HARRIS, Sask. – Liza Gareau Tosh always wanted to own an art gallery.
“Art was always a special word for me,” said the artist and farmer from Harris. “From the time I was a child, I’ve loved drawing, painting and music.”
Her dream came true last year when she bought the Tessier United Church and moved it to nearby Harris to become Routes Gallery.
The project started a few years ago when Gareau Tosh was working on a mural in the Harris Museum.
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“A local lady came by to see how the work was progressing and asked me if I intended to go back teaching,” she said. “I had put aside my teaching career to raise our two little boys and give my art a real go. When she asked me about going back, I said I could always teach art. I added that I thought the local Catholic church would make a terrific art gallery.
“The lady gasped and said, ‘the United Church in Tessier is for sale’. ”
Gareau Tosh went that afternoon to look at it.
“The building was perfect. I could see it as an art gallery, a painting studio, a place to give art lessons and a place for music concerts. A sort of arts and culture centre.”
Gareau Tosh and her husband, Jim Tosh, hired a mover to transport the church 13 kilometres on a grid road to Harris and place it on a corner lot they bought on Main Street. They set it diagonally on the lot to make it more noticeable.
Refurbishing the building became a community project.
Thanks to a series of work bees, the building was replastered and repainted, a bathroom installed, front steps built and the interior furnished with small tables and vintage chairs to create a cabaret-style atmosphere.
Gareau Tosh named the centre Routes Gallery because “routes conveys the idea of an address. It’s a specific destination in a rural area. Like any route, what makes this place viable is the interconnection it provides between people, traditions and whatever else connects us.”
The gallery opened May 24 and has been a beehive of activity ever since.
The gallery has three purposes. “First, it is a place for making and sharing visual arts. It is my painting studio, and also a place for four or five artists in the area to display their work. My mission is to show fine emerging artists. We rotate the art shows.”
The centre is also a place to hold creative art and theatre workshops. Gareau Tosh teaches painting and drawing classes and brings in artists for workshops.
“As well, Routes is a place for music concerts,” she said.
“We have at least two a month, and have enjoyed amazing performers and amazing audiences. The acoustics in this building are superb. There isn’t a bad seat in the house.
“Artists are realizing that this is a great place to perform and several are talking of recording here. CBC will be doing a recording session here in the spring.”
The concert bill has been full since the gallery opened, and Gareau Tosh is thrilled with the audiences.
“They’ve come from the Harris community, from the wider rural area, and from Saskatoon, which is exactly what I hoped would happen,” she said.
Experiencing her dream-come-true has been a thrill.
“My ultimate goal has always been to raise my kids in a community where something like this exists.”
For more information, visit www.gareautosh.com or www.routesgallery.info.
