Elaine Steinberg has been nurturing her garden on three inhospitable acres of land in Vaudreuil-Dorion, Que., for the past quarter-century. It is the home she shares with her husband, Marcel Braitstein, an esteemed sculptor, and the scene of many family memories.
Now, they want the public to enjoy it, too, with the goal that it will one day be preserved as part of the region’s cultural heritage. They call it Gannaiden: Garden of Possibilities.
Its transition from a strictly private property to a non-profit organization, in collaboration with the Musée regional de Vaudreuil-Soulanges, was celebrated on Aug. 27, in the presence of municipal and provincial officials.
Former federal cabinet minister Marc Lalonde, whose family has lived in the area since the early 18th century, joined in congratulating Steinberg and Braitstein for their vision.
Steinberg, a former teacher at JPPS, was a widowed mother of two, when in 1989, she bought the small farmhouse – a log structure dating back to 1840, perched atop a sandy hill that sloped sharply into a bog.
Never one to shrink from a challenge, turning this weed lot into a park-like setting was a big one, even for Steinberg.
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She is naturally competitive and used to be a top-level equestrian. The sport was what brought her to this rural area west of Montreal in the 1960s, when it was the heart of horse country. Steinberg moved to the area permanently in 1974.
Gannaiden is an enchanting landscape and outdoor art gallery that retains a rustic feel. Developing it has given expression to Steinberg’s great loves of art and gardening.
After her 1996 marriage to Braitstein, the garden became a showcase for his work. Metal sculptures, mainly of animals and birds, appear, sometimes a bit menacingly, at each turn.
As she likes to say, Steinberg is a farmer’s daughter. Her father was a cattle merchant who had a farm in Heckston, Ont., near Cornwall, where she spent her summers in the saddle and learning how to work the land. “Hoeing, seeding, weeding, that’s what I know,” said Steinberg.
Except for some heavy land reclamation, she has done almost all of the work with her own hands. That’s meant planting trees, shrubs and perennial flowers of all kinds, turning marshland into a tranquil pond, as well as building stone paths and places to sit.
A retired art curator for corporations, Steinberg brought an aesthetic sense to creating a painterly landscape that evolves with the seasons and years.
‘My family lived as visible Jews. We never knew any prejudice.’
The farmhouse and barn were moved closer together, forming a contiguous residence, but the couple left the buildings pretty much untouched, with their rough, wooden beams exposed.
It’s filled with Braitstein’s marvellous wall-mounted creations, which he cuts and welds in his on-site studio.
Born in Belgium in 1935, Braitstein was a hidden child during the Holocaust, whose father died in Auschwitz. The fear that has never completely left him finds expression in his art in subtle ways. A Royal Canadian Academy of Arts member, he was a professor at the Université du Québec à Montreal (UQAM) for decades and his oeuvre is found in museums and private collections.
As a personal stamp on their historic abode, the couple has put mezuzot on every doorpost.
For many years, Steinberg thought hers was the only Jewish family in the area. But she now knows different, as she has become a historian of the region’s Jewish settlement, which, though small, can be traced back to 1820. The Jewish population in what is now called the MRC de Vaudreuil-Soulanges, which comprises 23 municipalities as far west as the Ontario border, appears to have grown in recent years. A Chabad centre opened in St. Lazare in 2010.
Rapprochement has been important to Steinberg and she has worked to cultivate an appreciation of the region’s Jewish presence among the francophone and anglophone communities.
‘It’s a wonderful destination.’
Turning Gannaiden into a parapublic entity is her thanks for the warm welcome she received from the community.
“My family lived as visible Jews. We never knew any prejudice.… My friends were not Jewish. I was always welcome at their clubs and activities,” she said.
“For me, this is a thank you for the good life I’ve had here.… It’s a wonderful destination, place to live and to be Jewish in.”
The couple continues to own the property, which will be open, for now, only on special occasions, Steinberg said. Gannaiden was featured on the Télé-Québec series Visite libre, which highlights outstanding residences in the province.
Gannaiden’s board of directors bring varying expertise to the project. Steinberg is especially appreciative of the guidance she’s received from Peter Jacobs, the former director of UQAM’s urban planning and landscape architecture program, who has lots of experience in heritage preservation.
Gannaiden can now raise funds and distribute them to projects that reflect its mission. Steinberg is already mulling over something on the theme of tables, because tables bring people together, and that’s what she hopes Gannaiden will do – for a long time to come.