About Us
What is The Pearl Company?
The Pearl Company is an arts and performance facility in the heart of the Landsdale neighbourhood of downtown Hamilton.
Renovated in 2006 from a three-story brick factory building by musician Gary Santucci and arts activist Barbara Milne, the facility has devoted two of its three floors to the arts. In the past four years, The Pearl Company has launched a number of arts initiatives, including The Art Bus, the Opus Mundi Festival, many concerts and musical events, a number of theatre happenings, a script development series of workshops, and two outdoor festivals.
Over the years, Barbara and Gary together were given The City of Hamilton Arts Award 2008 for Lifetime Achievement; Gary has been the recipient of the City of Hamilton Arts Award for Music 2004, and Barbara received The Woman of Distinction in the Arts for 2008.
Our Mandate is to:
- create a multi-disciplinary space that develops and presents works that draw on all the arts, including music, visual art, dance, film, spoken word and theatre
- make work that is multi-cultural, socially aware, politically engaged, and connected to Hamilton’s diverse communities
- foster work that is innovative, exhilarating, adventurous and accessible
- facilitate work that is carried out to the highest standard, with integrity, commitment and respect
- build a supportive technical infrastructure for the efficient and effective development of new work
- act as a catalyst to make connections between artists, to enable artistic collaborations
- honour its wide-ranging audiences, both young and old, in a warm, welcoming, affirmative atmosphere
- activate a positive arts atmosphere that relates to the Landsdale neighbourhood
- provide a fun “good night out” .
Building History:
The Pearl Company, named after the pearls lodged between its floor boards, was built around 1910 and was originally the Evel Casket Company. It later became Reid Paper Box for many years; you can still see the ghost sign on the side of the building. Then for approximately 30 years it housed The Canadian Pearl Company which made costume jewellry (yes, the pearls are plastic…) and when Canadian Pearl packed up, a number of different ventures filled the space.
Barbara Milne and Gary Santucci came along in 2006 and saw huge potential for both the Landsdale Neighbourhood and the Arts Community, and decided to use all that space for arts, culture and neighbourhood needs. Through 2007 and 2008 Milne and Santucci set a number of projects in motion, ranging from concerts to community activism, and the renowned Art Bus.
In the 2008-2009 season, The Pearl Company teamed up with Artword Theatre (ex-Torontonians Ronald Weihs and Judith Sandiford) who mounted four new and original plays with a Hamilton theme in the second floor performance space (which they helped renovate to its current highly functional state).
Contact us:
Barbara Milne and Gary Santucci
16 Steven Street, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. L8L 5N3
905-524-0606
info@thepearlcompany.ca / garysantucci@gmail.com
The Pearl email newsletter:
To receive the weekly newsletter, send an email note to Barbara Milne: info@thepearlcompany.ca or barbaramilne@cogeco.ca
She’ll add you to The Pearl email list.
