Off the Beaten Path

Rural galleries in Western Canada find different ways to thrive.

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Driving across Western Canada, you can see ghost towns, scenic beauty spots and quirky roadside attractions, like the "world’s largest" mosquito or fire hydrant. But in my view, the most remarkable and vibrant tourist sites are small-town art galleries. Often overlooked by tourists, these rural businesses and collectives can have unique histories and marketing strategies. Stepping into one is nothing like the urban experience – they shatter preconceived notions about what a gallery can be. Surprises await and, if you're lucky, you may be invited to sit down for coffee to get to know the magnificently unconventional people who run these galleries. Here are five small-town galleries on a west-to-east art tour that is definitely off the beaten path.

Duthie Sculpture Park on Salt Spring Island, British Columbia

Who would guess that a small island off the West Coast would feature exhibitions of kinetic sculptures and outdoor installations by national and international artists? Yet, Celia Duthie and Nicholas Hunt, owners of the Duthie Sculpture Park on Salt Spring Island, have been doing exactly that since 2004. The island is accessible only by seaplane and ferry, so just getting sculptures to the park, near the town of Ganges, is a feat. Then there’s the logistics of installing pieces that can weigh as much as 600 pounds. While annual shows with lavish openings are on hold because of the pandemic – and the former gallery in the one-acre park has transitioned into a bakery, Francis Bread – visitors are welcome to wander through from dawn to dusk. In amongst the trees, you can find a ceramic mural, escarpment, by Helen Ormiston Smith, and Peter McFarlane's Fleet, a replica of a ship made from bits of salvaged metal. Both artists are from Salt Spring. Council of Elders, composed of 11-foot totemic figures hewn from salvaged red cedar by Michael Dennis, who lives on Denman Island, further north in the Salish Sea, shares space in a nearby field with a flock of sheep. The circle of ghostly figures, intended to symbolize humanity's ancestors, has become a familiar Salt Spring landmark. While most pieces are for sale, and some have sold for as much as $70,000, Duthie compares sales to lightning strikes. Once maintenance and transportation costs are factored in, the park is a labour of love. “It’s never been lucrative,” says Duthie, an artist and lifelong art patron. “It’s a pro bono gift to the island.”

 Headbones Gallery in Vernon, British Columbia

Headbones Gallery is astonishing. Rave online reviews – “it’s an art gallery like no other” – echo my impressions. Now dangerously close to raging wildfires, the gallery sits on a hillside in the rural fringes of Vernon, a small city in the North Okanagan, overlooking a rolling vista of orchards. Set amidst a sculpture garden, Headbones was designed and built by Julie Oakes and Richard Fogarty as both a gallery and a home. Visitors can wander through and gaze at art in every nook and cranny. For instance, the bathroom boasts ceramic reliefs by Oakes, an artist who shows her work nationally and internationally. The rest of the living quarters – including the bedroom and kitchen – feature work that ranges from an eerily realistic raven by the late Saskatchewan artist Joe Fafard to a white, almost vaginal, cavity by Toronto sculptor David Salazar. These are among the smallest pieces. Some walls hold larger pieces, including a 22-foot tall triptych in Oakes’ studio. Headbones is intimate in more ways than one. Unlike many aloof urban spaces, Oakes and Fogarty take time from other tasks to greet visitors. Before the pandemic, those who arrived when a show was opening might find themselves at a sit-down dinner for up to 50 guests. It’s hard to imagine living this way, but the couple seem to enjoy it. Fogarty’s work, as the gallery's director and publisher of the exhibition catalogues, is largely solitary and Oakes is often alone in her studio. “Our friendliness pays back,” says Oakes. “We are fed by the energy that comes through.” The unusual blend of down-home atmosphere and international-calibre art can be intoxicating. “We can sum it up in three letters,” says Fogarty. “If people come in and say ‘Wow!’ then we have done our job.”

Gossamer Gallery and Gifts in Wabamun, Alberta

If you’re driving along the main street of Wabamun, Alta., an hour west of Edmonton, it’s not hard to stop and stare at Gossamer Gallery and Gifts. Its exterior walls are covered with lively murals. One of them, Where Artists Meet, features the oversized faces of Salvador Dali and Frida Kahlo. These two eccentric rule breakers inspired Len and Lois Hannam. They decided their business didn’t need to conform to art world conventions. “We wanted to bring art out of the city, take it to the country, and make people aware that art is for everyone,” says Lois. The combined gallery, gift shop and café hum. Children can snack on homemade fudge while their parents look at art. Cottage owners from around Wabamun Lake drop by with chairs on weekend afternoons to take in cello concerts on the veranda. Sometimes, one of the 40-odd artists the Hannams represent will paint in the gallery. Visitors are welcome to relax in a cosy wingback armchair in a nook equipped with a stash of magazines. Best of all, this August, people can stroll through the annual art walk the Hannams sponsor. Such warm, family-friendly marketing strategies are so appealing the gallery landed on the short list for this year's Alberta Business Award of Distinction in the Community Attraction category. The extra traffic created by publicity about the award is a boon not just for the gallery and its artists, but also the larger community. “Everything that I do is about drawing people, not just to my gallery, but to the little hamlet that my business is in,” says Hannam. She lists the ice cream shop, the pizza place and other small businesses on her street. “If I succeed, we all succeed – that’s my philosophy.”

Broken Spoke Fine Art Gallery in Maple Creek, Saskatchewan

Blaine Filthaut’s career took him far from his hometown in southwest Saskatchewan. As a successful executive, and, later, the owner of a Florida construction company, he never expected to return. But one night, his sister dreamed that Filthaut was back in Maple Creek, a town of 2,000 people in the Cypress Hills. That dream changed his life's path. Filthaut made a spur-of-the-moment decision to return and set up a studio so he could pursue his life-long love of painting. Eventually, he decided to buy a historic building and open a gallery. Expertise in construction came in handy as he ripped out a century of renovations, revealing wooden floors and elaborate crown moulding. With 4,000 square feet of space, he created a magnificent studio and tried out as many new ideas for his business as he and his wife could muster. “I have a million-dollar building for next to nothing,” he says, comparing his rural life to the movie Field of Dreams. The gallery has undergone many permutations since it opened 2014. Some visitors come for concerts by travelling musicians, while others settle into one of the studio suites or an arts loft equipped with easels, a drafting table and northern lighting. Tourists drop in to buy gourmet smoothies, look at the fishpond in the courtyard and browse in the gift shop. But some also venture through the swinging saloon doors to view the art. Filthaut didn’t originally plan to become a curator, but with more space than he needed for his own work, artists began to approach him. He now exhibits work by nine established artists, primarily in the nature and landscape genre. With 300,000 tourists passing through town each summer, the art has ended up in homes across Canada.  

Pinawa Art Gallery in Manitoba

When artists set their minds to it, they can practically transform a town. In the southeastern corner of Manitoba, the Pinawa Art Gallery is helping do just that. When Pinawa's town council turned an old school into a business centre a decade ago, they asked community members if they wanted to sell their art in the space. At first, it was a challenge to raise enough money to pay even a low rent. But bolstered by younger members who moved to Pinawa, population 1,331, the group found solutions to help the gallery thrive. The gallery, run entirely by about 20 volunteers, is imbued with community spirit. For example, sculptor Metro Dmytriw offers free classes. “In his 80s, he wants to pass on what he knows,” says Arlene Bohn, president of the gallery's non-profit association. “He teaches for nothing. His fees go back to the gallery.” Classrooms have no doors, so passersby can watch what's happening, and some sessions are held right in the gallery. Clients often meet the artists simply because they are volunteering in the gallery. Tables and chairs are set out to allow people to gather in the gallery, which sells gourmet coffee at cost. “There is never a day when there isn’t somebody who comes in and wants to chat,” says Bohn. “We are a social hub, like a support group.” Some locals drop in briefly on their way to get groceries, but others, caregivers, seniors or those with disabilities, find refuge from loneliness. Locals often bring in out-of-town visitors. “It’s a nice feeling after all these years for people you know to be bringing their children and grandchildren to the gallery and owning it,” says Bohn. “This is our gallery.” ■  

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