Each unique artwork reflects on an aspect of women’s historic contribution to the arts in Canada
OPENING: Saturday, November 3, 1-4 pm at Boarding House Arts
6 Dublin Street South, 2nd Floor, Guelph
The exhibition is open from 12-5 pm Wednesday through Sunday until
25 November 2018. The gallery is wheelchair accessible.
Contemporary silver candleholders created by 15 renowned Canadian metalsmiths. Each piece creatively reflects on art forms that generations of Canadian women have practised, including architecture, art, craft, design, fashion and textile, film and video, gastronomy, horticulture, music, photography, sculpture, theatre and writing.
The artists are 15 of Canada’s most renowned metalsmiths: Beth Alber, Jackie Anderson, Mary Anne Barkhouse, Anne Barros, Lois Etherington Betteridge, Brigitte Clavette, Charles Funnell, Chantal Gilbert, Elizabeth Goluch, Fiona Macintyre, Mary K. McIntyre, Myra Tulonen Smith, Kye-Yeon Son, Anne-Sophie Vallée, Ken Vickerson
“I am delighted to be part of this project,” says Guelph resident Lois Etherington Betteridge. “It is not only a celebration of the craft of metalsmithing but sends a strong signal that women count in the arts in Canada and always have.”
“We believe that through the work of artists, a material that mattered to past generations – silverware that was treasured and displayed in every dining room – can become newly relevant and exciting in the present,” says the exhibition curator Dr. Laura Brandon, a specialist in art, memory and commemoration who has written about Canada’s forgotten women artists.
The exhibition was inspired by Canada’s 150th anniversary in 2017. Two families donated the heritage silver.