shania.funurl.com

Inside The Shania Twain Centre

CountryOnDemand.com
BY: DERRICK NEUNER
Country On-Demand, Senior Editor
August 6, 2007

She has sold more albums than any other female in country music history. One of them is the best selling female album of all time, and the best selling album in Soundscan history. Her fans are some of the loudest and most devoted in the industry. And she hails from the North.

She is Shania Twain. The legendary superstar, famous not only for her success but also her life before luxury, comes from the small town of Timmins in northern Ontario. When she left Canada for Nashville in 1993, few of her neighbors imagined the phenomenon she was to become.

After her enormous world tour in 2000 ended, Timmins decided to honor their hometown hero, and honor they did. They built the Shania Twain Centre in honor of their singing legend, and each year since its inception, the Centre hosts the Shania Twain Centre Annual Fan Convention, a four day event that hosts a group of die-hard Twain fans who make their way up North to experience the phenomenon that is Shania Twain, even though the songbird herself is yet to attend a convention.

At the end of the week, over 40 fans will trek to Timmins to enjoy 4 days of all Shania bliss. Country On-Demand had the pleasure of talking to the Centre's manager, Tracy Hautenen, this past week about the Shania Twain Centre, the lady who made Timmins famous, and the fans that make Twain proud.

Tracy Hautenen was just an average mom. She was on the directing board for the local gold mine tours and owned a restaurant. When she began work with the Shania Twain Centre in 2001, she sold merchandise. Today, she is the manager of the Centre, in charge of everyday operations inside the museum (Twain likes to not think of the Center as a museum because "museums are for dead people.").

So what does Tracy have to say about her job? "I really enjoy my job. I can't imagine people who don't have as much fun as I do at work. I kind of evolved into my position. I don't know that I was the right person for the job, but I got it." Fans know that Hauntenen was probably the best person for the job, and Shania approves as well.

Working with the most successful woman in country music history doesn't intimidate Tracy. She says the surreal moments never really hit her, and that she's "really proud of her. She is doing great, wonderful things in this world, and I'm proud of that for her. She's a hometown girl, and [her status] just doesn't effect me."

It does help of course that Hauntenen was a Shania fan before running the Centre. In fact, the manager says she had every CD and attended concerts regularly. But, she says, she can't let herself be overcome by those feelings and that it's just a job. "It's not about what I want, its what the people want. I want to do my best to re-create what the fans want," Tracy says.

The exhibits inside the Shania Twain Centre focus on Shania's career. Just her career. Once inside the doors, awards, gowns, and videos take you inside the world of Shania Twain. Tracy says of the Centre, "It is a journey through her career. The way we have laid out the Shania Twain Centre is in a fashion that you can see how she started out with her career and the struggles she's had to get where she is today, and it's a complete walk through her musical life. We try very hard to focus on Shania's career and what influenced her career.

"We do have items from her childhood, but these are very specific to what led her to her career. We have some letters her mother wrote her back in the day trying to get employment for Shania singing jingles for commercials, well that is part of her career. We don't have items in here that weren't a part of making her who she is today, as far as a musician. There were a lot of things that influenced her life and made her the person she is, but we try to focus on the musician aspect of it because that is what's important to her."

So let's back up a second? The singer actually sends her stuff to her hometown museum? Yes, you read right. In fact, she endorsed the idea, and even picked the design. The Shania Twain Centre was built using input from Shania after a delegation from Timmins flew to Switzerland to discuss the project with the singer. Hauntenen said Shania was quite impressed with how the Centre turned out. Twain did not tour the Centre until a homecoming in 2004, but afterwards told Tracy she wouldn't change a thing. "That", Tracy says, "was a huge weight off my shoulders."

Shania is not the only Twain to visit the Centre. Tracy says several of her family members have visited, but they "are very much like Shania in that they are very private. Unless you recognize them as part of her family, they'll just buy a ticket and walk on through unnoticed. We don't have a lot of interaction with them. Again, we try to respect their privacy. We do ask them at the end what they thought of it, but again, we're not, we aren't going to point them out."

Carrie Anne Brown, the youngest sister of Shania's, has even visited a fan convention. Tracy says Carrie, who also is a personal assistant to her sister on the road, was "very impressed with the things we were doing and how happy the fans were with the items Shania provided to the Centre." Of course, Carrie arrived unbeknown to fans attending the convention. She slipped in, viewed the fans from a distance, and then left without any acknowledgment. It must run in the family.

But, although the singer sends stuff to the Centre, that's as far as her involvement goes. Shania "has no desire to be involved in the running of or planning at the Shania Twain Centre. She gave her consent for the city of Timmins to run the Shania Twain Centre attraction and she stated that if her name could be used to attract more people to the city, then she was glad to have her name on it," according to Hautenen.

Shania does not currently reside in Timmins, nor does she make well-publicized trips to the city. That's okay with Timmins and with Tracy. She says, "Of course, I'm sure that any community would want their superstar to show up all the time. But, I think, that we understand how important her personal life is to her, so we're just very pleased with the involvement we do have from her. Sure, if she were to come home once a year, that would be amazing, but I would never anticipate that happening because I understand that she has to be a family person, a wife and a mom, and that's important to her.

"I wouldn't ever ask for her to be constantly involved. Dollywood was Dolly Parton's idea, her thing, and as much as Shania has contributed to the Centre and promoted, more than we can image, I mean her promotion for the Centre is just wonderful, but it is not her project. She has allowed us to use her name, and that's more than we can ask for."

So when it comes to setting up the exhibits, surely there is some 'code of conduct' rule right? Well, if any rule exists, it clear states that Shania is queen. It is obvious that Tracy holds a great deal of respect for the hometown girl. Tracy knows how important Shania's personal life is to her, and Tracy takes a great deal of effort to respect that. After respecting Shania's privacy, how do the exhibits come together? Well, Tracy says the exhibits are a mix of what Shania sends and what she choses does with it.

But Tracy notes that the fans have the most input, stating, "I try to read the message boards and see what interests the fans. I try to do things that the fans would like to see, as well." But it takes a little bit of creativity, and that, according to the lady in charge, is her favorite thing about the Centre, "We don't have a huge exhibit budget here so I have to be very creative. For example, I just did a "Party For Two" exhibit and I built my own rod-iron fence, and people wouldn't believe what I built it with. So it's stuff like that that I'm proud of..I built a green piano, just different stuff like that. It's doing things without a huge budget and having the fans come in and totally recognize what we're trying to re-create. That's the most exciting part of it."

Tracy notes that sometimes Shania boxes things up immediately after her use of them, or before she even touches them, and ships them home to her "closet", "I'm most surprised when Shania receives awards and I get them. For example, the People's Choice Awards, she wasn't able to attend the awards, and the award came directly to us. That always surprises me, that she's confident enough to have the awards sent directly from the show to us. That also happened with a Juno award." So, Shania sends stuff right to the Centre? You got it! Tracy adds, "The other thing that impresses me is the turn-around time. Sometimes I get things just days after the event, which is really impressive."

The endorsement Shania has given the Centre keeps it running. Hautenen says it would be "absolutely" impossible to run the Centre without the backing of Twain. And the fact that Ms. Twain supports her hometown museum thrills Tracy, who raves, "It is really exciting that she supports it so much, and is so willing to give us everything from tour buses, to tour stages, all the outfits, awards. But we also respect her wishes as well, and I think that's what makes it such a good working relationship."

And the donations by Twain have been vast. Hautenen can't even fit all the items sent by Shania in the exhibit hall. The Centre "has a large area where we prepare our exhibits. During the fan convention, we try to take the fans back there and show them some of the things that aren't out on display, like quite a few of the outfits she's worn to award shows, worn in videos." And sometimes even Ms. Shania will pull a fast one on Tracy. "Sometimes we'll only get part of the outfit, which is difficult to display, so we have that in there," she says. Tracy also receives items from fans that are meant for Shania, and she regularly displays those as well.

Shania trusts Tracy so much, and appreciates the Centre so much, that she even sent her stage and tour bus from the 2003-2004 Up! World Tour. But in the process, she ruined Tracy's big surprise for the upcoming fan convention. Tracy recalls, "When the [Up!] tour was coming to the end, we knew we were getting the stage and we thought that was the most awesome thing ever. So we told the fans that we had a big surprise for them, but we weren't going to tell them what it was. And then I got a call the next day after the Sunrise, Florida concert from a fan and he said, 'You're getting her stage,' and I said, 'How did you know that?!' and the fan replied, 'Shania announced it at the show,' so that blew that surprise out of the water. So we were like, 'Oh no, now what are we going to do?' But about fifteen minutes later I received a call from her manager indicating that she was also sending the tour bus our way. I never realized how hard it was to hide a tour bus until I tried to do that." Tracy chose to return a few items from the bus back to Shania, and reports that she is yet to learn how to drive the bus.

Such a huge project backed by an enormous global superstar should have the full support of the community. But that hasn't been the case of the Shania Twain Centre. Officials in local government have often criticized the Centre for not pulling a profit and being a sponge of local funds with little benefit to the community. Tracy works hard to fight those statements, and concludes, "I don't think everybody will always be happy with what the city has provided. But I think the main focus we have to keep telling people is, we have this building here, it is bringing in money to the community. Of course, at a $9 ticket, the Shania Twain Centre is not going to see a huge profit. But the people that come here are buying fuel for their vehicles, staying overnight, eating here, so there are a lot of outside businesses that are benefiting from the Centre being here. And I think as the years go on, the criticism will continue to dwindle because it will be used as a venue for different things, and people will realize just what it can do for the community."

The Shania Twain Centre was built using funds from the federal, provincial (state in America) and local monies. According to Tracy, the city of Timmins currently owns the Shania Twain Centre and supplies a budget for the Centre to run. Revenues also contribute to funding for the Centre.

As time has gone on since its opening in 2001, the Shania Twain Centre has evolved from a mere museum to a convention center for the small town. It now hosts events regularly. Tracy says, "We try to host a lot of different events during the year and we also rent the building out, and several different businesses use it for hosting different activities, as well.

"We are also trying to become more of a community center in the off-season. We held a 'Country Christmas' event where school choirs came and performed. We also had a New Years party, a big Halloween splash last year, and they will continue to grow. So different things [like that] in the off-season [to] will keep the locals coming."

The Centre also works hard to follow in the footsteps of the woman whom it immortalizes by giving back to the community. Tracy is proud to "reflect Shania as best as we can. We have to understand again and again how fortunate we are that she is so supportive as far as sending all her stuff our way. We can't jeopardize that. This is the best representation of Shania we can do, and she's put her stamp of approval on [the Centre], so we need to continue that way, and make sure that all the good things she does are shown here."

During the Fan Conventions held each year, Tracy holds a Shania auction to raise money for the exhibits. She says the proceeds have gone to fund exhibits such as the Maple Leaf Hotel. But the fans also do their best to give back, and that too, is important to the manager, who reports, "What does happen when the fans are here, they do a side collection for the local food bank, because they know that's one of the charities in town that Shania supports, so the food bank does benefit from the convention." The Centre also gives back by charging canned goods as admission to some of its events and by giving school choirs the chance to get a little extra time in the spotlight.

Because the Shania Twain Centre does celebrate the legend of a singer, it is often compared to another site quite like it: Graceland in Memphis, Tennessee, home to the estate of Elvis Presley. Some believe that the Shania Centre in Timmins has the potential to become Canada's Graceland. Tracy says the fans do have that same magic, and that is something positive for the Centre. She says of the fans, "We have a Shania Twain event here, [and] people come from all around the world, and they become friends. I think more and more that's what brings people back to the Shania Twain Centre at certain times of the year, that opportunity to be together with friends, to be together with people that they share common interests with, and it's just a wonderful atmosphere when the convention is going on. Even when Shania came home and there was a homecoming, those people slept in their cars overnight and there are pictures of them dancing around the cars with their radios on in the middle of the night.

"That's the draw that the Shania Twain Centre has, you come here, and you all share a common respect for a person and it brings friends together. People are here because they love Shania the person." But, Tracy notes, "Graceland has a whole different effect on people. Elvis is long gone and will never be, Shania is still making music. There's also a difference geographically; we are not easy to access, so you really have to be very committed to come here."

When the day is done, it is the fans that matter. And, after all, Tracy is preparing to host the Centre's fifth annual convention later this week. This year, there are 5 countries represented: Canada, Germany, England, Sweden, and the United States. Tracy says she welcomes more Americans this week than any other nationality. Just over 40 fans will participate, a low number, but not an unexpected one. Tracy states, "The numbers are definitely down from where they used to be. I'm not surprised by that. I thought they might have been even less than that." So why the low numbers? "Shania hasn't been in the spotlight very much, and people don't only listen to Shania, and sometimes they peeter out for a little bit; but we anticipate that when she releases her new album, our numbers will go back up."

The Shania Twain Centre is also limited in the fact that it cannot easily access medias around the world. Tracy and her staff must rely on the fans and Shania to promote the Centre, and both do very well. According to Tracy, "I think the fans have been doing it for us since the beginning. They've been posting on message boards, spreading the word, they go to concerts and talk about the Shania Twain Centre.. I think that's the best way to do it, all the positives we've continued to have.

"At the first convention, we only had 35 people, initially the local people didn't think that was a very good accomplishment. But those 35 people have become our biggest ambassadors, our biggest spokespeople, going out and spreading the word, and as long as the fans are happy and talking about us, that's all we can ask for."

The Centre has been going strong now for six years in Timmins, Ontario. Much has changed over that period, including the way the Centre is run. Now, Tracy says, "[We] design our exhibits to listening to what the fans wanted and designing exhibits that would appeal to the fans and keep bringing them back." There's also a lot more to see. The Centre displays over 400 items in smaller exhibits verses a few major displays. "That makes the space much more appealing to visitors," says Tracy.

Another feature that adds great appeal to the fan conventions is the chance to get meet members of Shania's band and talk with them one-on-one. While none of the band members will be attending this year's event, Cory Churko, Roddy Chiong, Allison Cornell, J.D. Blair, and Randall Waller have attended in previous years.

But if Tracy could bring anyone to the fan conventions, who would it be? She answers, "Well if I want every fan and their uncle to show up, I'd want to invite Shania and Mutt. If I want someone that would talk to you about Shania as she was developing into a songwriter and performer, I would chose one of her close family members, her brothers or sisters. I think that'd be really interesting."

So what's next for Tracy and the Shania Twain Centre? In 2010 the town will celebrate the tenth anniversary of the founding of the Centre. The future of the success of the Centre depends on Shania. According to Tracy, "It depends on where her career is taking her. Of course, when she releases her new album we hope to see our numbers increase drastically. We hope to be part of the next tour.. we were able to go to concerts and provide information to people about the Centre.

Of course, there will be a lot more items coming to the collection once she's back publicly. And I foresee that taking us through the next four or five years."

Tracy also hosts a radio show where fans can drive up to the Shania Twain Centre and request Shania songs on the radio.

After six years with the Centre, four, soon-to-be five fan conventions, hosting a homecoming, touring the world, meeting hundreds of fans, and becoming great friends with Shania Twain, what is Tracy's crowning moment? "I think may favorite moment was walking Shania through the exhibits and seeing her reaction to things, and how impressed she was, that was a huge pat on the back for me.

Something I'm very proud is that fans come back year after year and are always pleased with what we're doing. So as long as we're keeping the fans happy and keeping Shania happy, we're accomplishing a lot," declares Hautenen.

I'd say so.

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