Written by Ian McKechnie

The past two installments of Gallery Stories have hinted at some of the challenges faced by The Kawartha Art Gallery over its 50-year history. Some of these problems have pertained to space; most were financial. Often the two were related.

As related in June, an ambitious plan proposed by the local cultural committee in the late 1980s would have seen The Lindsay Gallery and the Victoria County Historical Society's museum join forces and take up residence in a former factory complex on the shores of the Scugog River. That plan was dashed when consultants advised that investing in culture simply wasn't a priority for the Town of Lindsay. Subsequent attempts to find a new home for a combined museum and art gallery in the turbulent 1990s were unsuccessful.

In August, we looked back at the remarkable tenure of the late Rodney Malham, who served as Director of The Lindsay Gallery from 1986 through 1992, when he resigned and relocated to Victoria, British Columbia. Malham's resignation was prompted by a lack of support for culture on the part of municipal leadership; it was also prompted by a financial crisis facing the Gallery in the early 1990s. Not surprisingly, the two matters were related.

In the space of 10 years, The Lindsay Gallery went from being a going concern – with a full slate of programmes and exhibits – to being temporarily closed, with a skeleton crew of dedicated volunteers doing what they could to keep the ship afloat.

And Janet Smith was there through the thick of it. She had a front-row seat to both the Gallery's halcyon days of the 1980s and its darkest days of the middle 1990s, steering the organization through the storm and celebrating with it as it marked its silver jubilee in 2001.

In The Beginning

Janet first became involved with the Gallery in 1982, when the organization was experiencing a burst of growth. The late Lois Smith Brennan, already active in the local art scene, was acquainted with Janet through another organization in the community and apparently thought the latter would make an excellent addition to the team. "She knew [of] my lifelong love of art and my involvement [in] art courses," Janet remembers. "They needed a board member [for the Gallery], so she approached me, and I said yes."

Janet immediately felt at home. "When I got going with the Gallery, I found my niche," she says. "And it's wonderful when you find your niche – because art had always been something so near and dear to my heart, and it was just wonderful to get involved in this."

Four years after joining the Gallery, Janet found herself on the committee responsible for hiring Rod Malham. "We were pretty impressed with his vision for the Gallery and a lot of the things that he had in mind for the Gallery," Janet recalls. Michael Burtch might have prioritized professionalizing the Gallery's curatorial culture, and Maureen Bell focused a great deal of energy on public programming. Malham would build on both of their emphases while also pushing for more. "His approach, I would say, [involved] branching out a little wider, trying to get out into the community more, bringing in some different types of exhibitions, going out on the main street, going into the stores, and making his presence known," Janet says of Malham's time at the Gallery. "I think he was very sincere, and I think he had a real desire to see culture move forward and develop in the community."

Halcyon Years

Malham's vision was reflected in the variety of activities taking place under Gallery auspices during this era. Standing out in Janet's memory are events and exhibitions organized to celebrate the contributions of artists rooted in the history of the community. The exhibition of Ernest Thompson Seton's work was one such highlight. "This was just really exciting," Janet says of the opportunity to showcase drawings done by the erstwhile resident of Ops Township who went on to become one of North America's foremost naturalists and a key figure in the American scouting movement. "In 1989, the volunteers funded framing and proper storage of the Seton collection," Janet adds, drawing attention to the important role The Lindsay Gallery Volunteers' Association played during this period.

Anne Langton was another artist whom the Gallery sought to highlight. "There was a photographer who was involved with the Gallery at the time, and Sandra [Ackert] and me and he went off on a tour up to Fenelon Falls and out to Sturgeon Point, and did photographs of exact locations where Anne Langton would have sat to do her paintings," Janet says. "Then we took those photographs, we went to the [municipal] archives, found the paintings, and had an exhibition of the paintings and photographs. It turned out to be very popular, so that was something that was very much enjoyed."

Local businesses, impressed with the strides the Gallery was making, began requesting artworks to display in their offices. "It was actually kind of an honour to do this," Janet says. "Brenda Milner, Sandra Ackert, and myself were involved in this initiative; we chose paintings and rotated them on a regular basis." (Something similar exists today in the form of The Kawartha Art Gallery's Curated Spaces programme.)

The Perfect Storm

Good things were continuing to happen, and Gallery personnel had every reason to be optimistic – until the clouds of a perfect storm began to gather on the horizon.

A severe recession got underway in Canada starting in the spring of 1990, caused by a combination of high inflation and subsequent hikes in interest rates; an increase in taxes; a slowdown in manufacturing; and a sudden spike in the cost of oil. Canadians were being encouraged to spend less, and organizations perceived as providing nonessential services felt the slump. "Owing largely to changing times and the state of the economy, the Gallery finds itself more than ever in need of the support of its members and the Community," Janet wrote in her chairperson's remarks for the Gallery's Annual General Meeting on March 1, 1991. Rod Malham was equally realistic about the situation in his report for that year's AGM: "As we enter our 15th year as a fully operational Public Gallery in 1991, triumphs are tempered by the fact that public galleries across the province are doing more for their communities while having to operate with fewer resources."

A decrease in monetary donations and memberships in 1990 contributed to the problems, as did changes to gaming laws that undermined one of the Gallery's more lucrative fundraising events. "We had had a fundraiser that was making great money, we did it every year, it really helped – and then it turned out that that particular fundraising activity wasn't classed as 100% legal [on account of changes to gaming regulations], so we had to give it up," Janet remembers. "Tickets were $100 each. I can't remember what they called it. We'd charge $100 a ticket; we used to sell enough to make 10,000 a year, which really helped [with] operating [costs]. When we started that, there was no problem, and then gaming laws started to come along. We made pretty good money on Bingo; that seemed to help a lot – but we did have to give up that other draw."

Finally, there was the matter of grants from the Ontario Arts Council. Once plentiful, they were by the early 1990s on the wane. In some cases, The Lindsay Gallery was deemed ineligible for some of these grants. (Even today, close to 30 years on, the parameters for grant eligibility are increasingly circumscribed for many cultural organizations.)

The Gallery lumbered along until 1994, when another crisis presented itself: the organization would have to give up its home of 18 years – 8 Victoria Avenue North – and find a new location. Conversations began about where to go; in the meantime, operations would be consolidated in the Ethel Flavelle Gallery on the second floor of the Lindsay Public Library. When Council decided in 1994 to freeze $14,000 in grants, the Gallery found itself in a precarious position: it had neither a permanent home nor stable operating funds.

Smaller grants – namely, from a group called Arts Lindsay – enabled some small exhibitions to go up, and children's art classes continued to take place at the public library. On the whole, however, the Gallery was seemingly becoming a shadow of its former self. According to the late Audrey Bailey, a longtime board member, some citizens wondered whether the Gallery still existed. In March of 1997, The Lindsay Gallery closed its doors to the public for a period of 13 months while it regrouped and sought to chart a course forward. "I used to come in when we were closed, when nothing was going on, and I'd check the mail and that kind of thing," Janet recalls of this period. It was an eerie feeling, she says of strolling into a quiet Gallery that only five years before was bustling with activity.

"I was thinking about the people who had been involved, all the work that had been done, all the volunteer work and everything," Janet says of those 13 months that afforded her and other board members time to reflect on the past, present, and future of the Gallery. "But somehow, I always kind of had a feeling that things would come around. There were others who felt that way, as well. I think one of the reasons why is because if you take an organization, and at the beginning you build it on a really solid base, then that base is going to carry you through the difficulties and help you to get back on your feet in one way or another and [ultimately] bring people forth that are going to get involved."

Looking Ahead

She was right. The Gallery reopened in April 1998, and in 2001 celebrated its 25th anniversary. A quarter of a century later, Janet Smith joins The Kawartha Art Gallery in marking its 50th anniversary while also looking ahead.

"Through the years, we have evolved into a community gallery," she states. "We have gotten out into the community; getting involved with other organizations – cultural and otherwise – has made a huge difference, as has technology. We have to stay open-minded. We must honour the past and remember that. We must honour the future and keep that in mind. We must keep an open mind as to what is coming. But I think it's exciting – very, very exciting."

Every month, join Research Associate Ian McKechnie as he opens the doors to Kawartha Art Gallery’s archives, sharing the remarkable history and the dedicated individuals who made the City of Kawartha Lakes only public Art Gallery with a Permanent Collection a reality.