FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
The Préville Fine Arts Centre Announces New Important Bursary Partner, Caisse Desjardins Charles-LeMoyne.
29 August 2023 – Saint Lambert, Quebec
The Préville Fine Arts Centre is honoured to recognize their first important partnership in support of the Centre’s Belva Thomas Charity Bursary Programme.
Caisse Desjardins Charles-LeMoyne has pledged a three-year financial commitment to help the centre break down barriers to participation in the arts!
The Préville Fine Arts Centre has always offered financial support to families who would like to participate in the centre’s activities, but who lack the financial means to do so. In 2020, the centre formalized the application process and named the bursary after the centre’s founder, the late artist and activist, Belva Thomas.
In 2021, the centre invested $60 000 in welcoming underprivileged youth and families into the activities of their choice. During the summer of 2022, 84 children received a one-week bursary-funded spot to the centre’s arts-based summer day camp, and this summer, the centre raised that number to 116 bursary-funded spots!
The associated costs of supporting bursary families have always been covered by the centre’s operating budget. However, due to a growing demand for support, post-pandemic, the centre has started looking for partners to help ensure that finances are never a barrier to participation in their programming.
Caisse Desjardins Charles-LeMoyne has answered that call and is the first to offer multi-year support to this important project! The support of Caisse Desjardins Charles-LeMoyne will allow The Belva Thomas Charity Bursary to continue to meet the needs of families with low incomes, as well as newly arrived immigrant and refugee families who seek access to experiences that are not only educational, but also inspiring for their children.
Caisse Desjardins Charles-LeMoyne’s support equals the equivalent of 40 one-week spots to summer day camp, or 22 spots in music, dance or art classes this year. The Préville Fine Arts Centre looks forward to welcoming the additional families they will be able to help, thanks to this new sponsorship. A special thank you to Patrick Robin and Sabrina Marcoux at Caisse Desjardins Charles-Lemoyne for their guidance and support.
About the Belva Thomas Bursary Programme
The Belva Thomas Bursary opens up the world of high-quality arts education to everyone. To help grow the bursary programme, donations can be made through Canada Helps. All donations to the Belva Thomas Bursary are 100% tax deductible. If you know a family who could benefit from our bursary program, we encourage them to apply via our website.
See How the Belva Thomas Charity Bursary is Helping Families
About the Préville Fine Arts Centre
The Préville Fine Arts Centre is a not-for-profit organization and charity that has been a leader in bilingual, arts-based education ever since 1974. The Préville Fine Arts Centre is led by General Director, Veronica Thomas, and is overseen by a dedicated board of directors.
Located on Montreal’s south shore, Préville provides group and private lessons in all artistic disciplines, from music, dance, visual arts and theatre, to Indigenous arts, songwriting, sound recording and much more.
Whether learning in person or online, Préville is committed to offering its growing community accessible, inclusive, high-quality programming at the lowest possible cost.