“I think that artists have a finger on the pulse of what’s going on. We need a place  to show work, and we need to gather and see what’s going on.” – Janet Turpin. 

“For me personally, it gives me a sense of connection to the deeper understanding of what’s behind art and it’s a mirror of what’s going on in the community. It’s a mirror of what’s going on in the world.  That’s what I think artists tap into.” – Lynne Barker 

“Art reflects life and then life reflects art again.  Personally, it helped me grow as an artist. If I look back in 1997 and I look back now,  I grew in this gallery. As artists, we come together. We talk about the shows. We talk about art, I have learned so much.” – Meinsje Vlaming. 

They were responding to the question, ‘why is the Old Schoolhouse Art Gallery important?’

The Old Schoolhouse Art Gallery just celebrated its 26th anniversary. Some of its early posters and reproductions of artwork were put up on the walls for the society’s recent AGM. During conversation with some of the earlier members, Cortes Currents learned the gallery was in operation prior to the beginning of written records in 1997. 

Read about earlier artwork and art classes in ‘Memories of the old Whaletown Schoolhouse’

Brigid Wieler explained, “I was here from the beginning, not terribly involved right away, but interested. Evelyn Mielke actually opened the gallery, but that’s disappeared out of history, and I can’t find Evelyn.”

Meinsje Vlaming agreed, “I think that was in the mid 90s.”

To which Wieler added, “That is correct. It was two years before Noberto, then they worked together for a bit and then she left the island.” 

Mielke’s name appears in a list of the pioneers who displayed their artwork in 1998 and 1999. 

The stream of records starts the year before, which is why this is officially the 26th anniversary of the Old Schoolhouse Art Gallery.

 Meinsje: “In the beginning, 1997 or ’98 maybe, John Cooper came back to the island and was teaching colour theory. We would turn the whole gallery back into a school.  It was cold because it always happened in the early season, like February, March, April.  He would have us painting little squares of colours.  We would work from 9 AM till 3 PM and then he would take us out to go painting. He did that for a couple of years, so we had a lot of good instruction. “

CC:What part did Noberto de la Vega play in the gallery? 

Meinsje: “He was our leader. He came from Mexico, he went to art school in Mexico City. His art is very dramatic and very socially oriented. He took on a lot, I just can’t even start to imagine how his art would be right now.”

“The gallery was filled with works from various artists that would stay for the whole season. It would be open daily, from 11:30 to 4:30.”

CC: 5 days a week?

Meinsje: “Through the whole season with one show. We just got a little taste of everything. Of course, there were not too many people. I don’t even know if there was an opening then, because later on we came up with the openings.”

“I was the host sometimes also, and Noberto and I got talking, ‘wouldn’t it be a great idea to have some more shows so we could pull in more people into the gallery and have every artist on Cortes show more of their work. Let’s just see what everybody can do and grow the art community.’ So this is what we did.”

“We had our meetings, I think in May because we would sit outside with all the chairs. Norberto was there with a big sign, and it was ‘OK, who wants to have a show?’ People would go, ‘yeah me, me, me, I’ll have a show the first week in June.’ Every week there was another show.” 

“I think 1998 is when we started off with doing  a lot of shows in one season, which was exhausting but fun.  Besides that, we would have performances. Somebody would come up with a great idea, and we would have a little performance piece around it, which was not necessarily attached to a show.”

“Then we decided, okay, this is ludicrous, insane: every week another show. So much work, because you had to hang it, you had to take it down, you had to patch up the little holes, then the new stuff had to come in.  It’s a lot of work to put on the show for just a weekend. So then we came up with the idea of like,  let’s have every second Friday a gallery day.”

 “I always tried first to get the artist to talk about their work or present the people with a little activity which is based on their work. Sometimes we had circles.  If that didn’t work, I would invite other people.” 

“In the shoulder seasons, I would also put on some events, because I remember I had Denise Wolda here talking about songs and songwriting. We branched out a little to not just the visual art, but also to other things.

“That’s how we started rolling. I was involved with Noberto until 2008: putting on all these shows, cleaning up the gallery, cleaning the outhouse, trying to make little improvements, coming up with a donation jar because we have bills to pay and that changed things a little bit.”

“We were all the curator.  The second Friday initially was my baby but, putting on the season, we all did something.” 

“We had shows canceled. That happened a lot when we had so many shows and then we would have to come up with something. That was often me in the time with with Noberto. We would phone all the artists and have some kind of a group show. Or try to find out who could have a show together?” 

“Then we came up with opening evenings and  everybody that came to the opening brought something. They were fun. Everybody brought a whole bunch of stuff and every week there was a party.” 

Lynne Barker: “That was a wonderful picture of you and Norberto.” 

Meinsje: “Oh, I have a good one of me and Norberto, too.” (Laughter) 

Lynne Barker: “Oh, yes! Yes. Yes. There we go, that’s the essence.” 

Meinsje: (laughs) Remember when Dwayne put that on the Tideline, as a 1st of April joke, ‘Finally it happened, Noberto proposed to Meinsje.’ 

Lynne Barker: “That’s right, you were going to be married.” (Laughter)

Meinsje: ”Are you kidding me? And people believed that!” 

Lynne Barker: “Of course they did, people will believe anything.”  

Meinsje: “Oh my goodness, it’s just too far back to discuss.” 

“Lynne and Janet became involved and then I actually dropped out for a bunch of years from 2008 until 2013 because  I ran the Cove Restaurant (in Squirrel Cove). Lynne and Janet were the right hands of Norberto then. We were involved with the Garden and Studio tour. Lynne and Janet hosted that and basically brought their whole garden in and trees and plants and flowers.  It was fabulous! And everybody had some garden themed art on the walls.”

Lynne Barker: “We brought in our entire garden for the garden tour. We had potted ginkgo, maples, all kinds of greenery, loaded it in the back of a truck and brought it in.  We did it twice.  The other time we had a fountain. I don’t recommend it.”, 

Janet Turpin, “We still have spots on the floor.”  

Lynne Barker: “It was so hot in the gallery during the week when it’s closed, so we had to bring all the plants out on the porch and create shade for them and then put it all back in again.” 

Janet Turpin: “The  experience was marvellous, but we’ll never do it again.” (Laughter)

Brigid Wieler: “I put on a show once called, ‘Unfinished Projects.’ It was so much fun.” 

Meinsje: “It was so good.”

Brigid Wieler: “It brought in a whole lot of people who otherwise would have never showed here because they would be like, ‘oh, I’m not an artist.’ But unfinished projects, you don’t have the same ego attachment, so a lot of people came out that normally would never.  My favourite piece was Kathleen’s, a friend of ours who has been involved with the gallery for a long time.

CC: Kathleen Pemberton? 

Brigid Wieler: ” Yes, her unfinished piece was her Navajo loom. She brought the lumber, she brought a painting of what the loom was going to look like when it was finished, she brought a painting of the first thing that she was going to weave on it.  That was her project.” (Laughter)

CC: Can anybody give me some examples of shows that mirrored what’s happening in the community?

Lynne Barker: “Some are very obvious. There was a show about salmon, which was marvellous because of  art that called the salmon home, and then the people’s involvement with salmon, what it means to the island, and what it means to the planet.” 

Janet Turpin: “David Ellingson’s The Last Stand.  Coming from a logging family, coming from a long time community member, he’s got the perspective of both sides  of the tree cutting issues.” 

Lynne Barker: “And then in February, there’s Erotica.” (Laughter)

CC: Every February? 

Janet Turpin: “Well, no, it used to be. The last one was in 2010, I think.” 

Lynne Barker: “We had an Erotica show every Valentine’s Day. Good turnout.” (Laughter) 

Meinsje: “Very good turnout.”

CC: When you say erotica, you’re talking about nudes, right? 

Meinsje: “Well, anything goes. You think nudes, so you would come up with a piece of a nude.  I made a few Kama Sutra pieces. 

CC: What else would it be? 

Meinsje: :Well, it would be interpretations. I remember one of the fabulous pieces that Janny Thompson, Debby Thompson, and Jeannie Mathews made. They* dragged in this old metal single bed and threw oyster shells in it. This was an oyster bed! It was very good. I love how her brain worked.”

There was also fabric displays for some shows.

Meinsje: “I brought my whole belly dancing vibe into the gallery (Laughter) and I brought fabric which was appropriate for each gallery show. So I had red velvet for the erotica show. I had some flowers for a more flowery show.  If somebody wouldn’t have enough, I would hang fabric at the places where there was no art or put fabric around a tiny little piece to fill up the gallery.”

“Slowly, we find ways to do things better. Boards were formed.  That selection committee stuff happened more after Noberto left because I think he left in 2010.” 

“I remember he came to the restaurant.  I was very sad because he became a really good friend and we had a lot of fun together. We had a really good time. He said, ‘please come back to the gallery and be a part of it.’ 

So whenever I think, ‘this is becoming a little much, I’m gonna stop,’ I think of his words and I’m like, ‘okay,  I just want to stay involved. I love this gallery, I just love it.” 

“It helped me personally grow as an artist so much. From putting in little things and helping out and just doing my sculpture to taking some really advanced courses with John Cooper on colour theory, on cubism, on impressionism, many, many, many isms that he was teaching. He’s the one that got me into painting. I was not going to get into painting, but I got into painting anyway. My kids were getting bigger, so I was able to get more involved with art.” 

Top image credit: Opening night – courtesy Richard Trueman

Changes in text above: The photo credits were changed from Meinsje Vlaming (who sent them to Cortes Currents, hence previous wordage ‘courtesy of’) to Richard Trueman (who took them).

Footnote:

* This entry originally stated ‘I remember one of the fabulous pieces that Denise Gibbons made. She dragged in this old metal single bed and threw oyster shells in it.’ Cortes Currents removed her name from the written text, but not the audio, after being advised the piece was made by Janny Thompson, Debby Thompson, and Jeannie Mathews.

The posters above were hung during the Old Schoolhouse Art gallery AGM, photos taken by Roy L Hales during a walk through of the gallery.

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