The Building Committee
Our committee: David Brownlow – a retired engineer, Barbara Clark architect, Nancy Cuttle- whose background was in office design and furnishings, myself-finance. Many of the representatives from HVAC were also EAG members, such as Dorothy West and Marie Prospero.
Some of the members who worked on the Building committee are gone and we miss them. Dorothy West, member of EAG and HVAC, is one.
The plan for the building had to be developed even before we got city approval for a new facility. The Councilors wanted concrete evidence that we knew what we were talking about.
So each of the groups sent members out to tour arts facilities and we developed a “wish list”, all of the things we’d like to see in a building under perfect circumstances. Obviously we had no trouble with that. We included a pottery studio, kilns, a gallery about twice the size of the one we got.
The plan the Art Centre Development Committee presented to the city was a professional package, illustrated with a painting donated by Lila Lewis Irving and really was quite impressive.
The real work of the building committee came after the city approval when each group had to sit down with the architect and describe what each of us wanted.
Luckily the architect had a lot of patience.
He kept using phrases like “bare bones” and we kept paring down our wish list.
Finally we came to an accord by which time everyone was exhausted and disappointed. It’s hard to go from a wish list to the reality of bare bones, and to let your plans be revised by other people who do not have the same vested interest in it's usability. But over time, our feelings about the building changed.
Working Together
One reality came out of the building committee, we’d learned to work together. And it’s not easy to take five groups with five different bylaws, five different operating styles, and with five very different ideas of a studio and give them common ground. This project did it and that became the foundation for the new Board of Directors.
Two people at the City of Etobicoke stood staunchly by and guided us through this process: Thelma Amos who provided prodigious support, and our commissioner of Parks & Rec, Tom Riley, a very far-sighted man.
Taking down the Willows was a wrenching experience. I have a flagstone in my backyard that was a part of the back steps of The Willows, the fireplace mantle came out for Winterfest decorating for the first ten years at NPCC. No doubt a few other people have souvenirs. We removed all the fixtures, packed up the bits and pieces, and put everything into storage. We buried a “time capsule” of bits and pieces of the group’s history. Once the building came down, I visited the site every day or so to see what progress was being made. I ‘d meet other members of EAG who came to the site of The Willows and were mourning its disappearance. In fact for the first few years after we moved in members kept saying how much they missed the old building, how cosy it had been. Finally it was just a nostalgic memory.
Moving In
In September ’92 EAG was the first group to move in and the children’s classes were the first activity to be up and rolling. Then as now, the children’s classes brought the community into the Centre. Our mandate was and still is “to provide children’s classes as needed” and for the first four years we did that ourselves, running the classes first in Studio B and then finally in D.
When the decision was made to hand the program over to NPCC it was a difficult one. Were we doing what was intended in our Bylaw? Were we doing the best thing for the program? Would the classes be run the way we wanted, with professional artists teaching real art skills to the next generation of artists? I think that we can say yes to all of those questions.
The transition was successful and the Saturday program is a focus of the Centre’s activities.
Now
EAG has continued to run it’s adult classes program independently in Studio B. The legacy of our initial work is that we do have a home for our group. And our program has expanded so much that its operation is a very demanding job.
That too may slowly become a part of the Centre over time. As always there will be changes.
by Kathleen Haushalter