Beth DeMerchant and Jaye Hargrove at the Bath Meeting House
My last two columns on activist-author-historian Ann Brennan and activist-artist-performer Michele Kazakos were the result of a wonderful evening last month (September 2014) at the Bath Meeting House. Now we visit with Beth DeMerchant, owner of the former church by the St John River that is now a cultural centre, and her long-time friend Jaye Hargrove who was involved in the building’s transformation and coordinated the recent poetry-music-art salon.
Since its opening two years ago, the seasonal Bath Meeting House has hosted performances, art exhibits, visiting artists-in-residence, weddings, showers and anniversary parties. The acoustics on the main floor are excellent and the centre has presented an much-admired Tuesday night summer music program as well as exhibits by local artists such as Lilly Lawrance, Roy Tibbits and photographer Rob Davenport.
Since its opening two years ago, the seasonal Bath Meeting House has hosted performances, art exhibits, visiting artists-in-residence, weddings, showers and anniversary parties. The acoustics on the main floor are excellent and the centre has presented an much-admired Tuesday night summer music program as well as exhibits by local artists such as Lilly Lawrance, Roy Tibbits and photographer Rob Davenport.
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| Still a handsome landmark, the former Bath Methodist church, dedicated in 1904, has retained its beautiful windows. |
It’s been almost a hobby for me, like a horse or a boat. I bought the building in 2006 from its second owner after it had been de-consecrated and it was then being used as a flea market. I had no real concept. It was a sound building but it needed a good cleaning out. At first I thought it might become a living space.
What made you consider a very different path?
Without people like Jaye, it never would have happened. I can only spend so much time here and one day I arrived back and the art gallery was ready! Jaye and Michele (Kazakos) had arranged it all from ceilings to floors and it was much nicer than I could have imagined. Later I bought 72 purple chairs on eBay, rented a van and Jaye and I drove them down from Toronto. I knew by then that it needed to be a public space and that was the turning point.
It still took a while to become a performance space though?
When we got the basement set up for art shows, I had no idea how to proceed. So I talked to Dolores Bohan (a Bath NB folk artist). Jaye told me about Peter McLaughlin. He came up with a plan and launched the Tuesday night music series. Then Colin Smith (an artist and teacher) volunteered to be an informal, helpful curator and he’s organized all the shows ─ six in the last two summers.
Well it may be an unusual approach, and Beth you may call it “stumbling forward”, but it’s certainly been successful. Thinking about our region, we now find ourselves with a critical mass of cultural facilities and, Jaye, you mentioned “The 105” just now which makes me think that this river route might make a good designated cultural corridor. Your thoughts?
Bath has an interesting past with lots of fascinating characters. We’re seeking a new vibrancy through the arts and we’re fanning that spark gently. {Beth: Keeping old buildings viable by re-purposing them!} A cultural heritage corridor stretching from Grand Falls to Woodstock is now possible, so maybe that’s our rallying cry. We want to stop that tourist traffic. But what are the next steps? First, let’s just ask for an official designation ─ and signage!
Do you agree Beth?
We need to move along with this community-building. There’s certainly potential for cultural tourism and we’ve got a gorgeous landscape for eco-tourism as well. The bureaucracies do lots of studies, every three or four years it seems, and I keep looking for something in those to piggy-back on.
Jaye?
We’ve all invested in branding, signage, brochures and now that we have the cultural evidence ─ a 120-kilometer stretch along the river rich in heritage and cultural facilities ─ we need some energy expended along with some sort of centralized support to help us pull it all together.
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| Named after the Monquart Stream in Bath NB, Monquartet (left to right: Basil Kazakos, Katharine Brennan, Amanda Carr and Peter McLaughlin) performed at an event that was part of the New Brunswick Writers’ Federation conclave in Carleton County. |