Thirty-eight local women artists featured at Arts Council reopening

Paintings, textile work and mixed media pieces from 38 local women artists were on display on Sunday for International Women’s Day as the Fort Erie Arts Council reopened its hub and gallery in Ridgeway.

After the volunteer-run gallery’s winter closure in January and February, the third annual Women’s Day showcase opened the year with a steady crowd of visitors arriving throughout the afternoon to view artwork and meet the local artists whose work lines the walls of the downtown studio.

“It gives women a platform to showcase their talents and have the community come and embrace it,” Donna MacLeod, Arts Council chair, told Fort Erie Radio.

The gallery space also functions as a community hub where artists can display work, take classes and connect with other creators in the region.

“We are a charitable non-profit organization, so it doesn’t matter if someone is a member or just part of the public,” MacLeod noted. “We want to give people a place to show what they create.”

Arts Council membership costs $35 per year and allows artists to exhibit several works in the gallery while supporting the organization’s operating costs.

Among the artists displaying work this year was Tracy Hatcher, a painter and art teacher who recently began showing her work publicly in the region after moving to Canada from the United Kingdom.

Hatcher displayed several paintings in the exhibition, including a pop-culture portrait series referencing the television sitcom ‘The Golden Girls’ and Canadian actor Catherine O’Hara; both completed in a matter of days.

“If I’m really into a painting, I have to finish it. I can’t walk away from it,” said Hatcher.

Her path to professional art began after a career in health care.

“I used to be a hematology nurse doing bone marrow transplants in Liverpool, but I always painted as a hobby. Then I got my first big commission painting heritage buildings just before we moved to Canada, and suddenly I had to decide if this was something I could actually build a life around,” Hatcher said.

Hatcher now teaches art online to high school students and continues to develop new work while participating in local exhibitions through the Arts Council.

Visitors to the exhibition also purchased artwork directly from artists during the event.

Anna Small, a Crystal Beach resident who purchased a textile piece made from recycled fabrics by artist Angela Stadlman, described how repeated viewing often reveals new details in a work.

“When I look at a piece of art, I’ll study it, walk away, and come back later. Then I see something different again,” she said. “It’s like music, where you hear new things every time.”

Small, who grew up in a family active in music and the arts and spent decades involved in theatre in Barrie and Toronto, described that habit as part of how she observes creative work closely across different forms.

Maria Harrison-Edge, an artist and Fort Erie Arts Council board member who manages the group’s website and class registrations, moved to Ridgeway in 2018 after retiring from a technology training career and now helps organize workshops and administration for the gallery.

“We just love the community here and the people who come out to support the arts,” Harrison-Edge said.

The Arts Council operates the Ridgeway gallery largely through volunteers and schedules regular programming throughout the year, including art classes and community events at local festivals like the annual Red Ribbon art show in December.

The gallery will now remain open on weekends for the spring season, with plans to expand hours once the Ridgeway farmers’ market starts up in May.

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