Exploring Montreal’s Sacred Spaces and Creative Places

Written by

Back in November 2018, we traveled to Montreal with Trinity St. Paul’s, Faith and the Common Good and the Toronto Arts Council to explore how sacred spaces are working with arts organizations to transform their facilities into thriving spaces that serve the creative community. Montreal marks the third location of our research of faith and art spaces, a project supported by the Metcalfe Foundation and led by Kendra Fry of Trinity St. Paul’s/Faith and the Common Good. We traveled to Philadelphia and New York City prior to Montreal, and while these cities provided us with operating models from two very different American communities, Montreal offered examples of faith and creative spaces in a Canadian context.

We visited a number of churches in Montreal, but these three locations really stood out to us.

St. James United Church

A heritage church built between 1888-89 and a National Historic Site of Canada, St. James United Church has opened up their space for arts organizations to rent. Responding to high rental prices in downtown Montreal, St. James is opening their doors to the arts at a lower rate. They recently provided overflow space for Place des Arts with a remote screening of Yo-Yo Ma’s live performance next door. While they are still growing a creative rental audience, they offer Daweson Hall – a former Sunday School – as a rental space for arts groups, including a dinner theatre. St. James has also opened up The Churchill Suite which offers 5,000 square feet of office space specifically for cultural, social and arts organizations. Other rental spaces include the Sanctuary and outdoor Public Square located at the front of the church.

Bourgie Hall

Part of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA), Bourgie Hall is a former church turn into a 444 seat concert hall. Formerly the Victorian Erskine and American Church, it was designed by the architect Alexander Cowper Hutchinson in the Roman Revival style in 1894. Bourgie Hall is located beside the MMFA and is renowned for its chamber music performances, presenting their own programs and other chamber orchestras. The MMFA opened Bourgie Hall in 2011 as a response to a need for chamber music performance space in the City. The renovation of the former church also increased the MMFA’s exhibition space by 20%.

St. Jax Montreal

St. James the Apostle Anglican Church reopened its doors as St. Jax Montreal in December 2016. The 154 year old church closed in 2015 and remerged as both a church and community space. During the closure, pews were removed and the Sanctuary was fitted with new lights and a sound system. St. Jax currently has a 200 person parish and rents to other churches, community groups and organizations – including arts organizations. Through a space rentals program, the church created a stream of earned revenue to offset staffing costs and facility maintenance. Spaces in the church available to rent include the Sanctuary (used for banquets, conferences or smaller gatherings), Shatford Hall (equipped with a stafe, mirrors and used as rehearsal space), Basement, Chapel and Gardens.

The churches we visited in Montreal proved to be facing many of the successes and challenges our faith  spaces and arts organizations are facing here in Ontario. While many churches are experiencing declining parish numbers, there remains an opportunity for faith spaces and the arts to support one another. Bourgie Hall is a unique example of how arts organizations can repurpose faith spaces  – leveraging the former church’s natural acoustics to create a state of the art chamber music performance venue.

As we continue to answer the needs of our arts organizations with relevant programs, tools and resources, ArtsBuild Ontario looks forward to continuing our research of faith spaces and creative places, and how partnerships and/or adaptive reuse of faith spaces can serve our organizations with space solutions.

Announcing Accessibility Webinars for Creative Spaces!

Written by

ArtsBuild Ontario is excited to announce upcoming accessibility webinars in the Learning Series! These webinars will focus on accessibility and creative spaces based on the Design for Public Spaces Standard, as part of the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disability Act (AODA). The webinars will explain how creative spaces need to meet accessible building standards and explore ways creative spaces can go beyond the standards.

The webinars will be supported by a toolkit for creative spaces around the topic of accessibility, which will be released in Spring 2019.

ABO would like to thank its accessibility advisory committee for informing the webinar topics, speakers and upcoming toolkit for creative spaces in Ontario. This project is supported by the Government of Ontario.

Free Webinar: Let’s Talk About Disability and Creative Spaces
Tuesday, January 15, 2019 | 12:00 – 1:00 p.m. EST
Presenters:  Thea Kurdi, Vice President with DesignABLE Environments and Sage Lovell, Founder of Deaf Spectrum 
Register Here

Free Webinar:  Design for Public Spaces 101: Where do Creative Spaces Start?
Tuesday, February 12, 2019 | 12:00 – 1:00 p.m. EST
Host: Thea Kurdi, Vice President with DesignABLE Environments
Presenters: Jay Pitter, Placemaker, Author & City Building, and Yvonne Felix, Senior Manager at CNIB and public/community artist
Register Here

Free Webinar: Design for Public Spaces Advanced: How can Creative Spaces Go Beyond the Standard?
Tuesday, March 12, 2019 | 12:00 – 1:00 p.m. EST
Host: Thea Kurdi, Vice President with DesignABLE Environments
Presenters: TBD & Lorene Casiez, Accessibility Strategist, Practice Lead with Human Space
Register Here

Free Webinar: Best Practices for Architects, Designers and Creative Spaces on Accessibility
Tuesday, March 26, 2019 | 12:00 – 1:00 p.m. EST
Host: Thea Kurdi, Vice President with DesignABLE Environments
Presenters: Amy Potier, Accessibility and Building Code Specialist with Gensler as well as Corey Timpson, Principal at Corey Timpson Design Inc and former Vice President of Exhibitions at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights.
Register Here 

Free Webinar: Safety, Fire Codes and Accessibility for Creative Spaces
Tuesday, April 23, 2019 | 12:00 – 1:00 p.m. EST
Host: Thea Kurdi, Vice President with DesignABLE Environments
Presenters: Martin Day, President of Safety Media Inc. and Marnie Peters, Accessibility Specialist
Register Here

Free Webinar: Invisible Disabilities and Creative Spaces
Tuesday, May 14, 2019 | 12:00 – 1:00 p.m. EST
Host: Thea Kurdi, Vice President with DesignABLE Environments
Presenters: Alex Bulmer, Accessibility Consultant & Actor, Writer and Director as well as Andrew Gurza, Disability Awareness Consultant
Register Here

Registration is available through Eventbrite and webinars are delivered through Adobe Connect with closed captioning. If you anticipate needing any type of accommodation to register or participate in our webinars, please call 519-880-3670 ext. 101 or email erin@artsbuildontario.ca in advance of your participation.

Announcing the 2018/2019 Learning Series!

Written by

 

It’s back! We’re excited to announce our Learning Series is returning this fall with new webinars and a workshop to support arts organizations and their creative spaces. These sessions will provide tools, best practices, and feature guest speakers from the sector to inform and inspire creative space managers.

Many of the webinars in this year’s Learning Series will focus on capital projects and accessibility in creative spaces. Dates for accessibility webinars will be announced later this fall!

Check out our upcoming workshop:

Creative Space Projects: A Brainstorming Workshop 
Facilitator: Lucy White, Principal with the Osbourne Group
Date: Tuesday, November 27, 2018
Time: 10:00 AM – 3:00 PM
Location: Waterloo Region Museum, Classroom A
Cost: $15
Register Here

Check out our upcoming webinars:

Free Webinar: Capital Project Case Study: The Tett Centre
Wednesday, October 31 2018 | 12:00 – 1:00 p.m. EST
Presenters: Nadine Baker, Facility Manager and Danielle Folkerts, Marketing and Programming Coordinator at the Tett Centre
Register Here

Free Webinar: Volunteer Boards and Creative Space Projects
Wednesday, November 28, 2018 | 12:00 – 1:00 p.m. EST
Presenters: Kevin Puddister, Curator & General Manager at the Dundas Museum & Archives and John Kastner, General Manager at the Stratford Perth Museum
Register Here

Free Webinar: Engaging Community in Municipal Performing Arts Space Projects 
Wednesday, January 30, 2019 | 12:00 – 1:00 p.m. EST
Presenters: Steve Solski, Executive Director at FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre and Kristopher Dell, Director of Production with Civic Theatres Toronto
Register Here

Free Webinar: Alternative Creative Spaces and Adaptive Reuse Projects 
Wednesday, February 27, 2019 | 12:00 – 1:00 p.m. EST
Presenters: Kendra Fry, General Manager at Trinity St. Paul’s and Jaime Griffis, Director of Programming and Promotion at Idea Exchange
Register Here

Free Webinar: Working Together: Multi-Partner Creative Space Projects
Wednesday March 27, 2019 | 12:00 – 1:00 p.m. EST
Presenters: Alexandra Badzak, President & CEO of the Ottawa Art Gallery and Tam-Ca Vo-Van, Director of Galerie SAW Gallery
Register Here

ABO Blog: Philadelphia’s Sacred and Creative Spaces Uncovered

Written by

 Through support from the Metcalfe Foundation and project leadership of Trinity St. Paul’s and Faith and the Common Good, ArtsBuild Ontario and the Toronto Arts Council travelled to Philadelphia to see how their sacred spaces are evolving to also be creative spaces. Our aim was to investigate how sacred spaces are working with arts organizations to transform their facilities into spaces that also serve the creative community.

Philadelphia was our first city stop in exploring communities outside of Toronto that are adapting or repurposing sacred spaces for artistic use. There are already some examples within the province of sacred spaces working alongside arts organizations in one shared facility. But we wanted to explore how other communities outside of Ontario are approaching this model, how they are thriving and what challenges they are facing. From site visits and meetings with both sacred space administrators and arts organizations, our goal is to better understand where our sacred/creative spaces are headed, in Toronto and across Ontario. We wanted learn how arts organizations and sacred spaces are operating in the same space, exercising respective mandates, and sustaining their practices.

It is not new news that artists and arts organization are actively using sacred spaces for their work. More and more, we are seeing arts organizations hosting performances, rehearsals, workshops and meetings in churches – the space is often available and creatives need it.

Philadelphia has a number of historic structures, including many churches that span from one to two hundred years old. The population is dense and diverse throughout the city’s neighbourhoods. As parish numbers decreased, some churches opened up their doors to other community organizations as well as local arts groups. Other church buildings have become adaptive reuse spaces for artists and arts organizations.

Philadelphia is also the home base for Arts in Sacred Places – a branch of Partners for Sacred Places that brings together artists and arts organizations that need space for rehearsals, studios, performances, offices and other functions with congregations and houses of workshop who have unused or underused space. Through past work with scared spaces in Philadelphia, Arts in Sacred Places took us to a number of churches that are operating both as functioning parishes and arts spaces. They also showed us a few adaptive reuse creative spaces of former churches that have been renovated for arts organizations and entrepreneurs.

While we saw a number of sacred spaces in Philadelphia, we wanted to share three spaces that stood out to us during the trip.

Christ Church Neighborhood House
The Neighborhood House was built by the Christ Church parish in 1915 to serve the residents of the industrial Old City. Eighty years later, local artists seeking unusual, flexible and affordable space discovered the building. Today the Neighborhood House serves cross-disciplinary performing artists, offering subsidized performance and rehearsal rentals. They have a 2000 square foot theatre, a Great Hall, sanctuary, and meeting room available to rent. They have over 50 artists and ensembles using their space each year.

Fleisher Art Memorial
Fleisher Art Memorial is made up four heritage buildings including the St. Martin’s College for Indigent Boys and Church of the Evangelists. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, Fleisher Art Memorial has fully adapted a church, college and two roadhouses into a nonprofit community art school. The school has studio spaces available to rent, exhibition space which displays student and community works, and a sanctuary that actively houses art programs. The sanctuary is a striking space, with the original walls, stained glass and pulpit  in place from 1884-1886.


Calvary Centre for Culture and Community
The Calvary Centre for Culture and Community is the operating body of the Calvary United Methodist Church. Located in West Philadelphia, the church has positioned itself as a community hub, serving over 5,000 members each year. The church is still active, but after congregation numbers began to decrease, they opened their doors to artists, community organizations and other religious groups to use their facility. They currently use the Chapel as rehearsal and worship space for Jewish, Muslim and Christian groups. Meanwhile, their sanctuary holds a fully erected black box theatre where their resident theatre company rehearses and performs. The rest of the facility provides ample space for rehearsals, twelve steps groups, refugee groups and so much more.

These are just three examples of sacred spaces evolving into creative spaces, and yet they remain diverse in how they operate and who they serve. The biggest commonality in all the spaces we visited in Philadelphia was the strength and sustainability that arts organizations and sacred spaces found in partnership with one another. Rather than go at it alone, we saw churches leverage the space they have by inviting artists and creatives to make a home in their facility – and in most cases, both are helping each other to fulfil a mandate to serve their communities with the arts. We also saw some great examples of former churches that have become adaptive reuse spaces for artists and creatives.

We will be on the road again to other cities outside the province to see how their sacred spaces are incorporating arts and culture within their walls. Following our research, a final report of our findings will be shared with the public.

We look forward to sharing highlights from our next trip in the New Year – stay tuned!

Announcing SpaceFinder York Region!

Written by

ArtsBuild Ontario, in partnership with the York Region Arts Council, Town of Newmarket, Town of Richmond Hill, City of Markham and Toronto and Region Conservation, are pleased to announce the upcoming launch of SpaceFinder York Region in Spring 2017.

SpaceFinder offers a large-scale solution for artists and creative spaces in York Region. Billed as an “air bnb” for artists, SpaceFinder is a free online tool for artists to search for space, and for creative spaces to promote their rentals. SpaceFinder is designed to help increase the visibility of creative space, helping artists easily find space, and helping venues promote their under-utilized rental space.

Created by Fractured Atlas, a non-profit arts service organization based in New York, SpaceFinder is a first-of-its-kind online service that enables venues to market their spaces by creating listings with photos, rental rates and equipment, and uploading a digital calendar to the website. Artists and renters can search for creative workspaces that meet their needs based on location, price, amenities and up-to-date availability.

SpaceFinder first launched in Canada in November 2014 with SpaceFinder Toronto. Since introducing the tool to the city’s creative community, it has become a primary resource for artists to discover creative space. SpaceFinder is currently active in three Ontario regions, including Toronto, Hamilton and Waterloo Region. The site is also active in British Columbia, Alberta and Manitoba, as well as 15 U.S. cities.

The York Region Arts Council has partnered with ArtsBuild Ontario to deliver this tool in addition to community partners; Town of Newmarket, Town of Richmond Hill, City of Markham, and Toronto and Region Conservation, to bring this tool to the community. SpaceFinder York Region is funded in part by the Government of Canada.

SpaceFinder York Region is accepting space listings! If you have a creative space to list, please visit spacefinderyorkregion.org.

Quotes:

 

“SpaceFinder York Region will provide creative spaces with a new avenue to promote rentals and expand audiences. We are so pleased to be working with York Region Arts Council and all our local partners in bringing this important resource to the creative community.”
Lindsay Golds, Executive Director of ArtsBuild Ontario

“One of the challenges York Region artists and arts organizations face is a perceived lack of space. Though the Region does not have an abundance of traditional arts and cultural venues, there are many alternative spaces that have the potential to be used in new and innovative ways. We are thrilled to partner with ArtsBuild Ontario and our community partners to bring SpaceFinder to York Region’s creative community. It’s a big step forward in our efforts to provide more accessible space for artists, cultural organizations and creative entrepreneurs.”
Samantha Wainberg, Executive Director, York Region Arts Council