Major new funding for Richmond’s Centre d’art
The announcement, by Comptonstanstead MP Marie-claude Bibeau on behalf of the government of Canada, was very warmly applauded—twice—by an appreciative crowd of 50 or more at the Centre d’art de Richmond (CAR) last Friday. The federal government will be contributing $2.4 million towards upgrades to the town’s 140-year-old heritage building, the Couvent Mont St-patrice.
The funding was available through Infrastructure Canada’s Green and Inclusive Community Buildings Program. Targeting existing public community buildings undergoing retrofits, repairs, or upgrades, the program aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, increase energy efficiency, and work towards buildings with net zero standards.
This is the second such project in the Eastern Townships to receive funding through this program. Earlier this month, the Centre des Arts de Stanstead received $2.1 million for the refurbishment and renovation of the Border Theater.
Speaking after the press conference, the federal Minister of National Revenue, explained the rationale for the large subsidy.
“It will be of benefit environmentally but also socially and economically,” she said. “Part of the grant goes towards a geothermal installation which will cut the building’s heating and cooling costs in half. Part will help finance the construction of an elevator to make the building more easily accessible to its tenants and its visitors.”
“Beyond that,” she continued, “this is part of an emphasis on rural areas where volunteer-run organizations make enormous contributions to the vitality of the community, and by extension to its economy. This grant comes with the recognition of the work done by the volunteers who have made the Couvent Mont St-patrice such a dynamic social center for the greater Richmond area.”
She went on to say, “Just as we have GBA, Gender Based Analysis, which strives to support projects that are equally beneficial to women and men, so too there’s RBA, or Rural Based Analysis, which takes into consideration the social and cultural fabric of rural communities.”
Marie-claude Bibeau was followed on stage by André Bachand, Member of the National Assembly for
Richmond; Pierre Tétrault, Prefect of the Val St-françois MRC; and Bertrand Ménard, Mayor of Richmond. The last speaker was Benoit Saint-pierre, president of the board of the notfor-profit organization that oversees the operations of the Couvent Mont
St-patrice.
An imposing and historic building, the convent was built in 1884 by Father Patrick Quinn. The original, much smaller, structure was erected at a cost of $7,500. From the beginning it was a teaching convent. It was enlarged three times between 1897 and 1922 to reach is present configuration of 25,000 square feet. The convent was operated by the nuns of the Congregation of Notre Dame and enjoyed an enviable reputation. For a time, early in the 20th century, it was the only school in Canada that graduated fully bilingual secretaries. The convent was also known for teaching music.
Changes to the education system brought an end to the operations of the convent. Nevertheless, the nuns continued to teach there for a few more years, under the direction of the Commission scolaire Morilac. Demographic changes and declining enrollment rendered the convent’s classroom space unnecessary. The building was far too big for the seven nuns who still lived there and, in 1981, the Congregation Notre Dame, which still owned it, put the convent up for sale.
While some were in favour of demolishing it to make way for a new structure, others felt differently. A non-profit organization, Les Amis de la Musique, was formed with the dual purpose of saving the building and continuing music instruction. The group purchased the building for $5,000 in 1984. Under the direction of Jeanette Charland, the convent reopened and began functioning as a music school and concert venue. Despite never having more than a shoestring budget, Les Amis de la Musique fulfilled its mission very well for almost three decades.
Then, following Jeanette Charland’s departure, the organization began to struggle. While she had been able to manage a building and run a cultural center, none of her several successors seemed able to adequately do either.
In 2016, the non-profit organization opted to split into two parts. One would be dedicated to the maintenance and repair of the building and the other to operating a music school and a concert venue.
The convent, in 2016, was in a bad state of repair. Despite heating costs that ran to $45,000 annually, one locale might be so warm the tenant had to open a window even if it was minus 20 outside, while the adjacent room would be so cold that the tenant needed an electric space heater to be able to continue working there. Worse, the building was far from being up to code, and if safety requirements weren’t met, it would be forced to close.
Despite these considerable challenges, Benoit Saint-pierre, a retired chemical engineer, became the founding president of the new nonprofit tasked with saving the building.
“Our mission,” he says, “is to provide affordable space to community organizations with social or cultural mandates. Our tenants include the Golden Age Club, and the Volunteer Bureau among others. In addition to the music school, we also rent studio space to a number of artists.”
When he took the post, he sought out board members with expertise in fields such as law, finance, and management to give the new nonprofit the best possible chance of fulfilling its mandate.
“Since our inception we’ve put a new, metal roof on the building,” he notes. “It should be good for the next 50 years. We’ve installed a sprinkler system throughout the building and we’ve installed an alarm system as well. We were given an experimental heating system by Thermo 2000 and we made further updates that have provided more uniform heating throughout the building. We’ve also reduced our heating bill to $33,000 annually.”
“We’re optimistic that with the new geothermal system we’ll be able to reduce that number by half,” he adds. “In addition to heating in the winter, it will provide the entire building with cooling in the summer. All our tenants should be able to set their own thermostats to suit their own needs.”
When the Couvent Mont St-patrice took over managing the building, its occupancy rate was at about 60 per cent. Its break-even point required an occupancy rate of 80 per cent. Currently, the convent has 22 different tenants who occupy 95 per cent of the building.
“Because we’re a non-profit,” Benoit explains, “our rents are as low as $250/month. Most of our locales are former classrooms, and so are quite spacious. We charge $5.75 per square foot per year, and that includes heating, lighting, and wi-fi. Our own costs are minimal as we have only one employee, a janitor. Everything else is done by one or more members of our board who all work on a volunteer basis.”
“Our tenants are aware that the installation of the elevator will mean a rent hike,” he continues, “but we expect that most of them will stay with us. The elevator will serve the basement—part of which is being rented by the Cercle des fermières—as well as the upper four floors.”
“Since we took over the building, we’ve held a number of fundraisers which have brought in several hundred thousand dollars, but we always knew that we’d need grant money for the elevator and for geothermal heating,” he says. “We’ve been working to obtain this particular grant since 2022.”
“Because we’re already well into construction season,” he continues, “we won’t be seeking tenders for the work until January, with a view to starting work in the spring of 2025. We’ve already had architectural plans drawn up and we’re hoping that the elevator can be installed at a cost of one and half million dollars. The geothermal heat pumps, we hope, will cost a little over a million. Any extra grant money will be spent on new windows and doors.”
Like the crowd that warmly applauded the announcement on Friday, the tenants of the Couvent Mont St-patrice are looking forward to the planned improvements.
A non-profit organization, Les Amis de la Musique, was formed with the dual
purpose of saving the building and continuing music instruction. The
group purchased the building for $5,000 in 1984.
In 2016, the non-profit organization opted to split into two parts. One would be dedicated to the maintenance and repair of the building and the other to operating a music school
and a concert venue.