Striking the First Nail

Before we officially opened the doors to the new Centre for the Arts we began construction of the studios and to mark that beginning we had a champagne ceremony. Called on ‘the night before’ notice twenty-five supporters showed up at 11 00 am and we clinked plastic glasses and drank cheap champagne and toasted: Striking the First Nail. We stated then that it is everyone who is building the Centre not just one individual. It is a social place and is being built and supported socially. By people in the community who need a permanent space to meet and work. A tradition was immediately formed whereby everyone who came to our space over the first few months took a hammer and hit the same nail in the middle of a piece of 2 x 4, thus, everyone Struck the First Nail. People loved to be part of this construction. It lifted the spirits of the front-line soldiers who were slogging to get the project underway and meeting all the problems head–on.

These photos attest to our history and the way the Centre began and still grows.