The buzz is that the Centre Culturel, which currently sits in a building owned by City Councilor Brock Frost will be moving into the Cornwall General Hospital where it will open a French Art Gallery and Library.
The group is taking over a large 1000 square foot space as well as extra storage on the ground floor, and is expecting to be in the space before Christmas.
The city gave the group $36,000 this year, $20K of which was to run a Franco festival in June. The City cut funding to its public art gallery of over 30 years, TAG Cornwall this year.
The facility is slowly starting to fill up with services expected to fill the first floors and the upper ones to eventually be converted to condos.
We will be updating this story as more information becomes available.
Condos on the upper floors of the old General Hospital…. I don’t see this going well. The building exterior is in poor shape. Would anyone really want to own a condo in a former hospital? Unless they spend major $$ to fix up the building, both inside and outside, I don’t see this as being a smart decision.
I just came on and am in shock. This building was supposed to be used as a health care facility and now this? Now I am reading from Hugger about condos? I think that this society has gone completely bonkers to the hilt. I just came off Ottawa’s newspapers where some condo of 4 floors is going to be built in the Glebe and a lot of the residents are raising hell over it and I don’t blame them one bit. This French art gallery gets $36K and they don’t donate to TAG? This society has gone completely off their rocker. What happened to the engineer from Ottawa who was trying to fix the old General Hospital up for a health unit.
Jules…..There will still be health care facilities, etc. at the old General Hospital site. But for the new owners of the old General Hospital site owning it has to make economic sense. Allowing some non-health care uses is the way to go to make economic sense. If they hoped to fill it with purely health care facilities, etc that would be a very tough job without asking doctors, clinics, etc already in Cornwall to relocate there. And they said they wanted to add NEW health care facilities, not simply have doctors, clinics relocate to their facility. As for the “engineer from Ottawa who was trying to fix the old General Hospital up for a health unit” he has moved on to other projects. But the men running the old General project now are from the same company as he is from.
As for the proposed condos in the Glebe and residents protesting….well it is the Glebe, that’s what they do best is protest against anything.
Is there really a need for a French art gallery? Will it be self sustainable or expect government support for ever?
It just seems that the “compromise” only works one way sometimes.
Thanks Hugger for bringing me up to date about the old General Hospital since I haven’t seen any information about this is a mighty long time. Yes they have to bring in revenue of some sort. The engineer from Ottawa wanted it as a health clinic of some sort bringing in doctors from other cities but that doesn’t pan out unless you are making a walk in clinic of some sort. The residents of the Glebe sure do complain and they found it bad enough with the fair grounds and they said that they see a lot of drunks around and they have million dollar homes and more and it would bring down the value of their neighborhood. Now there are very expensive condos all glass where the Civic Centre was operating from and it looks like Toronto’s condos where the glass is not safe at all. If I were one of those wealthy residents I sure would be kicking up a storm as well.
I always thought that art was art no matter what the language or culture. Things are getting out of hand of dividing the cultures and languages. If one speaks about French art or French food, etc. French is more inclined with France and I have French needlepoints and everything European and this sounds more like the woman who was the owner of a quilting site in France who was peeved at me because I introduced Europeans to the American quilting sites. You should have read the long letter that she sent me in French on my mail site – she was so upset and I wish that I saved her letter for all to read. This woman wanted only European quilts which depicted European scenes. Well I am not into artistic quilts of Europe, Canada or elsewhere but ordinary quilts. If people cannot get along as one and put out all kinds of art (within reason of course) and it doesn’t matter what language you speak to me art is art. Cornwall is really divided and you have to be on the outside looking in to see how rediculous all this sounds.
If it isn’t Pastafarian art, it isn’t art.
http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=pastafarian+art+&FORM=HDRSC2
LOL LOL. ROLF! Furtz you are a riot. I can’t stop laughing at what you posted. Pasta on everything.
The English have always been soooo jealous of anything francophone….complain …..without knowing the scoop……..Cornwall has a French community and you can’t make us disappear….!…..we have the oldest and first francophone culturel centre in Canada…..Be proud instead of jealous………..cornwall can’t ever get better …there is too much jealousy happening and no honour…
The old Cornwall General Hospital should be used as a health care facility and not for art whether English, French or any other. Health care is the umpost importance and we all need doctors everywhere in Ontario and throughout the country. Art belongs where it should in art galleries and theatres.
This begs a question on the topic of fairness to the taxpayer. If a group representing 20% of the population receives $36,000 ($20,000 for a Franco festival) than the other 80% of the population should apply for and receive $144,000 of funding ($80,000 of which could be used for a non Franco festival event to be respectful and inclusive of the majority of taxpayers.
More importantly, I was not aware of art being a linguistically driven medium. Do you have to be fluent in Parisian French or Quebec slang to be able to appreciate the offerings of the Centre Culturel? Will the Language Police be contracted to ensure language safety at the Centre.? Are other cultures welcome? Or is it like the french medical clinic in Cornwall?
Yeap, okay. So now I’m jealous of anything francophone. I don’t think so. The new owners of the old General are just trying to fill their space. If there aren’t enough doctors/clinics to do it does that mean it should sit empty? I’ve never understood how a medical clinic can only cater to French patients. Isn’t that just a tad discriminatory?