ATLANTIC

N.S. looks at converting former public girls' school into arts centre

THE CANADIAN PRESS Published Tuesday, July 23, 2013 11:42AM ADT

New Dawn Enterprises plans to turn the 75,000 square-foot property, which served as a convent and an all-girls school for more than a century, into an arts and cultural centre. (CTV Atlantic)

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SYDNEY, N.S. -- Nova Scotia and the Cape Breton Regional Municipality are launching a study to look at converting the former Holy Angels Convent and High School in Sydney into an arts centre.

Graham Steele, the province's tourism minister, says the $100,000 study is intended to help develop a centre for Cape-Breton based artists where they can work, rehearse and perform.

Steele says the study is an important step for community development corporation New Dawn Enterprises, which bought the school in May, to come up a with a plan to support the local arts and culture sector.

The school was founded in 1885 and until its closure in 2011 was the only public all girls' high school east of Montreal.

The province is spending $80,000 for the research and the municipality is spending $20,000.