NORTH CANAAN — The long-awaited opening of Community Health and Wellness Center’s (CHWC) facility on East Main Street has arrived.
After more than a decade of planning and collaboration with community partners, CHWC’s North Canaan goals have become reality. The ribbon cutting ceremony on Friday, May 10, ushered in a new era of healthcare for the Northwest Corner.
CHWC CEO Joanne Borduas spoke on the monumental achievement and what it means for the people of the region, saying the new center “welcomes everyone through the door without stigma and without discrimination. And for that, we are so grateful.”
Adding to its standalone centers in Winsted and Torrington, CHWC’s new facility in North Canaan is open to the roughly 17,000 residents in the Region One towns and Norfolk.
Foundation for Community Health (FCH) worked alongside CHWC throughout the process. Director Nancy Heaton spoke at the ribbon cutting and recalled an email she sent to regional leaders and medical professionals in 2007 to discuss healthcare opportunities in the Northwest Corner. She identified the need for a comprehensive medical center and Heaton was “more than a little bit emotional” to see the new facility open its doors 17 years later.
“I believe that this center can and will contribute toward improving the health and well-being of all the communities. Not just North Canaan, but all the surrounding communities.”
Joanne Borduas speaks before approximately 100 attendees for the ribbon cutting of the new health center in North Canaan.John Coston
The new center will offer integrated medical and behavioral health services, providing a one-stop destination for comprehensive care.
“Rural healthcare is a crisis and a challenge across this country,” said State Rep. Maria Horn (D-64) to the roughly 100 attendees of the ribbon cutting. “These people matter. They all matter, and they all deserve healthcare and we’re going to make it work.”
“Today’s ribbon cutting ceremony for CHWC’s new regional healthcare center marks the official start of a chapter deeply rooted in equity, access, and affordability,” said First Selectman Brian Ohler. “As a small rural community we are so thankful and honored that CHWC and its leaders chose North Canaan as their hub for such a critical resource.”
An open house will be held Saturday, May 11, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. to introduce the community to its new wellness center.
Office hours are Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information, or to schedule an appointment for either primary care or mental health services starting in early June, call (860) 362-5101.
Joanne Borduas and artist John J. Hodgson, who painted the art seen here inside the regional health center. Riley Klein
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That sense of shared purpose is at the heart of the invitation Gast extended to artists Natalie Baxter and Janis Stemmermann to process a bumper crop of Japanese indigo (Persicaria tinctoria) at her studio this fall. All three artists’ practices intersect through material, process and an interest in the handmade. Gast and Stemmermann have collaborated on a series of hand-knit vests dyed with black walnut, available through Stemmermann’s store, Russell Janis. Baxter is a Wassaic Project residency and fellowship alum, who is leading a community quilting workshop there on Nov. 15. She also co-directs “Cottage Courses” with artist Polly Shindler, a series of hands-on artmaking workshops throughout the region.
“Lisa Dachinger of Hilltop Farm & Fiber Arts north of Pittsfield, Massachusetts had an abundance of indigo this year,” said Gast of her learning about the crop’s availability.In two trips to the farm, Gast harvested the plants and began experimenting with the ancient art and science of extracting pigment from the plants and transforming it into rich, layered blues.
Artists Christy Gast, left, and Natalie Baxter in Gast's studioPhoto by Natalia Zukerman
“There are a lot of steps,” Gast noted with a laugh, as vats of aerated indigo bubbled in the corner of the studio. The process is slow and physical, dependent on timing, temperature and a kind of faith in chemistry. The freshly harvested Japanese indigo leaves are first soaked in warm water and left to ferment for several days. The plant matter is then removed, the solution is strained and the pH is raised with the addition of calcium hydroxide, and then the mixture is aerated, poured back and forth between containers until it oxidizes and the pigment turns dark blue. After the indigo settles to the bottom, the resulting paste is filtered, dried and ground into powder. Only then is it ready for dyeing.
But as Stemmermann pointed out, “It’s not a dye. It’s a coating and reaction.” Indigo’s elusive chemistry means each piece is unpredictable, shaped as much by chance as by control. To achieve a deep, saturated blue, “you have to layer it and dip it up to eight times,” she explained.
Each artist uses dye in their work, albeit quite differently, yet all share a deep sensitivity to material and process. “There is a seasonality to textile work,” said Baxter, referring to dye plants.“First, there’s the planting. And then you wait for them to grow, you harvest them, you dye the fabric and then it’s wintertime.” During quilt season when our attention turns inward, the patient, hands-on process becomes a meditation on slowness for Baxter, mirroring the rhythm of the earth and a quiet longing to move with it.
Processing Japanese indigoPhoto by Natalie Baxter
For Gast, working with plant dyes is a way to align artistic practice with ecology and activism. “I’m working on a project that will be showing at Mass MoCA in 2027,” she explained. “It’s a collaborative opera about peatlands for which I’m producing a textile installation that functions as the curtains. I’m using as many natural and regional processes as possible because our work has to do with local-to-global activism and conservation. There is a chemical alchemy in peatlands, which despite covering just 3% of the Earth’s surface, capture more than twice the carbon of all the planet’s forests combined. There’s a direct poetic alignment between plant dye processes and peatlands, which preserved some of the earliest textiles we know of. And the color palette is ancient, both familiar and uncanny.”
There’s a certain chaos in balancing experimentation with intent. For Gast, Baxter, and Stemmermann, this first attempt at pigment extraction has been as much about curiosity as outcome, a communal act of making, rooted in patience, experimentation and discovery.
To find out more about these artists, visit: christygast.com, nataliebaxter.com and janisstemmermann.com
