Letter of Support re Anderson Farm Museum

Gwen Doyle and Richard Bois
Co-Chairs, Walden Can

This is a letter of support on behalf of the members of the Sudbury Art Club in support of the Recommendations in the Report of the Heritage Committee regarding the upgrading and proposed changes to the Anderson Farm Museum
This venue can become an important asset to the Walden and Sudbury Arts community; the proposed changes will enhance the use of the facility for not only art exhibits and art workshops, but the use by many different interest groups as well as increase the appeal of this venue as a museum.

Art groups such as the Walden Art Club who will host the Northern Ontario Art Association’s Annual Meeting and Juried show in the fall of 2009 can benefit greatly if this facility was improved to enable them to host a first class event. As a director of the Northern Ontario Art Association I lend full support to the Walden Art club in hosting this important event.

In addition it would allow more artists to use the facility for the Annual tour des Arts (Studio Tour).
Last year’s attendance proved that many Sudburians were willing to travel to the log cabin on site to view the art on display for this annual tour. Improving the facilities would greatly enhance the opportunity for more local artists to participate.

Many thanks are in order to Walden Can for your efforts to date and for your ongoing support of the arts in the Sudbury and area community and the Anderson Farm Heritage Committee Recommendations.

Liz Peekstok, President
Sudbury Art Club

The Walden-CAN Anderson Farm Museum and Cultural Center Task Force Up-date

The Walden-CAN Anderson Farm Museum and Cultural Center Task Force Up-date

The Walden-CAN Anderson Farm Museum and Cultural Center Task Force formally started up on October 25, 2006, consisting of members from the Heritage Committee that met all summer drafting the seventeen recommendations included in the Review of the Anderson Farm and Heritage Activities in Walden dated October 10, 2006. Co-Chairs of the Task Force were Marte Holouka and Les Burford. Sheila Prusila and Amanda Turcotte shared secretarial duties and other members consisted of Gwen Doyle, Mary Barr, Elsie Stephenson, Lynn Quinn, Allison Muckle and Reg White.

Our purpose in forming the Task force was to facilitate the implementation of the Final Report of the Walden-CAN Heritage Committee in cooperation and partnership with the City of Greater Sudbury staff.

We set seven goals that we hope to complete in a six month period:

1. To review the 17 recommendations.

2. To separate the recommendations into Governance and Budget
sub-categories.

3. To prioritize the recommendations in both the Governance and
Budget subcategories.

4. To develop a power point presentation for the City of Greater Sudbury Public Input Budget Meeting being held at City Hall on January 30th.

5. To develop an outline for our governance model.

6. To establish a working partnership with city staff and Ward Two Councillor Jacques Barbeau.

7. To establish a working partnership with Council as a whole.


In order to accomplish all of this, the Task Force met weekly at the Meadowbrook Retirement Village during the months of November and the first half of December. A sub-committee consisting of Les Burford, Mary Barr, Elsie Stephenson, Lynn Quinn and Gwen Doyle also held three meetings with City of Greater Sudbury Staff members Ron Henderson – Director, Citizen Services, Library & Museum Systems; Clair Zuliani - Manager, Library & Heritage Resources and Jim Fortin – Museum Curator, exchanging ideas and clarifying and gathering information in order to meet our stated goals.

Sheila Prusila and Allison Muckle were tasked with creating the Power Point presentation that will be presented to City Council on January 30th. This will be completed by January 10th and will be presented to the Task Force shortly after for their approval.

Letter of Support

January 5, 2007
ATTENTION: GWEN DOYLE and RICHARD BOIS
Co-Chairs, WALDEN CAN HERITAGE COMMITTEE
Dear Committee Members:
RE. HERITAGE COMMITTEE
ANDERSON FARM MUSEUM - LIVELY, ONTARIO
On behalf of the Northern Ontario Art Association, I would like to express our support of the
recommendations outlined in the Report of the Heritage Committee regarding proposed changes
and upgrading to the Anderson Farm Museum in Lively, and most especially changes to the
stable building to make it useable for an art venue / gallery.
The Anderson Farm Museum is a valuable asset to the community and to the City of Greater
Sudbury. The proposed changes would make the complex available to a broader range of users,
including local artists and art organizations. There is a definite need for more community art
galleries in Northern Ontario accessible to our Northern Ontario artists.
The Northern Ontario Art Association is an umbrella organization that encompasses 15 clubs
from all over Northern Ontario, representing over 500 artists. Four of these member clubs are
from the Sudbury area, and it has been a continual struggle for clubs to find a suitable location to
host the official opening of our annual exhibition and annual meeting or even to hold our annual
touring exhibition. Access to a complex proposed by the heritage committee would be a huge
benefit to the local art organizations and individual artists wishing to hold these and other
exhibitions.
We commend your committee for all your time hard work towards achieving this goal.
Yours truly,
NORTHERN ONTARIO ART ASSOCIATION
Christie Best Pearson,
President, NOAA
18 Field Street
Lively, ON P3Y 1A9

Letter of Support

Gwen Doyle and Richard Bois
Co-Chairs, Walden-CAN


This letter is in support of the 17 Recommendations in the Report of the Heritage Committee regarding the proposed changes and upgrading to the Anderson farm Museum.

We, as the Walden Art Club, fully endorse all of the recommendations, because we firmly believe that the Anderson farm Museum is a valuable asset to this community, and to the entire City of greater Sudbury. We would, however, like to see greater use of this facility by the public.

We feel that the proposed changes would enhance the usefulness of the site for many different groups in the community, as well as greatly enhance the appeal of the Anderson Farm as a museum. But, of course, before the public profile of the Anderson farm can be significantly raised, many of these proposals need to be carried out.

As an arts group, we would no doubt benefit most from the winterization and enhancement of the stable building, as an excellent local venue for art shows. The repairs and changes to the barn are another needed change, as it would be an alternative site in Walden to host our larger events.

We know, from our experience over the past three years, of a small groups of us renting the log cabin for the SCARF Studio Tour, that this is certainly a location that many people will visit to view an art show. We had so many visitors this year that we were unable to maintain a count, but estimate the attendance around 400 people, many of whom were from the City of greater Sudbury, as well as from further afield. But if the stable building were available, many more artists would have the same opportunity to be part of the SCARF Studio Tour, as well.

In addition, our club has been asked to host the Northern Ontario Artists Association
Annual Meeting and Juried Show for 2009 - which we would really like to do- however, we really need a large enough local venue to be able to do this. Anderson Farm would be perfect, if the proposed changes have been carried out.

We want to thank the Walden-CAN for all your efforts to date, and for your ongoing support of the Anderson farm Heritage Committee Recommendations, and for the arts in our community!

Wishing you all the best in 2007!

Lynn Quinn, President
Walden Art Club