Submitted by the Qay'llnagaay Heritage Centre Project
The Qay'llnagaay Heritage Centre Society and the Skidegate Band Council are pleased to make the following announcement: The Vancouver Foundation has approved a financial contribution of $70,000 to the construction of the Qay'llnagaay Heritage Centre in Skidegate.
The Qay'llnagaay Heritage Centre will house: A greeting and reception area, a gift shop and gallery, a traditional Haida foods café, a canoe house, a performing arts space for both traditional ceremony and contemporary performing arts, the Haida Gwaii Museum and archives, and the Bill Reid Teaching Centre
The centre will also house administrative offices for Gwaalagaa Naay Development Corporation, Qay'llnagaay Heritage Centre Society, Haida Gwaii Watchmen, and the Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve and Haida Heritage Site.
Amanda Reid-Stevens, executive director of the Qay'llnagaay Heritage Centre Society thanked the Vancouver Foundation for their "kind assistance and for the faith you have demonstrated in our project." Ground Breaking for the heritage center project is scheduled for summer 2003 and construction is expected to take about one year.