‘It’s exactly what is needed at this time’
Cape Breton Centre for Arts, Culture and Innovation gets $5 million in federal funding
Visual artists Asta Antoft and Anne Latour huddled at an easel displaying plans for artist spaces that will be a part of the new Cape Breton Centre for Arts, Culture and Innovation, after an announcement of $5 million in federal funding for the centre on Friday.
“It’s exactly what is needed at this time,” Antoft said in an interview. “There’s obviously been a grassroots movement toward this and there’s a need and the vision that’s been carried forward by this group of people is now going to be able to be fulfilled and it’s just wonderful that this is happening.”
The centre will be located at an extensively renovated former Holy Angels Convent and the project is driven by the New Dawn Centre for Social Innovation. Sydney-Victoria MP Mark Eyking announced the federal contribution to the $12-million project Friday. It had already attracted a provincial investment of $3.2 million, while New Dawn Enterprises contributed $1 million. A fundraising campaign will be launched to fund the remainder.
Antoft said she will be a tenant of one of the new studios that the centre will offer.
“It’s terrific to know that there will be even more space available and it will provide even more opportunity, especially for the visual arts. Visual arts have not been well-represented in this community.”
Having been an art teacher for many years, Antoft said she has seen many young people who could have benefitted from such spaces.
For her part, Latour said she has been a part of the Art Room offered at the New Dawn Centre for Social Innovation since its inception and demand for sharing the studio space has been so high that it is running out of capacity.
“This (is an) opportunity to have more people of like mind doing more interesting art things in the building, and to know that the new building is going to be able to provide us with more studio space so that we can do more of what we’re already doing, plus the opportunity for new ideas,” Latour said.
New Dawn communications director Erika Shea said in an interview construction recently began on the convent, which it acquired in 2013, and could take 18-24 months.
“But we’re pushing for as soon as possible,” Shea said. “We couldn’t have predicted the twists and the great surprises and the disappointments, but we wouldn’t trade it for the world because our understanding and out relationships and our perspectives are so much richer.”
A feasibility and future use study was conducted in 2014 that sought input from the artistic community. Artists also had input into such aspects as the spatial concept, business plan, size and the affordability of the space.
The convent will undergo extensive renovations and the installation of specialized equipment. It will include the addition of up to 25 artist studios, a multi-use gallery space, new elevators, upgraded lighting, soundproof studios and rehearsal space, and new heating and ventilation systems. It’s intended to serve as a hub and encourage collaboration.
Eyking said Cape Breton has a diverse and rich arts and cultural scene and the new hub will provide an opportunity for artists to turn their ideas into content, by having access to modern, appropriate facilities.
“This is one of the few projects in Atlantic Canada of this size and magnitude,” Eyking said, adding there was a lot of competition from across the country for the money.
Dr. John Gainer, a member of New Dawn’s board and an artist himself, donned his painter’s smock as he took part in the funding announcement.
“This is a game-changer,” Gainer said.
He noted the convent building has a more than 130-year history and the Sisters of the Congregation of Notre Dame played an important role in encouraging the artistic and cultural development of the girls who attended Holy Angels.
“This is making it up as you go along, in some respects, and it’s working out remarkably well. What happens when you have a state-of-the-art facility where this stuff can happen?” Gainer said.
He then borrowed and tweaked a well-used phrase from the movie “Field of Dreams.”
“On the basis of what has happened in this building already — build it, they’re already here,” Gainer said.