Athabasca native, vocal coach and theatre veteran Gina Martel has a vision for Athabasca’s recently vacated old brick school: an arts academy.
“I would be looking at dance, music, drama, musical theatre, technical theatre. There would also be the possibility for painting, pottery — any of those things could be incorporated into this picture, including set design,” she said.
The space could include a gallery, she ventured.
“I have envisioned a place where the artwork of students that are there can be put in a gallery, and parents can come and enjoy their kids’ work up on a wall.”
Martel (formerly Meyer) has a robust music studio and is the assistant director of the widely popular Northern Lights Spiritus Singers led by her sister, Leah Meyer-Cook. However, in a presentation to Athabasca town council last Tuesday, Martel acknowledged that a private academy might struggle to be financially viable.
She is looking to Aspen View Public School Division to support the academy as part of the public school system and said her initial talks with superintendent Brian LeMessurier and Minister of Education Jeff Johnson have met with support.
“This would all be under the public school umbrella. There would be some freedom in there to incorporate other community groups to come in and use the facility,” she said.
Martel said she first got the idea for a fine arts campus when she moved back to Athabasca two and a half years ago after stint in Fort McMurray.
When the old brick school’s tenant, Family and Community Support Services, was slated to move out, she realized the building was the perfect fit.
“That particular building is attached to a theatre. It has a green room,” she pointed out, adding that the pottery club is already set up in the basement.
As for what grades an arts academy would accommodate, Martel said it is up to the school board to decide. Likewise with the possibility of further heritage designation for the school: all shareholders would have to agree on whether or not the protection is worthwhile.
“We would have to take a walkthrough through the building to see what exactly we would be allowed to do and change,” she said.
When asked if she’s encountered any concerns about the project, Martel said, “The only issue would be how we are going to get the kids down there, which would be a bussing issue, but they didn’t really consider that that should be a big problem to overcome.”
Martel said so far, no one has suggested that a separate arts academy would detract from the new secondary school tentatively located near the Athabasca Regional Multiplex. In fact, she said, such an academy would more fairly distribute resources through town.
“What it would do is it would enhance the old building that we already have, so they would put money into that old facility to give it new life,” she said. “I think this could be a great asset to the community — not just the school system and the people in the school system, but to the community as well. It has a chance to revitalize an area in our town that has kind of had less attention as of late.”
She suggested the Athabasca Landing Pool building could even be used as a set design studio once the new pool is built.
The next step in investigating the arts academy idea, said Martel, will be a visit within the next month to the Calgary Arts Academy, a school after which she said Athabasca’s academy could be modeled.
“There is talk of us even becoming a satellite school of theirs,” Martel revealed, though she acknowledged all options need to be explored before any decision is finalized.
Mayor Roger Morrill told Martel at Tuesday’s presentation that he appreciated her enthusiasm and the inroads she’s made with Johnson and LeMessurier.
“I think it really comes down to how substantively our provincial government and our regional school authority want to explore this,” Morrill later told the Advocate. “I don’t think the town has the capabilities to participate on a level that may be substantive.”
He compared the situation to that with the CNR train station, where the Athabasca Heritage Society came in and “did wonderful things, and we were able to turn that building over to them.”
“If we have a great group or organization come in and have the funding in place to do these wonderful things, I would be quite supportive about doing the same thing or similar things as we did with our train station.”
He acknowledged that more details are needed before council will take an official stance on the proposal, and added that the situation does differ from the train station in that the town shares ownership of the school with the county.
Still, he said it was a “tremendous” proposal and that both the town and county would like to hear more.
LeMessurier broached the idea to the Aspen View school board on Thursday. He said through his talks with supporters of an arts academy, he understood they did not envision it as being a place where students attend full time, but where they come for part of the day. He added that administration is doing some research into what a conceptual design could look like.
“What is really exciting about this is that this is not the brainchild of anyone sitting around this table right now. It’s not the brainchild of the ministry. This is the brainchild of grassroots parents within the system that see what makes their children tick more than anything else is exposure to the arts,” said LeMessurier.
LeMessurier used Rochester School as an example of where, with a small staff, it might be difficult to bring in drama or other fine arts specialists. Access to a fine arts academy, he proposed, could enhance curriculum.
LeMessurier said parent feedback so far has been positive, but with a caveat: they don’t want core curriculum to be compromised.
He stressed how early in its gestation the idea is.
“We’re not going to take control of any part of this plan. It’s right now in the hands of parents in the community led by Ms. Martel,” he said.
Minister of Education and local MLA Jeff Johnson is excited about the prospect of an arts campus in Athabasca.
“Sometimes in rural Alberta you can’t afford a good music program at every one of your schools,” he said.
“If you have a fine arts campus, you can use that expertise not only for community programs, but for the schools as well,” Johnson explained. “I think it is a fantastic concept, and as part of the planning that we have encouraged them to do in terms of partnerships, there is no reason that the drama and music facilities have to be located in the new high school.”
Johnson said using the old brick school as an arts campus is similar to the idea of using the Athabasca Regional Multiplex fieldhouse as a gym for the new school.
“That is one of the exciting things about community infrastructure planning, and what we have been pushing school boards to do is look at all the infrastructure in the community as taxpayer infrastructure,” he said.
