Our Presenter Spotlights are a chance for the wider sector to get to know the people and organizations bringing live performance to communities across Ontario.
This month we spoke with Katey Gatta, PAC Season & Community Programmer at the FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre in St. Catharines.
kgatta [at] firstontariopac.ca (Email Katey) • FOPAC Website
A New Role
Hi! I’m Katey Gatta – I joined the FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre last October in a newly imagined capacity as the PAC Season and Community Programmer. I work directly with our Director of Programs & Services, Kathleen Ross, and our CEO, Colleen Smith, to program our presentation season.
I'm very new to the performing arts centre world. Before this, I managed a small club called Warehouse Concert Hall, where I did everything from booking bands to managing all of the marketing efforts to buying rider hospitality to scraping gum off the floor. I'm also a musician myself, and I've been active in the Niagara region playing corporate gigs and releasing my own music for the past ten years.
"I think you'd be good at this"
My origin story is funny. The original proprietor of Warehouse Concert Hall quite literally walked up to me at a show I was attending in late 2021 and said, "I think you'd be good at this. Want to come work with me?"
His timing was excellent. We were about to exit COVID-era restrictions on live performance, and I was not interested in continuing to have my income swept out from under me on a monthly basis with closures and red tape. I'd also had experience piecing together my own shows and managing calendars for cover gig venues, plus a background in marketing and graphic design. A programming job essentially felt like the strange cross-section of all my different experiences working together.
World Class Talent in Wine Country
Our venue's history is short but interesting. We began as a partnership between Brock University and the City of St. Catharines to transition Brock's Centre for the Arts into a stand-alone building designed to revitalize the downtown core. Our doors opened in 2015, we became a municipal services board in 2020, and we gained our status as a charity in 2025.
We're presenting from the heart of the Niagara region (home of that world-famous waterfall tourists flock to see & a booming wine route) in a primarily blue-collar community. I'm born and bred in Niagara, so I feel incredibly connected not only to this region but to its audiences and its performers.
Residing in or near tourist towns means the calibre of talent produced here is wildly undervalued. There is a large community of musicians who make their living solely from playing gigs, and their musicality matches what you'd find in Nashville, Memphis or New York. That said, the majority of opportunity available to this thriving community lies in bar, winery or brewery gigs, which ultimately shapes what audiences here are hungry for: music they already know and love. Introducing audiences to new artistic experiences is truly a labour of love.
Take A Seat and Be Present
To me, presenting live performance is creating experiences that remind audiences of the beautiful, fragile meaning of what it is to be human. You have hunches about what people will resonate with, and then you get to re-calibrate that compass over and over again. It's a beautiful puzzle that I'm excited to get better at solving year over year.
What I hope audiences take away is presence. I hope the combination of our beautiful venues, eclectic programs and friendly staff lets folks sit down in their seat, turn off their phones and actually experience in real time what's in front of them. Communal gathering places are one of the only spots left to have that kind of visceral experience.
When artists walk through our door, I hope they feel the respect we have for what they do and the feeling that we are an organization that not only understands and honours the struggle to create and perform. Our staff work tirelessly to create backstage experiences that rival on-stage moments.
Double Vision
I'm excited about our new Recital Hall series, Double Vision. We have a large appetite for tribute work here in St. Catharines, and I wanted to capitalize on that to create opportunities for members of the Niagara music community. It's four performances featuring local, female performers, each playing a set of their interpretations of the music that inspires them, followed by a second set of their own work.
They Thought We Were A Bank
How do you engage local audiences that are simultaneously unaware of your programming, and unaware your organization exists?
While we've been established in the downtown core for the past 11 years, I have still had friends admit they thought we were a bank because of the FirstOntario sign on the building.
I believe reaching new audiences starts with a deep understanding not only of what they're interested in, but how they use their discretionary income. From there, you craft consumer profiles and determine how best to interact with those audience members, and that work comes before booking a small collection of shows designed to appeal to them. Slowly, this untapped audience begins to see value in engaging with your programming on a regular basis. If they feel you offer enough of what they're looking for, the impetus to try new offerings — built on you providing what they already know and love — is established.
When it lands, it really lands. Our community engagement event with David Suzuki was an incredible audience moment. The majority of folks in attendance were so passionate about the environment and protecting their neighbours that the open-floor portion ran long, because there was so much good work happening in Niagara. It's an excellent reminder of how motivated and involved this region can be when it comes to what they care about. ∎