Community Corner
Public Views Sought at Tonight's Open House at The Regent
Have questions about the community outreach efforts of the Brandon Community Advantage Center's board of directors? Tonight's the night to ask them, says Kristen Kerr, director of The Regent in Riverview.
has been about its methods and practices since the day it opened thanks to the taxpayer dollars that helped build it, but the special event center is continually hoping to address the community's concerns through meetings with the public.
Today, Feb. 9, officials from The Regent, 6437 Watson Rd., Riverview, will meet with members of the public to outline its community outreach efforts and to answer any questions that attendees may have. The meeting is partially a response to past requests for more transparency from the Brandon Community Advantage Center's board of directors, the volunteer board that runs the not-for-profit event center.
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"We're doing this because we were asked to do it," The Regent's executive director Kristen Kerr said. "Our director will answer questions, and we'll brief people on how things are going. We only had around 10 people at the previous meetings. We're doing it for the public, so we'd like to see them come out."
Among the activities the center has been focusing on are monthly art exhibits and open houses. February will also feature an open mic competition and a canned food drive.
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A task force was set up last year to engage the local art community and make The Regent a home to the arts in the Brandon and Bloomingdale areas. With events like the competition, they appear to be doing just that.
(For more on the contest, and its Feb. 10 reception and awards presentation, 6-8 p.m. at The Regent, read, ".")
Thursday's meeting is more of a chance for The Regent's board to sit down with the public and show them what they are doing, rather than being an outlet for a response to the criticism that has been hurled at them in the past.
"These meetings are important to us because we don't have the budget to advertise or market what we do," Kerr said. "We do our fair share of working with the media, but we're at their mercy so this a chance for us to sit down and let the public know what we're doing and what is coming to The Regent."
If You Go
The meeting will take place at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 9. For more information, call The Regent at 813-571-2494.