Movers & Shakers

Left to Right; Wayne Hambly, Chair of the Fathers of Confederation Building Trust; Matt Minglewood, cast member "CANADA ROCKS", Tim Banks President APM group , David MacKenzie CEO Confederation Centre of the Arts

• As published in "Members Magazine" by "The Confederation Centre of the Arts" Summer 2005

APM Group President, Tim Banks, tells you exactly what he wants and makes no bones about it. This self-starter, who quit school at the age of 16, has built one of the largest construction development companies in Atlantic Canada with annual revenues in excess of $95 million.

Tim Banks’ APM Group is the major sponsor of The Charlottetown Festival and the production sponsor of CANADA ROCKS! The Hits Musical Revue, making it the largest corporate sponsor of the Confederation Centre of the Arts. It’s a partnership that Tim enjoys on two fronts. First he sees the Centre as a catalyst in bringing Islanders and visitors to the city, making it vital to Charlottetown’s downtown core. Second, the Centre is a learning institute that sustains our future generations.

What does he want from the Confederation Centre? “Creativity,” he says.

For him, a center of arts and culture breeds a community of creative minds and forward thinkers – not only now, but for future generations. Naturally, these individuals are tomorrow’s work force armed with such imaginative and inventive ways of thinking. For Tim, methodologies established from traditional forms of education are not the best way to run a business.

Further, Tim explains, a center of arts and culture should not be restricted by its physical structure. “The Confederation Centre needs to move beyond the building, and out into the communities at large, to expose Island children and youth to the values of art, culture and heritage,” he says. In addition, he believes the Centre should place more emphasis on children’s programming. “Offer them more and make it affordable. Children should be invited into the building by the bus loads to receive the full theatre and art experience.”

Tim envisions the Centre as a facility of schools encompassing all the disciplines of the visual and performing arts. These schools will establish generations of individuals enforcing their originality, creativity, and imagination into everything they do.

“David MacKenzie had done a remarkable job of getting the Centre out into the community,” says Tim. “The next step is to take it to the national level, re-establish the Centre’s mandate and develop a Board of Directors of movers and shakers. We need to stick our chests out and stop taking the backstage to other organizations such as Neptune (Theatre) and Stratford (Festival)”.

Tim Banks is positive proof that you don’t have to leave the Island to be a success, and this is a message he wants to send to all young people. “My community has more that I need. I don’t have to go to Halifax or Toronto, it’s all right here,” says Tim. He states that his support of the Confederation Centre is one of his man means of giving back to the community. But just as important it’s a basis for establishing a successful partnership where both parties express exactly what they want.