Joyce Westrop showcases her work as part of the Enriched Bread Artists’ open house.
When artist Joyce Westrop started looking for another studio, she wanted to move out of her Stittsville workspace and go downtown. She found a place nearer to the downtown core, but then she heard about Enriched Bread Artists on Gladstone Avenue.
The artists’ group, which has 20 to 24 members in any given year, shares three floors of studio space in a former bread factory. Westrop applied for a studio, but was on the waiting list for two years before anything became available.
“Just to have a place to show work, let alone studio spaces, there’s even fewer opportunities. A lot of artists are working in their dining rooms,” says Westrop, who has now kept a studio with EBA for four years.
Westrop’s work at EBA has revolved around using mixed materials. She created several pieces using old strips of car tires found on the side of the road. Westrop says she felt those tires symbolized extinction, so she incorporated them into her sculptures.
“It was like having a dialogue with shapes, sculpture and myself,” she says. “While working (on those pieces), I was asking questions about it the way a first-time viewer would.”
But this kind of artwork takes up a lot of room and Westrop says that not every artist can find enough space to work on their pieces.
She isn’t alone in voicing this concern. EBA hosted a panel discussion to debate tough issues within Ottawa’s arts community – like the lack of studio space. The panel, which was held on Oct.22, was called, “The Visual Arts in Ottawa: a time for change?”
It was also part of EBA’s 18th open house, held every year to allow the public to come into the artists’ studios and see their work. It opened last weekend and will run until Oct. 31.
Peter Honeywell, executive director of the Council for the Arts in Ottawa, was one of the panelists. He says more studio space is necessary to create change for the local art community.
“We’re going to push our artists out of the city . . . unless we take action to make sure artists can live and work within cultural hubs within the centre of the city,” says Honeywell.
He also says that when it comes to funding, Ottawa’s artists face a unique challenge because they have to contend with the National Art Gallery and other federal institutions.
“(For example), in Saskatoon, you don’t deal with that. You are who you are, you produce what you produce and you work to attract your local audience. Here, we need to identify and figure out how we work within a national capital. It’s a very, very different dynamic.”
Andrew Morrow, the moderator of the panel, says he agrees with Honeywell, but he is quick to point out that the municipal government has been making more studio space available.
Morrow, who is also an artist with EBA, says the City of Ottawa offered him a studio through a program called Gardener’s House, which rents small spaces near Britannia Beach.
Still, Morrow says it's a good idea to open the discussion.
“My perception is that Ottawa is just sort of coming into its own right now in terms of the visual arts. There’s this sort of energy. So I just wanted to also tap into that and talk about that,” he says.
“Things are changing with an emerging demographic of young people who want exciting art. The old Ottawa, it’s changing.”