By Karen Bailey
In Lowertown, studio space is as rare as hen’s teeth. When the former Rectory of Saint Brigid’s church at 179 Murray Street was converted into artist studios in 2011, I jumped at the opportunity to be part of the Rectory Art House, a small and dynamic creative community. For over twenty years I’ve lived in Lowertown, yet had always rented studio space in other parts of Ottawa. I never imagined I’d find a studio so close to home.
Patrick McDonald, one of the owners of Saint Brigid’s Centre for the Arts and manager of the Rectory, had a vision for this deconsecrated Rectory. He felt it imperative that the space be filled with those best able to reflect the creative energy of Saint Brigid’s: artists. In the Rectory Art House, he provides a convivial space where artists can create with privacy and converge to share ideas over coffee or lunch in the communal kitchen.
Founded in 2007 by the National Irish Canadian Cultural Centre (NICCC), Saint Brigid’s Centre for the Arts is dedicated to the preservation and promotion of both the arts and Irish heritage. There has always been a long-standing historical association between Irish Canadians and the Centre, beginning in 1889 with the construction of Saint Brigid’s Church by and for the local Irish community.
Patrick McDonald, who hails from Ireland, believes the Rectory Art House is another channel through which Saint Brigid’s strives to aid the city of Ottawa in developing an artistic and cultural identity.
For ten years I shared studio space at MainWorks Artists Studios co-operative in New Edinburgh.
The sale of that studio building in 2011 coincided with a commission I received that required absolute confidentiality: to paint the official portrait of then Governor General Michaëlle Jean. The space at 179 Murray Street is my idea of an artist’s paradise: an intimate historic structure with high ceilings, hardwood floors, large windows, filled with like-minded artists and best of all, located just blocks from my apartment in the ByWard Market. The Rectory Art House was the ideal venue to invite Madame Jean to sit for her portrait.
The artists in residence
The eight artist occupants don’t work in isolation from the community; they participate yearly in tandem with Saint Brigid’s during local events such as Doors Open Ottawa and Nuit Blanche Ottawa-Gatineau. At the inaugural Nuit Blanche 2012, visitors to the Rectory Art House were presented with the spectacle of an enormous iceberg spilling from an open door outside the second floor onto the ground floor veranda. In The Iceberg Project, installation artist and painter Lori Victor asked the viewer to consider the issue of climate change. Lori’s work primarily focuses on political and environmental issues.
Andrea Mueller, a graduate of Jewellery and Metalsmithing from the Nova Scotia College of Art & Design, works closely with her clients in the custom design process creating each piece of jewellery by hand. Her inspiration comes from the duality of nature’s complexities and its simplicities.
Andrew Morrow’s work is characterized by a restless desire to both inhabit and extend historical, narrative painting. His practice combines physical painting, digital animation, and interactive technology, to create environmentally aware art, grounded in traditional painting yet committed to innovation. He teaches in the Fine Arts Department at the University of Ottawa.
Painter Sharon Lafferty explores the inherent power of memory in her magnetic figurative works. The people in her paintings are anonymous individuals, gazing directly out of the canvas inviting the viewer to connect with them.
Installation artist Karen Rasmussen’s three-dimensional constructions present universal themes: desires for meaning and worth, independence, belonging, health; fears of loss, failure, ageing, death. Closing Time?, her installation for Nuit Blanche 2014, presented a decision-making chamber for considering changes we face and for figuring out our next move.
Artist, curator and educator Marcia Lea investigates the serious subjects of repressive gender roles, power and war, but does so with elements of humour, beauty and a touch of fetish. This autumn, Marcia Lea opened the Davis Art School in a large second-floor studio at the Rectory Art House offering classes in watercolour and acrylic painting, mask making, anatomy, web presence, and drawing by a variety of instructors.
The newest Rectory artist, painter Gwen Frankton, took up residence this month. At Doors Open Ottawa two years ago, a visitor informed me that as a boy he studied catechism with the priests in the Rectory. He’d always been curious to see the second floor of the building but was never allowed upstairs – until Doors Open. Not only was his curiosity satisfied but he was pleasantly surprised to discover the transformation from Rectory to artists’ studios. The Rectory Art House not only enriches the Lowertown community, but is an important cultural component of the Ottawa-Gatineau region.
All are welcome to meet the Rectory artists at their Open House on Wednesday, December 3rd, 5-8 pm, Rectory Art House 179 Murray Street. For information contact: karen@karenbailey.ca
Rectory Art House events are updated in the calendar at saintbrigidscentre.com/the-rectory-art-house