In a town fired up about the arts, a downtown blaze has drawn public attention to the value of its culture.
A collective breath was sucked in when, on May 6, a destructive fire on 3rd Avenue nearly took down Nancy O's Pub, one of the most active stages in the city for live music and comedy.
The same fire almost destroyed a large public art installation on the eastern wall of the Homework urban lifestyles store.
The mural-sized painting by local philosopher and artist Jean Jacques Giguere survived with only a few singes at the top, and Homework co-owner David Smook promised it would not be disposed of in any restoration work. Meanwhile, the show had to go on at Nancy O's and other than one night of professional comedy with headliner Tim Nutt, everything on their schedule from incoming tours managed to carry on. Displaced local performers have been offered return engagements including the band on stage when the fire next door broke out. The Zavan Trio was working through their gypsy-jazz gig when the alarm sounded.
"They had a packed house and they were on stage when 'everybody out' got called," said Nancy O's co-owner Garrett Fedorkiw. When staff first got to go back inside, "it was really weird. There were still instruments on the stage, beer still in the glasses, food on the plates. Everyone seemed to grab their purses and jackets and personal effects; just one phone got left behind and we got that back to the owner. So I called the band up to invite them back opening night to finish the set, pick up where they left off."
That night of reopening came quicker than even Nancy O's staff anticipated. When the Copper Pig barbecue house was the site of a fire, it took about a year to get their doors open again. Nancy O's people had no idea how long it might take in their case. There was no fire damage, but they wondered about smoke and water damage, insurance investigations, etc.
It was less than two weeks later when the amps crackled back to life.
"We had cancelled all the shows we had booked, but then we got to cancel the cancellations," said Fedorkiw.
Two blackened doors down, on the outer wall of Homework, only the highest point of the mural entitled Transition From Static To Expansionist Thinking was touched by the blaze, and although co-owner David Smook hasn't been cleared by engineers and insurance personnel to go in for a close look, he pledged to have the Giguere original live on somehow. Most elements of the work are screwed onto the wall and can be easily taken down.
"I don't know yet what we can even get access to. Probably the easiest thing would be to return it to his care, but until we hear from the insurance people, we can't do much," Smook said. He added that it might be possible to salvage a wall or two during the rebuild. He and co-owners Lucy Pribas and Anthony Voitik have every intention of reopening Homework somehow, and "my commitment is to be located in the downtown."
This was Homework's second location and, said Smook, their store traffic had exploded since they moved into the building beside Nancy O's. Since then the owners have received a groundswell of public support.
Fedorkiw echoed that experience.
"Tyler (Burbee, owner of the Copper Pig) told us about that, but until we experienced it ourselves we just didn't know how humbling that feeling is to have the community be so supportive of what you're doing."
Nancy O's put on 159 live performances in 2014 and were keeping a hefty pace in 2015, so a long shutdown would have been felt by the music and comedy circle.
"At first I couldn't find anybody to play at Nancy O's, it was so hard to book anyone, but now we are becoming known for being on the circuit," said Fedorkiw. "Prince George is at the crossroads, we are on a lot of routes, and usually on a down night for acts playing weekends in the bigger centres, so now we're the ones getting the calls. P.G. loves coming out for live music, so we are able to show these acts a good time."
