A warm start to a new year

Message from the Chair

As we step into a new year, I want to take a moment to thank everyone who helps make Harmony Centre such a vibrant and welcoming place. Whether you’re a performer, volunteer, renter, audience member, donor, or neighbour who simply loves seeing the lights on and the doors open — you are part of what makes this building feel alive.

2025 was a year of growth, creativity, and connection. Our halls were filled with music, conversation, learning, celebration, and community spirit. From concerts and workshops to meetings, rehearsals, and gatherings of all kinds, Harmony Centre continues to do what it was meant to do: bring people together.

As we move into 2026, we do so with optimism and purpose. There are exciting projects ahead, new partnerships forming, and important work underway to ensure the long-term care of this beautiful historic space. None of it happens without the generosity of time, energy, and support from so many in our community.

On behalf of the Board of Directors, I want to wish you a happy, healthy, and inspiring New Year. We look forward to welcoming you back through our doors often in the months ahead.

With gratitude,

Jeff Elie
Chair, Board of Directors
Harmony Centre Owen Sound

The final report of Harmony Centre’s Small Communities Solutions Conference is now available. Read it here or contact us to receive a digital copy.

Harmony Centre is Like a Gift that Keeps on Giving

Author of the article: Scott Dunn

Published Mar 19, 2025 

It’s been about a dozen years since the former Knox United Church, an unused, handsome 19th-century brick building in downtown Owen Sound, was given an important new purpose.

Its dwindling parish had left to join the Division Street congregation, forming Georgian Shores United Church. One developer wanted to convert Knox into condos, using the basement for parking. Another had salvage and demolition in mind.

But church leaders favoured a third option and sold the building to a not-for-profit corporation called Harmony Centre Owen Sound, in 2012. The corporation was founded by Frank and Leigh Greaves to preserve a heritage building for the community’s ongoing use.

They provided the then-nine-member non-profit board with a private mortgage at favourable rates, when no bank financing could be obtained, Leigh Greaves said in an interview. She said Community Foundation Grey Bruce holds the mortgage now.

“I personally think it’s a wonderful thing to invest locally in your community because you set your own community up for success,” she said. “Keeping your money as local as possible is a wonderful thing.”

Greaves said without Harmony Centre, many organizations would struggle to find a place to do their work. Many who would want to try to offer a class wouldn’t find a space elsewhere like at Harmony Centre, and arts groups would struggle to find similar rehearsal and performance space, she said.

The couple originally pursued the now-152-year-old Knox building to provide Owen Sound Hunger and Relief Effort soup kitchen a home, Greaves said. OSHaRE remained there for several years and today continues to provide free meals, no questions asked, to homeless people and others struggling, in other quarters downtown.

Knox, a Presbyterian church at the time, was host for the 50th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in 1924, when congregations voted to combine most Presbyterian, Methodist and Congregationalist churches in Canada to create what became the United Church of Canada.

Knox’s history dates back to 1846 but in 1873 the main section of the current Knox building was completed, opened and dedicated. It was enlarged in 1886 and at that time was described in a local newspaper as “the most attractive and capacious Christian temple in Owen Sound,” a church history on Georgian Shores’s website says.

Today, Harmony Centre has 30,000 to 40,000 visits per year, sometimes more, Greaves said. It offers subsidized rents to some and competitive market rents for others, depending on the use.

“We saw a need like so many in the community,” she said. The new role for the old church building lined up with Frank’s interest in music, the symphony and the arts along with Leigh’s passion for old buildings and supporting downtown.

“I think it’s actually fulfilling our aspirations. We want that building to be there for the community to use for pretty much whatever it needs at whatever time,” she said.

Today, recurring classes and other gatherings there include an introduction to American sign language, a community song circle, lady solo dancing, Alcoholics Anonymous, tai chi, drumming, square dancing, Queen’s Bush Bluegrass, salsa dancing, community meditation and yoga.

“It’s very exciting to see groups come forward and activities come forward and partnerships develop,” Greaves said. “So it’s serving a purpose, it’s being useful, it’s bringing people together and that’s all we could ask for.”

The centre’s mandate is to provide the community with “accessible and affordable spaces to share, create, educate, and perform.” It has a 700-seat auditorium, a 160-seat commons area, a 190-seat lower hall with kitchen and banquet facilities, and numerous smaller lofts and studios.

Greaves said Harmony Centre has never run a deficit, even through the COVID-19 pandemic. There are discounted community rates for not-for-profits and community groups that are doing community work. But the space also is available to the community, business and municipalities at market rates or better, she said.

“So the regular rates subsidize the not-for-profit rates. And because we are run by a volunteer board and we have a hundred volunteers helping us, we can keep these rates low and provide subsidies.”

Jeff Elie, Harmony Centre’s volunteer board chair, said the centre has about 150 bookings a month. Many are weekly events like the dance and yoga classes. There are also special events, weekly and monthly.

“Harmony Centre is a perfect example of a success story of how a small community can do something and it becomes self-perpetuating,” he said. Rather than scattered across the community, groups and individuals have found a home at Harmony Centre, he said.

“So when you walk in, it’s a workplace, there’s music, there’s meetings there’s dance: practically every night there’s contra dancing, there’s square dancing, there’s ballroom dancing, these are all different groups.”

There are around a dozen studios for rent. There’s some dedicated office space for not-for-profit groups, performance spaces and meeting spaces. Ontario Students Against Impaired Driving, administration for Save ‘n Sound and Georgian Bay Folk Society call it home. Artists rent studios, one space is used for voice lessons, there’s a video production company, mental health counselling for first responders, a home and business cleaning company and more in the centre.

“It’s continually evolving as a social enterprise, as an organization that feeds other organizations,” Elie said. And the board members include Harmony Centre renters, residents and community leaders who have a stake in the centre. “So the board itself is charged with all this energy and vitality from the people who we serve. And so it’s been an organic growth . . . and what we do has kind of taken on a life of its own,” Elie said.

“These days, with what’s going on, it’s important for everybody to pull together as a community and feel like we’re on the same team — especially now. And that’s what Harmony Centre does.”

The 11-member volunteer board is taking the centre beyond a venue for classes, concerts and all-candidates meetings. It’s organizing its first small municipalities conference on March 29, focused on local problems, especially in the downtown, Greaves said. “We just said somebody must be doing something that works somewhere. Why don’t we see? . . . We don’t want to focus on the problem, we know what the problems are. We want to focus on solutions.”

Elie said the idea builds on Changemaker Pubs, held once or twice a year at Harmony Centre. Charity groups and non-profits come in to share what they’re doing in brief presentations and then they all socialize. “And these are the change makers in our community who we feel deserve a chance to talk about what they’re doing and network with other people,” Elie said. “We have live music and there’s breaks. It’s a really fabulous thing.”

Leigh still sits on the board of directors and Frank, a retired radiologist, leads a Tuesday work crew of retired medical folks who do Harmony Centre repairs and maintenance.

“It’s a wonderful facility that represents tremendous capacity for this community,” Leigh said. “So our goal is to maintain and improve that facility, constantly.” The board has put in a new heating and cooling system, windows, and the flooring is next.

“People, they call it a hub, an incubator. That building represents capacity for this community that was built by the community over 100 and some-odd years. So we are maintaining that and we are improving it.”

Stuart Reid is confirmed as a speaker for Harmony Centre’s Small Communities Solutions Conference coming up on March 29. His talk will be: Helping Youth in Transition: Rent Supplements Keep Youths Housed.

This program addresses the needs of youth, 16 to 24 years of age, facing homelessness in Grey Bruce, through a rent supplement along with counselling and mentoring to ensure best outcomes.

Over the past year, the project has offered a monthly rent supplement to the first cohort of 12 youth from the By-Names list. By-Name Lists allow communities to know every person experiencing homelessness by name and facilitate efficient decisions around how best to refer housing resources.

YMCA Housing Services delivers the supplement as well as wrap around services, mentoring, and transitional supports that have the potential to significantly change the life trajectory of participants. The rent supplement adds to the supports available from the associated County, meaning that youth will have more money in their pockets, and sovereignty over their situation and finances.

The project aims to lend dignity and autonomy to youth in transition. Our model will track the impact of this supplement and will reflect the changes in life trajectory of the 12+ individuals engaged in the effort.

The program received originating support from the Laidlaw family and the Laidlaw Foundation, the Joseph & Marilyn Hunt Fund, and the Next25 Fund, Project partners include CFGB, United Way of Bruce Grey, Grey Bruce Poverty Task Force, YMCA of Owen Sound Bruce Grey, private donors, and other foundations.

Stuart Reid joined the community philanthropy movement in 2016 as Executive Director of Community Foundation Grey Bruce. A graduate of York University in Toronto, he has over 30 years of leadership experience in Canadian art museums and the non-profit sector. As a passionate advocate for community wellbeing, he is an active volunteer and a board member for the Canadian Crafts Federation. Stuart is an award-winning writer, a certified yoga instructor, and loves living near the shores of Georgian Bay in Annan, Ontario.

More on Harmony Centre’s Small Communities Solutions Conference click here.

Fantastic article in the winter issue of On the Bay Magazine highlighting the significant contribution Harmony Centre makes to the Owen Sound Arts Community. Two Harmony’s Residents, Summerfolk and visual artist Kristine Moran are featured.

Read the full story here.

Since this grand old building was saved from an uncertain fate more than a decade ago, Harmony Centre has emerged as a cultural nucleus for Owen Sound that stands tall as a testament to the spirit of community life. Yet Harmony Centre remains among the least understood venues of its kind.

“It’s hard to describe the many facets of Harmony Centre,” says former board chair Lynda Chiotti. “It’s a performance hall, a community centre, a meeting space; a place to work, to practice, and to network.”

Chiotti explains that, while the building’s centrepiece is the famous 650-seat Greaves Auditorium, it’s other lesser-known spaces give Harmony Centre its driving energy. In fact, many are unaware that the sprawling structure also boasts a large multi-function room, banquet hall, commercial grade kitchen, board room, as well as practice rooms, studios, and office space.

“That’s where the spirit of Harmony Centre lives,” says Chiotti. “Walking into the building on any given day, one is immediately struck by the infectious energy of the place.”

Harmony Centre today is indeed a beacon of creativity that reflects the diverse interests and passions found in southwestern Ontario. It’s home to music and vocal instructors, fitness and wellness groups, small businesses, multi-media artists, and a wide array of community organizations.

As a charitable organization, Harmony Centre’s mandate is to serve the community. Groups and individuals based here enjoy low, and in many cases, subsidized rent. Harmony Centre performances are frequently pay-what-you-can events so they’re accessible to all segments of society.

“We operate as a social enterprise” explains Lynda Chiotti. “Our priority is to remain available and accessible to the whole community. Our mission is to enrich our region by providing a place to share, create, educate, and perform.”

So far, Harmony Centre has enjoyed a good deal of success meeting these objectives. So much so in fact that it has attracted major government and private sector funding to modernise the 150-year-old structure. New windows, high-efficiency heat pumps, ramps, accessible washrooms, and state-of-the-art sound and lighting systems – all improvements that reflect a real commitment to the place by people whose business it is to find – and fund – well-run and promising ventures.

But according to Lynda Chiotti, Harmony Centre’s most valuable assets are its volunteers. “We’re always delighted to welcome new energy and talent to our organization,” she says, adding that they encourage members of the public to consider volunteering as an usher, join their maintenance crew, enquire about sitting on the board of directors or one of its committees, or explore opportunities for creative collaboration with the organization.

Click here to find out how you can become part of this success story.