Local Artistic Opportunities on the Rise
BROOKLYN BAKERY TO Host 6-Week ART Show
by Heather Desveaux
It almost goes without saying that artists thrive on opportunities to create, so it is not surprising to learn they also encourage new ways to promote what they produce. Art shows increase opportunities for artists to sell works but also motivate them to create more, according to the President of the Hants County Arts Council, Tacha Reed. "Regular shows give me access to other artists, who in turn provide me with inspiration and a sense of belonging. Both are essential ingredients to my creative process," she says.
Reed credits the annual Great Little Art Show, organized by artist Andrew Fisher, hosted by the Avon River Heritage Society and now in its 14th year, for providing a drawing board for the Arts Council to organize its own annual group show, Festival of Art, now held in October. Reed says the frequency of art shows is very important to artists in rural areas such as Hants County. "In the city it is so easy to go out and make contact with other artists, and living here we are naturally limited to a handful of the art-related functions so the more of these functions we are able to participate in, the better." She adds, "I personally would love to have a hand in creating a constant space for artists to be able to come together to exchange ideas and create."
Reed isn't the only one. In recent memory, the Utata Gallery and Inspire Art School, both artist-run facilities in Windsor, have unfortunately had to close their doors. It's left local artists feeling a little frustrated, but more determined to have a permanent home. After Utata closed, HCAC members tried to find places that would "fit", like the upper level of the Avon Spirit Museum during its summer season, the Fort Edward Gallery, and HCAC member Jaki Durocher's Inspire Art School, where the group held its meetings until it recently closed.
Enter Brooklyn business owner Joan McKenzie. McKenzie, a dairy farmer turned real estate contractor who sought to have a building for community-use when she was planning her bakery business. Located in the former Brooklyn Home Hardware, the turn of the twentieth-century building she purchased features a unique space that needed to be used for something equally appropriate.
McKenzie aptly named her business the Bread Gallery. "I've dabbled in artsy things, but I mostly come from a family of art collectors and admirers," says
McKenzie. "So I thought it would be neat to mix the two together and it seems to be working out so far," she said.
McKenzie intended to start hosting art shows when she opened the bakery last May, but opted to not bite off more than she could chew. The Bread Gallery hosted its first small show in December with two local artists. A larger HCAC show featuring twelve members' works will open on March 9 and run until the last week of April. This way, participating artists can also be in the Great Little Art Show at the ARHS Museum in Newport Landing: a traditional, key fundraiser for the museum being held April 27-29.
Reed says the partnership with the Bread Gallery makes sense because
artists are also entrepreneurs. "Thanks to other local entrepreneurs, like Joan
opening the gallery, Kelly Mitchelmore hosting fundraising events like Paint Windsor, and Kathy Monroe planning the Avondale Art Fair, Hants County
artists now have several opportunities to show and sell their work locally," she says. "Over the last year the HCAC has received a great deal of support from the local community and many other arts and culture-based business have stepped forward to join as members." Last year the group changed the venue for the Festival of Art to the historic Vaughan Shand Centre, another recently renovated historic building intending to promote its own unique blend of personal and community awareness.
With her 1950s Airstream housing her mobile art boutique currently
located in Ellershouse, Reed has her own plans to renovate her garage to an open studio where she will be joined by folk artist Jim Tracey when she re-opens in the spring. "I can't take the Airstream everywhere so it would be nice if we didn't always have to travel such long distances to share our work with the public." - §
Participating artists at The Bread Gallery are:
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| HCAC Group Show opening March 9th at The Bread Gallery |
Carlos DaRosa
Dora Davis
Terri Greencorn
Andrea Hardy
Gerald Jank
Carol Morrison
Sharon Olgilvie
Tacha Reed
Sue Robinson
Pauline Sullivan
Jim Tracey
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