Danny Perkins. Photo courtesy
By Nick Fonda
Local Journalism Initiative
The official opening won’t be until mid-May, so right now the interior of the new Perkins Art Gallery is a vast, near-empty, well-lit space with newly sanded floors and white walls. The renovation work, including the entire electrical re-wiring of the building, was started the first week of January and is now down to the final details.
The only change to the exterior of the building, aside from signage, is visible only at night, when coloured lights illuminate the spire of the new gallery, a building that for almost two centuries served as St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church.
“We had been looking for a new space for the gallery for about a year,” says Danny Perkins.
“We’ve been in the gallery on the Danville Square since 2020,” adds Rebecca Taylor, the gallery director. “We only had 500 square feet on the ground floor. The basement, which was much larger, was useable space but access to it was difficult. Here, 95 per cent of the building is wheelchair accessible.”
“And here, we have 8,000 square feet of space,” Danny continues. “The basement is only a little smaller than what was the church sanctuary and the church hall.”
Built between 1841 and 1842, St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church had some unusual features, including box pews.
“We had requests for some of those pews,” says Rebecca. “The Richmond County Historical Society next door kept a couple and a few other organizations kept some as well.”
“We recuperated all the wood from the pews,” Danny adds. “A lot of it is stored in the basement, and we’ve been using it in our renovations for door and window frames, for molding and baseboards. We’ve even cut some of it into thin strips to fill the cracks between the pine floorboards. The wood they used for the pews was butternut and some of the boards are as much as 20 inches wide. In the long run, it’s all going to be used. An artisan in Victoriaville is using some to make pens. Another artisan will be using some to make jewelry.”
The cracks between the floorboards were the inevitable result of the wood shrinking.
“Two coins were found when the pews were removed,” says Rebecca. “One with the date 1829 and the other dated 1781.”
The coins, American halfpennies, are about the diameter and heft of a loonie. They are, understandably, quite worn. The older coin would have been in circulation for over 60 years if it went lost when the church was first built.
“The coins will be on display with several other artefacts,” Danny explains. “We want to acknowledge the history of St. Andrew’s and we’re planning to have an area set aside for a permanent exhibit dedicated to the church. It will certainly include one of the box pews, some of the organ pipes, and a much-used roll-top desk.”
In addition to a history space, the Perkins Gallery will also have classroom space.
“We are setting up a multi-purpose studio,” Rebecca says. “We want to host open workshops. Visual artists who work in anything from ceramic to watercolours would have space to accommodate a workshop of a dozen or more participants. It could be used for a Saturday morning art class, for example. It could also be used by an artist from someplace distant who comes here to give a multi-day workshop.”
“Our aim,” she continues, “is to bring people in. Some people might feel intimidated by the name, art gallery. We want to be just the opposite. We want people to feel welcome to come in and look. We will be displaying the work of 30 artists who span all the spectrums, from emerging to established, from young to old, from local to international. Similarly, the artwork we sell will go from very affordable—like cards that cost no more that $5—to quite expensive artworks that cost as much as $75,000.”
The Perkins Gallery wouldn’t be the Perkins Gallery if it didn’t include Danny’s artwork, which is now also being exhibited and sold across North America. As well, his work has found its way to Japan, the Bahamas, and Australia.
Only seven years ago, Danny was bringing his metalwork to the Richmond Craft Fair and attracting local notice with the three sets of metal gates at the Richmond fair grounds—work he did pro bono.
Since then, he has shown his artwork well beyond Cleveland Township.
“In 2018,” he recalls, “I brought some of my work to the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair in Toronto, which lasts 10 days. I’ve been back every year since. This year, I was asked to prepare an entrance piece—something that will be seen by visitors as they arrive. I’ve also been asked to prolong my stay.”
In 2022, Danny’s work was exhibited in Miami and in Los Angeles the following year.
“Often,” says Rebecca, “an artist, or a gallery, can apply to attend a show. Some only take artists, while others only accept galleries, and some are open to both. If the show likes the samples that are submitted, the artist or gallery will be invited.”
“Other times,” she continues, “we’ve received an invitation to attend. That was the case at the Hamptons Fine Art Show in New York in 2023.”
“That show was memorable for all the wrong reasons,” Danny adds. “The area was hit by a violent rainstorm. We were set up in tents and pavilions. As the rain continued, we found ourselves standing in several inches of water. Everybody was told to evacuate but all the artwork was left behind. In my case, it didn’t really matter if my metalwork got wet, but other artists, those displaying watercolours for example, were not so lucky.”
“Another show we’ve attended is in Perth, Ontario,” he continues. “It is also an outdoor art show. In terms of the ratio between investment and return, it has been a great show for me.”
Artwork by Danny Perkins can now be found in widely disparate places including an outdoor sculpture garden in Los Angeles, a gallery in the small town of Ellaville, Georgia, the boutiques of the Royal Canadian Mint in Ottawa and in Winnipeg, and the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto.
“Something that’s become popular recently,” Danny explains, “is fingerprint art. Imagine a small statue, about 12 inches high with all the ridges and whorls of a fingerprint. I made Darryl Sitter’s fingerprint for the Hockey Hall of Fame. Typically, I’ll make six copies of a fingerprint, of which one goes to the individual, three stay with me, and the two others are often auctioned off at a fundraising event.”
The first event that is going to be held at the new Perkins Art Gallery will be the Salon Empreinte d’Art. Last year, the Perkins Gallery held the show in June at Parc Marie-Victorin in Kingsey Falls. This year it will be held on May 18, 19 and 20 at the old St. Andrew’s church in Melbourne.
“We’ll be holding an official opening on the 17th as a VIP event,” says Rebecca Taylor. “The following day the Salon will be open to the public. After that, we’ll be open on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, and also by appointment. We’re also planning a commemorative event in November for Remembrance Day.”
“The gallery opening is the first step,” Danny Perkins adds. “Possibly as early as next year we will be installing an artistic garden on the five-acre plot of land around the gallery.”
St. Andrew’s transition from place of worship to art gallery will not be an easy adjustment for everybody. Just a few years ago the Conseil du patrimoine religeux invested considerable sums of money to preserve St. Andrew’s when it was a church. There were restrictions on what could be done with the building, for example a prospective investor couldn’t subdivide it into housing units. Its new vocation as an art gallery had the consent of the Conseil.
In its new incarnation, it will again draw people. They won’t be coming to reflect on the spoken word, but, Danny Perkins and Rebecca Taylor hope, they’ll be prompted to reflection by the visual art.
Photo from e-Liberty
