Architect sparks excitement about bid for museum in Stratford

as published by The Guardian on Oct 1, 2009
NIGEL ARMSTRONG
The Guardian

Passion and excitement swept through a meeting in Stratford Wednesday as the town pushes on with a bid to have a new P.E.I. museum on its waterfront.

An informal committee of interested people, led by Stratford deputy mayor Sandy McMillan, has for the past few days been hosting one of the world’s most famous architects, Douglas Cardinal.

He spoke at a public meeting attended by nearly 50 people at Stratford Town Hall Wednesday. Afterwards, the excitement was palpable.

Edward Rice presented his enthusiasm for the project to area MLA Cynthia Dunsford and Mayor Kevin Jenkins.

“All inclusiveness, the inspiration of a new building that is allowed to be free, to be formed, something new and imaginative, the site — which I think is ideal — somebody put all this together and that hasn’t happened in Charlottetown,” said Rice.

Cardinal spoke of the need for strong, determined vision and commitment to make projects happen even when it seems unlikely. He persevered for many of his renowned, curving structures, be it the National Museum of the American Indian on the Washington Mall beside the Capitol, or a northern Canadian hospital combining aboriginal and western medicine.

“It takes imagination, which everything starts with, your vision, your belief, and (Cardinal) brought that to us tonight,” said Rice. “Somebody somewhere in this group had the brains to put that together. They have a bid committee. Where are the rest of the few communities that could be interested? I see big players here and big dreamers too.

“Remember Frank MacKinnon built Confederation Centre of the Arts on a dream, with not a . . . hope . . . of getting a dime to do that, and he and a few other people did it. Not that I agree with it.”

Jordan Brown is the unofficial co-chair and sometime spokesperson for the Stratford museum bid committee. He lives in Frenchfort but was impressed with the idea of Stratford being home to a P.E.I. museum. He knows that the current town sewage lagoon will have to be moved if the museum is to occupy the open waterfront space south of the Hillsborough Bridge approaches.

“From a provincial perspective it makes so much sense to have it there, it is almost nonsensical to think of it being any place else,” said Brown.

He invited any interested Islander to contact him, McMillan or the Stratford town office to volunteer for the growing ad hoc museum committee.

“Government right now has announced its intention to build this museum and is currently undertaking a study . . . to define the scope of the museum, where it would go, what kind of facility it would need, parking, etc.,” said Brown. “Like (Cardinal) said here tonight, we have stated our intention that we want it here, now we are enrolling the people to do that.”

“The first step is to declare a very powerful intention,” said Cardinal in his address Wednesday.

Then it must be nurtured, he said.

“When you state your word, and you say it in a powerful way, the hardest thing is to keep your word because human beings have a whole bunch of agendas going on in their heads,” said Cardinal. “To bring a vision into reality, you keep your word, you keep your intentions pure which requires an unwavering commitment. You operate by commitment, rather than fear.

“Fear keeps us powerless and small and collapse the power of our intention.”

See public responses to this article at the Guardian site.