Former Holy Angels teacher and student tours New Dawn Centre for Social Innovation in Sydney
“I think it turned out some very independent, community-spirited young women thanks to the sisters.”
A former student and teacher at the former Holy Angels school and convent, Young treasures memories of the all-girls institution.
“I’ve had a long, long experience in this building,” Young said Saturday while walking through the former school’s hallways.
“I looked at my old classroom. I’ve taught here most of my career. As I look back now I think, I think, we had a very good education. Education that went outside the usual subjects.”
Young attended Holy Angels as a junior and senior student, graduating in 1960.
The school was previously run by the Sisters of the Congregation of Notre Dame who lived on the convent site next door.
Young said the nuns would often coach students for the area’s speech, music and drama competitions.
“We had wonderful music appreciation, of course,” Young said. “And we girls got to run student government, in so far as there was student government in the ’60s and that was so marvellous. And I think it turned out some very independent, community-spirited young women thanks to the sisters.”
Young was saddened when school board officials decided to close Holy Angels.
“I was just talking to a former colleague and we agreed that if Holy Angels couldn’t stay what it was, we’re very glad that it’s turned into a centre in support of arts and culture,” Young said. “I think the sisters would agree with me on that.”
The Celtic Colours International Festival was announced Saturday as an anchor tenant to lease a space inside the new arts centre after the former convent building has been renovated.
The festival had already leased a ticket box office inside the Nepean Street complex for about five years.
Celtic Colours artistic director Dawn Beaton said her entire team is excited to join the New Dawn Centre and be among other tenants who are focused on creativity and the arts.
“The collaborations that are no doubt to occur in the future are pretty exciting for us,” Beaton said. “I think it’s breathes life — it adds colour to the downtown.”
New Dawn Centre for Social Innovation co-ordinator Savannah Anderson was among the final pupils to attend Holy Angels.
“I was here in Grade 11 when the building closed, so unfortunately I didn’t get to graduate from here,” Anderson said.
“The thing we were most distraught about with the building closing was that it could be torn down and the history of this being a centre where girls came to learn about art and music and drama was going to be lost.”
Anderson said knowing that the complex will be used as a place for future artists to experiment, learn and share their talent is amazing.
At the time of its closure in 2011, Holy Angels was the only all-girls public high school in Atlantic Canada.
The complex was later purchased for an undisclosed amount of money by New Dawn.
The social enterprise has since undertaken a major reconstruction on the school’s adjoining convent site to be known as the Convent.
Renovation of the 40,000-square-foot space was slated to cost roughly $12 million, with investments of $5.5 million from the federal government and $3.2 million from the provincial government.
The former convent will now become home to Cape Breton musicians, dancers and dance studios, visual artist studios, theatre groups, artists-in-residence, an innovation hub and technology start-ups.
The convent space was opened 1885 with an extension added in 1907, while the school portion of the building was built in the late 1950s.
On Saturday, the convent space remained an active construction site with virtual tours offered to visitors.
