With the one-year anniversary of the closure of the Art Gallery of Sudbury’s Bell Mansion home approaching, Laurentian University, which owns the building, said it isn’t in a financial position to do the necessary repairs. But what’s more, the university says it’s not responsible for repairing the building at all.
The 100-year-old structure was closed in October 2023 because it was no longer safe in its current state of repair.
In December of last year, Laurentian received a consultants’ report that said the work would take a little more than five weeks to complete.
Sudbury.com received a copy of that report in July through a freedom of information request, although costs were redacted.
Laurentian University has been publicly close-lipped about the art gallery situation, issuing only brief statements on the matter to Sudbury.com throughout 2024.
Last week, we sat down for a one-on-one interview with new Laurentian president Lynn Wells to ask her about the art gallery situation, among other matters.
“We're not in a position right now to do the fairly substantial maintenance that is required on the Bell Mansion,” said Wells.
She explained further that repairs to the facility are not the responsibility of the university,
“We are continuing our discussions with the art gallery,” Wells said.
“We do have a lease arrangement with the art gallery until May of next year. The repairs for the facility are actually not the responsibility of the university. We own the facility, but there was an agreement with the art gallery around maintenance of the building.”
Asked if that means the art gallery is responsible for the repairs, Wells said “we would have to determine that for the agreement that we have with the art gallery.”
Sudbury.com also asked Wells if she could provide a cost estimate for the Bell Mansion repairs, as that information was redacted in the report we received. “I’d rather not do that,” she said.
A legal agreement that came out of Laurentian’s 2021-2022 insolvency means the gallery is only entitled to inhabit the Bell Mansion until May 30, 2025.
The Art Gallery of Sudbury has temporarily rented space on Elgin Street, and is also exploring its relocation to the City of Greater Sudbury’s yet-to-be-realized Cultural Hub.
The gallery’s artistic director, Demetra Christakos, said in an email to Sudbury.com her last meeting with Wells was on May 28, and she was told at the end of that meeting LU would circle back, but there has been no direct follow-up to date.
In terms of Wells’ comments on who is responsible for the repairs, Christakos points to the 2022 legal agreement signed between AGS and Laurentian during the university’s insolvency.
The agreement specifies that the art gallery will “continue to be responsible for and pay the costs at the Bell Mansion that it covers now.”
Christakos said the “gallery was not responsible for nor did it pay for structural repairs.”
She said in the past, structural repairs to the Bell Mansion were “commissioned by Laurentian University, supervised by the university, and paid for from the BA McDonald Funds.”
She explained that these are “trust funds designated to support the museum function that were accounted for and administered by Laurentian University.”
The same 2022 legal agreement states that the art gallery does not have “any property interest or any similar type of interest” in the BA McDonald Funds.
However, Christakos said she was told the BA McDonald Funds are no longer available.
Sudbury.com reached out to Laurentian University to find out the status of the BA McDonald Funds, and received the following written response.
"The BA McDonald fund was in place for many years to support the purchase of artifacts or to renovate the Bell Mansion,” said the written statement, attributed to LU vice-president, finance and administration Sylvie Lafontaine.
“The majority of this fund was used prior to the CCAA process, which began in 2021. The university is currently evaluating how best to move forward with this facility and will provide an update to the community when possible."
Heidi Ulrichsen is Sudbury.com’s assistant editor. She also covers education and the arts scene.