Previous Issues
A savior for Siloam Hall
?Compared to other community halls in the Township, Siloam Hall, a mile or so west of the village of Siloam on the corner of Durham 8 and the Second Concession, has significant issues. It’s tiny. It has a largely unfinished basement. It has no parking lot, so if a significant number of vehicles try to park out front rather than risking dents on the Concession Road, the lawn quickly becomes a Mud Bowl.
Worst of all, the hall is infested with flies. The first thing you have to do when you rent the place is to sweep up all the dead ones that have accumulated since the last renter left. Then, during your three or four hours, you have to try to ignore all the live (or semi-comatose) ones that inhabit every nook and cranny. Not pleasant.
All these factors have combined to put Siloam Hall near the bottom of the list as a preferred site for rehearsals, Jack & Jills, meetings, classes, or any of the other community activities that put the halls in Goodwood, Sandford or Zephyr at least within shouting distance of being able to pay their own way. Siloam, despite its relatively small utilities budget, is still a long, long way from being self-sufficient, which is why it always comes that close to being mothballed whenever Township budget discussions roll around.
All this is cause for hallelujahs at the proposal of the Uxbridge Arts Association (see page 14) to turn Siloam Hall into a public gallery and visual arts work space. Not only does the plan give Siloam a future, it addresses one of the significant cultural deficits our community has in comparison to neighbouring towns. Stouffville has the Latcham Gallery, Port Perry the Farndale Gallery at the library. Uxbridge has nothing, which considering the size and quality of our visual arts community (as evidenced every fall during the Uxbridge Studio Tour), is both a shame and a puzzlement.
We’re aware that the artists have long coveted the Fire Hall on Bascom as a potential gallery site. But it’s obvious the Fire Department isn’t moving tomorrow. We also know the UAA was in discussions for a house on Mill Street that would have been glorious, but that fell through. So for at least the short term, a location in or near downtown would seem improbable.
As UAA President Stuart Blower says, Siloam isn’t all that far to go, and a lot of us drive right by the hall on a regular basis anyway. With the proper promotion and development of the site (which we think the UAA is highly capable of under its current leadership), the building could be a real draw.
Issues remain, of course. What’s to happen with the few current regular renters? Can the UAA afford the current rent on a permanent basis, or can the Township come up with a low-cost, subsidized lease until the gallery gets on its feet? Is the Township divesting itself of the Hall to the UAA a meaningful option?
However it plays out, the UAA proposal is too good a plan to let go. It finally gives Uxbridge’s visual artists the home that its performing artists have had for a century, and as important, it gives a future with dignity to an historic building which desperately needs an upgrade.
