Construction workers are seen working away Friday morning inside the Community Arts Centre. A naming committee will be reviewing nearly 80 name suggestions from the public to present a recommendation to city council. Herald photo by Ian Martens

Dave Mabell
LETHBRIDGE HERALD
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It's months away from opening. But Lethbridge's community arts centre has plenty of names.
Nearly 80 suggestions have been received, and officials say that shows plenty of interest in the city's first facility designed for hands-on art. Most were submitted before Christmas.
"But we got a few Thursday and one just before noon today," Carol Thibert reported Friday.
Thibert, the city's co-ordinator of community service programs, said no one knew how many names to expect because it's the first time in years that the public has been asked to name a new civic facility. (Parks and recreation officials also plan to seek citizen suggestions before naming the city's latest regional park.)
The names submitted will now be reviewed by a naming committee, she says. It's scheduled to meet Friday, and she hopes it may have a recommendation for city council before the end of January.
Posted criteria for a suitable name included suggestions the name be short, easy to remember and easy to use in a graphic form.
It should "provide a fresh and exciting identity, with a modern and contemporary appeal," and not be already associated with another building, park or location. The name should also be associated with all the arts, competition organizers said - not with just one field.
The facility, scheduled to open in May, was described as "a place where people develop community through learning, living and loving the arts."
It will include an exhibition gallery, dance studio, multi-purpose community room, studios for visual arts, spaces for art education, a woodworking shop and staff offices. Its prime tenant, the university's music conservatory, will have a variety of music rehearsal spaces.