Gaspésie has lost a large piece of its cultural landscape. The Le Griffon cultural centre in Gaspé was swept away by flames on Sunday. The fire demolished the heritage building and caused a huge commotion throughout the region. Three days after the disaster, hope is slowly rising from the ashes.
Claude Côté has almost lost his voice. The local painter had moved his entire studio to the cultural centre last spring; he lost everything in the fire. “I have nothing left, not even a paintbrush,” he manages to breathe a few days after the tragedy. “I had the pinnacle of the studio. Space to work, for my frames, to receive customers too. It quickly changes your point of view.”
More than 30 years of an artist’s career went up in smoke last weekend. Almost worse, 25 years of work from the community of L’Anse-au-Griffon, on the outskirts of Gaspé, suddenly disappeared. A fire broke out during the night from Saturday to Sunday for reasons that remain unknown, taking down the building built in the 1940s and renovated in the early 2000s.
“A handful of friends” saved this former refrigerated shed used by fishermen from demolition in 1999, Mr. Côté recalls. “What helped us at the beginning was that people were behind us. The city had been involved.”
Once stabilized with a metal frame, the cross-shaped building was gradually renovated to accommodate a café, an art gallery, a performance hall, a reception room, a starting point for cross-country ski trails… Ironically, this metal frame is today all that remains of the wooden building.
Save the soul of places
A few artifacts were saved from the flames. Two insulated cork doors and large ammonia compressors inherited from the place’s past as a cold storage facility were preserved. The same goes for the “Le Griffon” poster installed on the storefront.
Once the shock had passed, Stéphane Morissette, vice-president of the board of directors of the cultural centre, began to envisage a reconstruction. It was still too early to envisage what form this would take. “We’re definitely going to do something. That’s for sure. It was so important in the village,” says the volunteer manager.
The essence, however, will remain the same: the Griffon’s mission as a pillar of community will survive the fire. “I’ve been trying to summarize what the cultural center was for 2-3 days. For example, we had an exhibition by the Association of Disabled People. These people don’t have a place to exhibit these projects! At home, we exhibited them for free,” he illustrates. “We are an example of citizen takeover of a place that was falling down. We are an example of collaboration with many partners in the village.”
The building was insured, but not necessarily “up to what it was,” he said. “And then, it’s a heritage building that we’ve just lost. We won’t be able to resurrect it. It can’t be rebuilt as is.”
The support of elected officials for the Griffon community is unanimous, as is that of the artistic community and local residents. As a symbol of this solidarity, nearly $40,000 was raised in a few days through crowdfunding to help Claude Côté get his easel back on track. “I can’t give up after this,” he confided to Duty.
The Griffon team also wanted to thank in an online publication all those who showed help or sympathy in recent days. “Thank you for showing us, once again, the essential role of the Cultural Centre in the heart of L’Anse-au-Griffon and the Gaspé Peninsula. You are the foundation on which we will rebuild.”
This story is supported by the Local Journalism Initiative, funded by the Government of Canada.