Location of Smithville, ON

The weekend of October 17-18, 2009 was the last weekend of Doors Open 2009 events in Ontario. The boys and I decided to visit the small town of Smithville, which is a small farming community on the upper plateau of the Niagara Escarpment about 12 kilometers south of Grimsby. In Smithville, among the open sites, were the Smithville Train Station and the Smithville Presbyterian Church.

Smithville Train Station

Smithville Train Station

The Smithville Train Station was a typical Doors Open site with guides who explained how the train station served the town well over the years, next to the tracks of the T,H & B (Toronto, Hamilton and Buffalo) Railway, later  CP Rail.

The station had an attractive circular turret and an interior lovingly restored by the townspeople. It had been moved 50 feet from its previous location, which was directly adjacent to the tracks. Originally, the station had two waiting rooms, one called the Men’s Smoking Room and another for women, children and non-smokers. Each waiting room was heated by a pot-bellied stove.

The station did give the impression as being a special place of transition for the town. Most major arrivals and departures of the town occurred through the train station. It was where soldiers departed to fight in overseas wars and where farmers transported their goods to centres of population. You could imagine how immigrants felt when they hopped off the train at Smithville, to start a new life in the wilds of Canada.

The train station obviously holds great resonance for the town and many have devoted countless hours to its restoration. In the basement several women were busy maintaining the town archives. It was obvious that the people of Smithville were proud of their history and took it seriously.

A frequent lesson derived from attending Doors Open events is that maintaining a link to the past through architecture is a meaningful occupation and pastime for many. It adds meaning to their lives, and as a visitor it adds meaning to our lives as we witness people constructing meaning in theirs.

Smithville Presbyterian Church

Smithville Presbyterian Church

The second site we visited, the Smithville Presbyterian Church turned out to be one of those special Doors Open sites in which we walked out feeling completely satisfied, indeed almost overwhelmed by the experience. With Doors Open, you never know quite what you are going to get and the visit to the Smithville Presbyterian Church was a prime example of this. We went in with no expectations and were rewarded with a rich, yet compact experience.

At the door, several friendly church women greeted us. We then proceeded to a display that honoured the men and boys who had left Smithville to fight in overseas wars. Included was a display of military rifles with fixed bayonets, which greatly impressed the boys.

Later, I spoke with two church elders [meaning, a couple of guys about my age] about the history of the Presbyterian Church, its origins in Scotland and how branches of this Protestant denomination went through a dizzying array of splits, secessions and mergers.

In the 19th century the Presbyterian Church was the most important Protestant denomination in English Canada. Many parts of English Canada were settled by people of Scottish descent. Usually these Scots were Protestants. Scottish Protestants built some very handsome limestone and brick churches in Ontario, like the one in Smithville.

Then we discussed the architectural history of the main Presbyterian churches in nearby Hamilton. There are three important Presbyterian churches in Hamilton: St Paul’s Presbyterian on James St South at Jackson, MacNab Street Presbyterian on MacNab near the train tracks, and the large Central Presbyterian at Charlton and Caroline. Central seems to be the largest of the three and the one most successful in maintaining a healthy congregation. All three are architecturally and culturally significant and are well worth a visit during Doors Open events. The stained glass windows in St Paul’s and MacNab are particularly noteworthy.

An important event, apparently, in Presbyterian Church history, was the formation of the United Church of Church in 1925. The majority of Presbyterians at that time decided to join the new church.  But some decided not to join and remained as Presbyterians. It is unclear what sorts of people stayed compared to those who left.

I think it is this aspect that makes the history of the Presbyterian Church in Canada difficult for outsiders to comprehend. Like in many Doors Open events, a glimpse is given of a world you realize you know next to nothing about.

After my discussions with the elders, I had several questions which would have taken them a long time to explain to me adequately:

• How did the Scottish Protestant church relate to the Roman Catholic church at the time of the Reformation–why were the ideas of John Knox or John Calvin so revolutionary at the time?
• What issues of faith and worship inspired factions to break away from established Protestant churches?
• What did the formation of the United Church of Canada mean to the established churches of the time?
• What sorts of Presbyterians decided not to join the United Church of Canada?

I guess what I’m looking for is a book called a Scottish Protestantism in Canada for Dummies that might explain these issues for me.

After my discussion of church history with the elders, which lasted some time, some other women demonstrated the beautiful late-Victorian pipe organ, built by Edward Lye & Sons, which has been in continuous operation since 1891. The boys had a great time working the manual bellows (an electric blower was later installed) and in pounding the keyboard of this organ. Liam was especially impressed by the organ’s foot pedals and how it was possible to play a tune just by using your feet.

Since the organ still has manual bellows it can be played without electrical power–as happened during a concert in the middle of a power outage in 1999. The majestic sound coming from a church organ was impressive. The organ and its lore occupied the boys for a long time and I think it will be something they remember.

Lastly, the event which cemented this visit as being an important event in Doors Open for us (and the last event we attended in 2009) was the free lunch given by the church ladies in the second floor balcony. There, the boys and I could choose from four different types of soup, eat as many sandwiches and dessert squares as we wanted, drink pots of coffee, tea or juice, all for free. There is little that gives a more positive impression for the boys and me than tasty, free food.

At Smithville Presbyterian Church we got to enjoy interesting church history, play with on an historic church organ and then get a full meal at the end of it. This hospitality we found was almost overwhelming. It was an excellent advertisement for small-town Presbyterianism as a purveyor of local history and as a place to find a warm, supportive community.

Despite its cultural attractions, there is a sense that this church community is in decline. Enrolment is declining precipitously in mainstream Protestant churches in Canada. There seems to be a lack of young people required to sustain these communities in the years ahead.

Many potential church-goers are probably happy to visit church buildings and to participate in a supportive community, but lack the Christian faith needed to worship in a Christian church.

But, we didn’t get the impression that the people we met at the Smithville Presbyterian Church were friendly to outsiders because of their possibly declining congregation–we got the impression that this was just the way they behaved.

For the Supercrawl, James St North was closed to traffic between York/Wilson and Cannon. This moved the centre of gravity of the event a couple blocks south. Usually, most Art Crawl action happens between Cannon and Barton. Moving it southwards made the Sonic Unyon building on Wilson feel more central, which during normal crawls feels like an outlier. Several live music stages had been set up. Covered stages were necessary that night because otherwise musicians and equipment would have become completely drenched. The wet weather discouraged crawling along James St. It appeared that fewer galleries than normal were open. The Loose Canon Gallery, as is usually the case, had some of the most interesting art on display. The you me gallery, which is often our first port of call, was closed.

The Art Crawl is primarily a linear event, much like that portion of Nuit Blanche that runs along Queen St West in Toronto. On the strip lots is going on. Off the strip the neighbourhoods are quiet. In my opinion the Art Crawl should include more of James Street, both North and South. It should stretch all the way between Liuna Station at Murray to St Joseph’s Hospital. It this way it would include most of the urban highlights of downtown Hamilton, including Gore Park. The Art Crawl has a way to go before there are sufficient attractions to encourage people to tramp all this way, but one can dream.

To attract crowds to the Supercrawl (which it sounds like they were successful in doing) live music became the main attraction. Overall, this made it less of an art-focused event. This may have been because of the weather or it may have been by design. Although live music is enjoyable to see anywhere in the city (the Locke St Festival is especially good in this respect) I’m not sure how successfully live music on fixed stages relates to the pedestrian movement inherent to an Art Crawl. With an Art Crawl you want people to promenade and explore art venues; with fixed music stages you want people to stop and listen to music. Therefore, the Supercrawl for me was like a regular Art Crawl, but with less crawling and less art.

Cornelia and her participatory art event during Nuit Blanche, Toronto

During last Saturday’s Nuit Blanche in Toronto, my wife Cornelia Peckart taught me some interesting lessons about participatory art events and art ‘happenings.’

Cornelia’s idea was to create an art event that involved people walking by, in which participants were rewarded for their participation. The reward was a ‘loot bag,’ much like those given out at children’s birthday parties. The event in which people were encouraged to participate involved drawing with chalk on the brick wall along the east side of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, at the corner of Queen St West and Shaw in Toronto. Prior to the event, Cornelia did not request permission from the institution to chalk up their wall (it is easier to ask forgiveness than to get permission).

The event was almost completely spontaneous. Cornelia didn’t know if she would have enough nerve to go through with it just moments before she set up and began to rally the crowds. She didn’t know where she would set up until she happened to see an available wall. The time from when the project was first conceived to when it occurred was very short–only a few hours. Due to the enthusiasm of Cornelia, which is usually seen as a gift given freely, the event was a success. My role was as the event photographer. It was fun for me as well.

Here are some of the lessons I learned, which I believe are applicable to a wider context:

Tangible rewards encourage participation

People who are accosted and asked to participate in an art happening during events like Nuit Blanche may be reluctant to do so unless they are assured of a few things: that they will not be too embarrassed by the experience, that they will probably have some fun, and that there is some tangible award for participating (although this reward need not be substantial). Having this reward made the difference between people walking by and people deciding to take part.

Crowds can form and disperse very quickly

Crowd scene at Queen and Shaw, Toronto

One the most interesting aspects of the experience was just how quickly crowds formed once people figured out that something was going on. It didn’t require a long build-up time or an organic period of growth. It happened almost instantly and it disappeared just as quickly as it appeared. It was a completely ephemeral event. It took about 45 minutes from start to finish. Once all the loot bags were given out then the event was over and no one knew that anything had happened, besides chalk scratchings on the wall. Despite this ephemeral quality we got the sense that people valued their participation, that their interaction was meaningful to them and their apparent enjoyment was genuine. After the event, we continued on our way and explored more of Nuit Blanche, like nothing had happened.

The Power of Charisma

One of the reasons that the event was a success was that Cornelia was charismatic and attracted a crowd, simply through her interactions and presence. This factor was crucial. This skill in rallying crowds quickly is found in few people. If I had attempted a similar event it wouldn’t have worked at all.

When it comes to art events, appeals to reason are often much less powerful than appeals to having fun and getting a little bit of loot.

Dancer in gallery window. Nuit Blanche Toronto 2009

Toronto’s Nuit Blanche happened on the night of October 3-4. It was a great success. We saw some good art and left feeling happy.

Crowds

It is the density of crowds that makes Nuit Blanche a worthwhile event, almost regardless of what is exhibited in the galleries. The event attracts crowd-lovers and repels crowd-haters. The crowds are diverse in age, but the physicality of the event tends to favour the young. Black is a common colour of dress. Brightly-dressed individuals stand out from the crowd.

The density of sidewalk interactions in Toronto is usually fairly modest. Nuit Blanche ups this density considerably, for a limited time. But the scale of Nuit Blanche is so vast that this density occurs only in relatively small pockets of the city. In the rest of town it is business as usual.

Physical exertion

To attend Nuit Blanche involves strenuous, physical activity. It takes lots of energy to visit the various venues and districts. We stayed in one district only (Queen St West near Ossington), left early (2am), but even this was tiring.

At Nuit Blanche, walking is the preferred mode of transportation. Leave the bicycle or car at home this night, since these become cumbersome when the crowds become dense. The distance between districts in Nuit Blanche is so great that walking between all of them would exhaust most people. Therefore, an all-night Transit pass is a good investment.

However, even with a Transit Pass, Nuit Blanche has become an event so large that it can’t really be experienced in total by one individual. It’s just too physically exhausting to see it all.

Attending Nuit Blanche means staying up late. This is hard on some people’s bodies. I found it difficult to assemble enough energy to leave the house, at a time when my thoughts focus more on slipping into bed.

A good idea is to eat a substantial meal during the middle of Nuit Blanche so your body has more to work with. There were several attractive restaurants on our path and we ate in a good Chinese one.

Costs of success

Nuit Blanche is a large, far-flung event that is growing quickly. In Toronto, there is high demand for what it offers, within a certain segment of the population. As Nuit Blanche grows and becomes more popular, some people may become troubled by its scale. With this scale it is difficult to know what to do because there are so many options. Given a set of interests, it is difficult to know what particular events are best-suited to these interests.

Distance is also a potential weakness of Nuit Blanche. Walking is the only feasible means of transportation within each district. Yet, it can be physically exhausting to travel between districts. Therefore, a comprehensive shuttle system is needed between districts, beyond that which is offered by public transit. In this respect Nuit Blanche could become a huge, metropolitan version of what is currently offered by Hamilton’s Art Bus.

Gallery Opening on James St. North, Hamilton

Hamilton’s Art Crawl occurs on the second Friday of every month. My wife and I try to go to it every month. What attracts us is not the only the art, which can sometimes be quite interesting, but also the street life and crowd scenes that the crawl attracts. These types of crowds we find very enjoyable. There is a variety of people who form these crowds: young hipsters, middle-aged people with interest in art or culture, people who happen to be walking by and those who simply wish to enjoy the streets of Hamilton.

The Art Crawl is located on James St North–the heart of the historic core of Hamilton. On its route are the Hamilton Armory and the Anglican Christ’s Church Cathedral–two of the more attractive architectural landmarks in downtown Hamilton. Along the route there is some retail, several galleries, a few restaurants. The Mixed Media store at the corner of James and Cannon is a major crowd attractor. In the galleries not much art appears to get sold. On the surface not much money appears to be changing hands. At times other than during these once-monthly events, the neighbourhood goes back to its normal role as a downtown street with shops, sports bars and restaurants that serves a lively, mostly Portuguese community.

Art crawls provide not only a means to revitalize a city but also provide glimpses of alternative lifestyles. One group found at the Art Crawl are young people trying to establish identities as artists or designers, or to flirt with the possibility of creative, possibly unconventional lifestyles. In larger cities, with well-established cultural industries, the sight of such young people are commonplace. In Hamilton, they are a new development.

Such young members of the ‘creative classes’ I think are important for the future of Hamilton. In the current Canadian economic climate, which does not favour Hamilton’s economic base of heavy industry and manufacturing, an Art Crawl appears to be a low cost way to experiment with possible futures. It will not provide all the answers, but it does provide new ideas for a city dependent on declining smoke-stack industries.

If I were someone who wishes to invest money in the Art Crawl (as opposed to merely attend them) I would think about some of the following issues:

The Art Crawl only happens once a month. Is that enough to make a real impact on the city?

In my mind the Art Crawl is a big development in the cultural life of Hamilton. By their nature Art Crawls can’t be continuous events, since then there wouldn’t be time for artists to produce art or put together new shows. Art Crawls depend on the production of new art to remain interesting and authentic. In a city like Hamilton there is only a limited supply of such work.

Where could the Art Crawl lead for Hamilton?

The Art Crawl will likely have the effect of bringing development to James St North. If this development process is successful, practising artists who are dependent on cheap rents may eventually be driven out. In Hamilton’s case though, James St North is adjacent to regions of Hamilton such as the Beasley and Barton Street that should have cheap rents for the foreseeable future; a stone’s throw from James St North are some of the most poverty-afflicted urban areas in Canada.

What Hamilton needs are not just areas that might support development or gentrification (which is not necessarily a good thing) but in the creation of cultural industries where people might be able to find stable employment. In this respect I think the Art Crawl is very promising.

Should Art Crawls be about art or can they be generalized to other things?

Art Crawls depend on the existence of artists studios, galleries and other aspects of cultural production to become viable. Doors Open events on the other hand depend on the existence of a body of architectural and urban design resources that can be visited. They could be called ‘Architectural Crawls.’

Other possible types of crawls might be:

• Crawls within and between neighbourhoods (e.g. Jane’s Walks)
• Crawls between bars and restaurants (Pub Crawls)
• Crawls that show the inside of factories or other workplaces (Factory Crawls)
• Crawls between houses of worship (God Crawls)

What is common to all of these is that they involve people willing to engage in their city and to interact in a way that may not have been possible without them.

Art Crawls are cool and fun, but do they actually earn anyone any money?

Art Crawls are initially intended to support artists and galleries. It is usually the arts communities that initially promote them. If they become popular and start attracting crowds then these crowds can be put to many uses.

One of the most common side-effects is that they can increase property values in artists districts, which often has the effect of eventually displacing artists from these districts. I think the potential to create new markets for cultural goods is real yet the probability that artists will necessarily benefit from this process is uncertain.

Art Crawls are like websites that provide a service of real value yet are free to users. The initial goal is to attract an audience. Often the revenue stream that might be derived from this audience is not always clear at the beginning.

Are Art Crawls elitist events; do they alienate as well as attract segments of the population?

To become excited about an Art Crawl one presumably needs to have some interest in artists, galleries and cultural expression. This will likely remain a minority interest in an industrial city like Hamilton. Yet, being a minority interest is not necessarily elitist.

There appears to be no attempt by most participants to gain extra privilege by attending these events. Most participants just seem to want to enjoy art. People who enjoy art are not necessarily members of an elite group despite fine art’s occasional connection to those with power and influence. In fact, artists are often among the lowest paid members of society.