This Former Convent Is Now a Vibrant Arts Hub
For years the vacant Holy Angels Convent in Sydney’s historic North End neighbourhood was a reminder of a neighborhood in decline. After 126 years of teaching ladies, with a give attention to arts and music, the landmark college on George Street shuttered in 2011. The 3,700-square-metre constructing sat vacant as alumni crossed their fingers that it wouldn’t be torn down, and as a substitute, preserved. To their aid, New Dawn Enterprises, Canada’s oldest neighborhood economic-development company, was on the identical web page.
New Dawn bought the convent in 2013 with a lofty imaginative and prescient for the area: a mixed-use artistic hub for native artists. At the time, there was a number of speak locally about repurposing the constructing in a method that preserved its historical past whereas revitalizing Cape Breton Island’s deep-rooted arts and tradition scene. As a neighborhood improvement group, New Dawn acquired authorities funding to supply alternatives to increase the “creative and innovation economies” within the space.
Construction started in 2018. After two years, at a complete price of $17 million, the previous convent reopened as Eltuek Arts Centre in February 2020. “Eltuek” is a Mi’kmaw phrase which means “we are making ‘it’ together.” The new title got here from a sequence of conversations between the builders and the Elders Advisory Group, which symbolize the Island’s 5 Mi’kmaw communities. The Eltuek Arts Centre group labored beneath the elders’ steerage to ensure the humanities hub was welcoming to Mi’kmaw artists and communities within the spirit of Indigenous reconciliation.
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The design group behind the mission is native agency Trifos Design Consultants and Toronto-based structure agency DTAH. The Second Empire architectural exterior was refitted with composite timber wooden veneer cladding, whereas the French mansard-style roof was changed with a steel one to face up to chilly coastal winters and gusting winds. The unique basis stone was left intact the place attainable.
The inside was designed with excessive ceilings and plenty of pure gentle. The artistic hub options three multi-purpose artwork galleries to host exhibitions and neighborhood conferences. Twenty-one particular person studios and 22 workspaces in a communal space are dwelling to dozens of artists who work throughout mediums— leatherworkers, writers, graphic designers and textile artists—who lease area beginning at $100 monthly. Meanwhile, 4 bigger arts organizations are anchor tenants: Nova Scotia Community College’s music arts program, media-production firm NovaStream, domestically owned radio station The Coast 89.7 and the Celtic Colours International Festival.
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New Dawn introduced on director Christie MacNeil and inventive director Melissa Kearney to run the area. Now, the Eltuek Arts Centre has established itself as a community-focused, inclusive area for the humanities, the primary of its type within the province. The constructing additionally stands as an emblem of hope and renewal in an space that has struggled to reinvent itself after the closure of its once-thriving coal and metal industries. Back in 1901, Sydney was dwelling to the biggest built-in metal mill within the British Commonwealth and a number of coal mines, however following World War II, these sectors waned and by no means absolutely recovered—the Sydney Steel Corporation and the final coal mine closed in 2001. “The entire project came out of a need to celebrate spirit in the face of decline,” says MacNeil.
Here’s a have a look at the workspace:
