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Four hot galleries to keep your eye on
"I took a big gamble but it's been a great first year," says Don Monet who runs the Cube Gallery in Hintonburg's QUAD arts district. Don was the first to set up shop in the Parkdale Market area."With fifteen shows in twelve months, I've seen an amazing amount of product on these walls."
True enough, there is a lot of good local art available at quite reasonable prices -- it just hasn't been as visible before -- and now three other galleries, within a stone's throw of the Cube, are offering area artists much more wall space.There are rumours that one more gallery will soon be settling into the QUAD and Pierre-Luc St Laurent's Gallery 3 is already well established just a little further west along Wellington Street. Add to that the artists' co-ops in the area -- Loretta Street's The Stables and Enriched Bread Artists on Gladstone along with the new Engine Room on Parkdale -- and you're looking at some serious creative energy, all within a few blocks.
According to Nicole McGill, writing in Ottawa magazine, "There are so
many artists and art lovers living in Hintonburg that if you swing one
of their many cats, you're bound to hit one of these boho types."
Ottawa Xpress columnist Allison Collins agrees: "Unbeknownst to me, a
serious community of creative types has long been rooted here... [so]
go west my friends, go west." And that's exactly what's happening.
Gallery-goers like the close proximity of the venues, the relaxed
atmosphere of the neighbourhood and the variety of work from talented
local artists. Three more to watch
Open since September of this year, Gallery 7A has had four exhibitions so far. Peter Purdy, the curator, is well pleased with the public's reception. "I see more visitors with each show and that is very encouraging," he says. The newest gallery to open in the QUAD is James Robinson's Parkdale Gallery. "The opening collection has work from about a dozen artists," comments the artist-entrepreneur, "and reaction from visitors has been remarkable."
Julia von Hahn's well-regarded Pukka Gallery has just moved to the Engine Room arts space on Parkdale Avenue and she has a loyal following. "Pukka means 'authentic'," she explains while eyeing her new space in a former car repair garage that has a suitably edgy, industrial feel. "We tend to present solo shows here that give people a chance to focus on a cohesive exhibition by one artist."
Cultural hat tricks
Several of the galleries are also reaching into other cultural areas. In addition to gallery talks, Cube has frequent theatrical and musical evenings, putting their grand piano to good use. Gallery 7A also stages events from time to time in the adjoining "black box" performance space that doubles as Alan Dean's photography studio at other times. Pukka's rather theatrical opening had the whole town talking.
These events are very well marketed and draw from all over the region. "That's what we had in mind when we christened our neighbourhood the QUAD arts district," says Charles Reynolds of the Hintonburg Community Association. "Three years later, we're seeing the very concrete results of this grass-roots endeavour and I think it's fair to say that Hintonburg is now widely acknowledged as an arts hot spot because of the excitement being created by these cultural pioneers. When the new GCTC theatre complex opens next year, things will really start jumping."
Virtual visits
- Cube Gallery, 7 Hamilton Avenue N near Armstrong
- Gallery 7A, 7A Hamilton Avenue N
- Parkdale Gallery, 229 Armstrong Street near Parkdale
- Pukka Gallery, 430 Parkdale Avenue just south of Wellington
This is the official site of
the Hintonburg Community Association
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