.
The ROM got $5.7 million from banks, including $2 million from CIBC as well as big cheques from TD, RBC and Scotiabank.
The AGO picked up seven-figure cheques not only from RBC and TD but also from BMO, CIBC and Scotiabank. And oh yes, TIFF received $1 million from CIBC.
Scotiabank has emphasized programming by sponsoring both the Giller Prize and Nuit Blanche. But perhaps the biggest profile it gained was its deal with Cineplex for rights to rename what used to be the Paramount movie theatre on Richmond St. W.
So why do banks write big cheques for art? Well, they make huge amounts of money. They are domestic players, not foreigners, and need to be seen as generous and public-spirited. And of course, they love to entertain top clients at glitzy parties attended by stars.
Meanwhile, while we're waiting for Bell Lightbox, we can turn our attention to the 2008 film festival. TIFF has renewed its contract with Roy Thomson Hall for five more years (through 2012) and expanded the number of screens it will use to 30. The big change is the use of 10 screens at the new AMC complex at Dundas and Yonge.
Farewell Yorkville; we're drifting south.
mknelman@thestar.ca
. I would be happy to help set this up in any way I can, so PM me if this is at all possible.