by D-L Nelson
France
Not having any business experience didn’t stop artist-sculptor, Cristina Schønberg, from creating an arts and culture center in the tiny Catalan village of Argelès-sur-mer, France (www.argeles-sur-mer.com) at an age when most women are thinking of retirement.
Her life was always a bit unusual. The fourth of six children, she was born in Argentina, the daughter of free-spirited Danes. The family moved back to Denmark when Cristina turned seven.
Art always excited her. In school when she earned 10 Kroner for decorating a stage set for a school production, she rushed out to buy a reproduction of a painting.
She moved to Paris, where she’d work as a nurse, during her 20s to learn French. There she met her husband, a ballet critic. He was also Danish and the son of one of the most famous Danish actors, Ib Schønberg.
Like a good wife, Cristina followed her nomadic husband around the world, in a life that had traces of glamour usually found only in novels. During their marriage, the couple, along with her step-children, lived in England, Spain, France and the US.
Languages were never a problem. Not only does she speak Danish, French, Spanish and English, she knows all the Scandinavian tongues, although she had no idea as she was memorizing verbs, how useful they would be in Argelès. Always modest about her abilities, she confessed that she spelled badly in all the languages. Anyone watching her switch easily from one tongue to another when she is in a multi-national group would only marvel and not worry about any spelling weakness.
Her husband did not want Cristina to work, but she always painted. Wherever she was, she had exhibitions, but she admits to being plagued with worries that she “wasn’t good enough.” A look at her work leaves no doubt that her uncertainties are misplaced. However, doubts made her work harder to perfect her talent.
When she became a widow, she needed to earn her own living, but at the same time she wanted to be surrounded by people who loved the things she loved. Cristina remembers with great pleasure when she and her husband had helped retired Danish artists come to Juan-les-pins on the Côte d’Azur to work. This was not easy at the time because Danish pensioners had to pick up their retirement benefits in person so they couldn’t be out of the country for any length of time, but her husband had worked successfully to have the law changed. “We lived in Morgins,” she says of her time on the Côte d’Azur. “Picasso was one of our neighbours.” The idea of creating a new arts center, one where artists and writers from all over the world could come to create, grew from this memory.
Her next question was where. By roaming around the coast of the Mediterranean, she found Argelès quite by accident. Argelès is in the southeast corner of France, close enough to Spain to hop across the border for lunch. A nine-room hotel was for sale and although she knew nothing about running a hotel, she bought it. What she did know was “I needed something I could run on my own.”
After advertising in Scandinavian countries, her first art group arrived, leaving her scurrying to find studio space. The hotel was too dark and not practical for the atmosphere she wanted to create. When it became obvious that she needed a reliable atelier for classes, she found a shambles of a house that was well over 300 years old around the corner from the hotel. Shambles might be over-complimentary; a hovel with walls would be more accurate.
Two years, many tears, surprises and heartaches later, the Ecole Hostalet now has a large studio, a terrace roof and kitchen facilities for classes that come in from all over the world.
Cristina moved from the hotel to the top floor and each morning the first thing she sees are the Pyrenees.
Artists rent the space either individually or bring students. They don’t stay in the studio all the time, but take advantage of Argelès’s old houses, marchés and churches to paint. Sometimes they venture to the nearby sea or up into the mountains.
The Ecole Hostalet has hosted painting, sculpture and weaving groups. Writing classes both in Danish and English have been held. A secondary use has been for groups that have come to examine the Cathar history of the region, even before the Da Vinci Code became popular. Another group came on a wine-tasting expedition, although many of the groups break from their work to visit the local caves and sample not only the Muscat and Banyuls of the region, but other reds and whites. If the wine tasting doesn’t add to their creativity, it adds to their pleasure.
The neighbours, some Catalans whose families have been there forever, some transplants from other parts of France or the rest of the world, will attend the exhibitions that the school holds at the request of the visiting artists.
Cristina discovered the hotel part of her project, especially during tourist season, a problem. During the summer she often found herself working from 6 a.m. until well after midnight if the village had an open-air dance behind the hotel, where the native Catalan dancers taught novices the simple one-two-three steps to the whine of traditional music. She found a buyer for the hotel. Cristina found it easier to find houses to rent and hotels and gites to place her students than run the hotel and try to devote the attention she wants to the students.
More than once Cristina has prepared meals for her groups using the freshest of fruits and vegetables from the nearby marché or fish that swam in the sea that morning. It is yet another talent she is modest about.
One class, asked to evaluate the program on a scale of 1 to 5 (with 5 being excellent) rated the facilities and the meals a 6. Overall, Cristina’s life could also be rated as such.
About the Author
D-L Nelson is a Swiss-American living in Europe. She is the author of two novels, Chickpea Lover: Not a Cookbook and The Card.
She is also editor and publisher of www.Cunewswire.com an electronic news service for Canadian credit unions.
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