Entrepreneurs receive inaugural arts partnership award
Published Saturday November 7th, 2009
Parise Côté has lived in Edmundston for most of her life, but she didn't see the inside of the city's old United church until 2007, after it was put up for sale.
"It is so pristine and it is so beautiful, so when I walked in there, I said, 'We have to save this and make it more dynamic for the downtown,' " Côté, 46, said.
Last summer, the price dipped so low she was afraid someone might buy the property for the land and demolish the heritage building. She formed a committee with Lori-Ann Cyr and Sylvain St-Onge, two other downtown entrepreneurs, to explore turning the structure into an arts and culture centre.
"It is not going to be a money-maker," she told them. "It is for the community."
Friday, the three became the inaugural recipients of the J.D. Irving, Limited Arts Partnership Award, presented by the NB Foundation for the Arts, for initiating what they hope will become the St. Paul Centre for Arts and Culture.
The award includes $5,000 that they will put toward programming at the centre, Côté said.
Five other awards were presented at a jazz and cocktail reception at the Beaverbrook Art Gallery in Fredericton on Friday. They were the Arts Municipality of the Year Award, the TD Canada Trust Arts organization of the year, the Caisses populaires acadiennes Arts and Cultural Management Award, the Nel Oudemans Scholarship for Advanced Studies in Fine Craft and the Charlotte Glencross Scholarship for Professional Development in the Arts.
Each winner was chosen by a jury of arts professionals.
Côté, Cyr and St-Onge spent much of last summer consulting with Edmundston-area artists, an accountant and an employee of the City of Edmundston's department of leisure and culture.
"We knew we needed a collective of people," Côté said. "We couldn't do it just as business people."
The group arrived at a plan that includes a theatre that would seat approximately 120 people, with the gymnasium and hall at the back of the church providing space for the production of large-scale work, workshops, exhibitions and a retail boutique.
Late last year, Côté, Cyr and St-Onge bought the church for $60,000, with a commitment from the city to lease or buy it.
The city has since commissioned a financial and feasibility study.
The cost of converting the church into a cultural centre is estimated at $2 million, said Daniel Gagné, assistant general manager of the City of Edmundston, but firm figures are not expected until the end of March.
The proposed centre is a good fit with the city's arts and culture policy, which encourages developing programming and facilities. It also dovetails with its strategic plan, due to be released next month, in which both art and culture and downtown development figure. It also meshes with city hall's interest in heritage.
"They don't want to demolish the building," Gagné said.
"It's a good move for development of the culture in centre-ville. We would like to promote activity downtown."
Anne Bertrand, chairwoman of the N.B. Foundation for the Arts, said the initiative is an optimistic venture in tough times, especially in the hard-hit north of New Brunswick.
"I think it shows that people are not going to let their communities die," she said.
"So for these three to show such leadership is evidence to me of what we have been perceiving is taking place: that people are not discouraged "¦ that they want to impress upon others that their community is a great place to live and they are going to make sure it survives and its does so in a beautiful, cultural and artistic way."
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