Bloomfield Betrayed
Municipality sides with mould
BY Sean Flinn
Photography by Darryl James
Sunlight bathes the plants in Suzanne Swannie’s kitchen, where she sits with fellow Halifax artist Jim MacSwain, a contrast to their wilted spirits.
In July, Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM) shut Swannie, MacSwain and over a dozen other artists out of the studios they rented from the city in the Commons Building of the Bloomfield Centre, a three-building complex in Halifax’s north end.
“We were shut down within 24 hours. Our studios were locked [and] declared contaminated [by toxic mould],” says Swannie, an internationally renowned textile artist. “I love that studio. This whole number they’ve done has been devastating.”
Though municipal officials shared the report on mould by Maritime Testing, they did not offer to test the artists’ belongings for contamination. Instead, the artists were shown how to clean their things themselves and given a November 11 deadline to move out, after which the city planned to, as MacSwain explains, “winterize the building by shutting off the heat, draining the pipes and locking the doors forever.”
In the months since the lockout, the artists gained access to their studios for the sole purpose of moving out. Many haven’t worked on their art since the summer. “We go to our studios and we have to wear masks,” says MacSwain about the job of removing equipment and materials. “They put a machine in it which is supposed to clean the air, [to] keep the air moving to keep contamination down.”
MacSwain feels “betrayed” by the city. He has worked in Halifax for decades as a collage-based multimedia artist and had an adjoining studio to Swannie for four of the eight years she rented there.
“Betrayal always leads to various emotions, like anger and frustration and feelings of powerlessness,” MacSwain says.
Some of the Bloomfield artists, including MacSwain and Swannie, only found new studio space in mid-November; others started working at home.
Most of Swannie’s belongings, including yarn valued at $9,000, remain in her Bloomfield studio. She won’t move her things, especially the “porous” yarn, until she’s told they’re free of contamination. Still, she’s started paying rent at the new space she’s sharing with some former Bloomfield artists on Cunard Street, also in the north end. Though smaller, Swannie says the new space will cost more than the Bloomfield rent (on average, five to six dollars per square foot, the artists report), though Swannie declines to say how much.
The stakes are highest for her. “My practice is half my source of income,” says the 63-year-old.
She hired a lawyer who “convinced” HRM to have her belongings tested for contamination (results were due in late November and in early December were still not in) and cleaned. Following this, Swannie may seek compensation for any lost materials and loss of income. “I stood my ground,” she says.
Swannie’s textile work comes with “heavy duty space requirements for work which is very, very slow to produce.” She owns three looms of different sizes, plus smaller tools and material. She designed, made and dyed all her own work in one location.
“It’s such a craft. If you can’t do it all, you just can’t do the work.”
MacSwain has a little more financial security, working for the artist-run Centre for Art Tapes. He’s also finalizing new studio space for his collage-based multimedia work.
HRM council was to vote on staff’s recommendation to close the Commons Building in October, but it was delayed into December. Some of the displaced artists, MacSwain included, will continue to work with Imagine Bloomfield, a group made up of tenants from all three buildings, including community and athletic groups. The group plans to lobby area councillors and develop an alternative proposal to manage the Bloomfield Centre itself.
