Hidden Gem: Finding connection through art at The Canadian Clay & Glass Gallery
This is part of an ongoing summer series. Come back each week to learn about another hidden gem.
For more than 30 years, The Canadian Clay & Glass Gallery has been bringing some of the best art from across the country and beyond to Waterloo Region.
“We collect, exhibit and research clay and glass, as well as vitreous enamel,” Denis Longchamps, the executive director and chief curator, said. “One thing that’s important for us is that it’s a public gallery. We are free admission, so anybody can come and everybody is welcome.”
The gallery features about 15 exhibitions every year, often featuring multiple ones at once, throughout their building on Caroline Street North in Waterloo.
There’s also a permanent collection that contains about 1,500 pieces of ceramic, glass and enamel art.
“We’re always changing the exhibitions throughout the year,” said Peter Flannery, senior curator and collections manager. “That involves bringing in work by artists from across Canada and often internationally.”
Exhibits are planned three to five years in advance.
“We’re looking at which artists we want to include, what kind of themes and things might be relevant to the community, and then building with those artists that we select from across Canada to develop those exhibitions,” Flannery explained. “That often includes loaning pieces from other galleries or private collectors, and a lot of the time from the artists themselves – bringing them here, setting it all up, and then having the exhibition.”
Denis Longchamps, left, and Peter Flannery, right, are involved in deciding what exhibitions to bring to The Canadian Clay & Glass Gallery. (Stefanie Davis/CTV News)
Current exhibits
Flannery said deciding what themes to feature is a balancing act between what’s topical right now and what will still be relevant in a few years.
“It’s adapting to what’s going on in the community,” he said. “If we need to make changes, we try to do that to make sure we’re having things that the community wants to see, seeing themselves represented in the exhibitions and really telling important stories that aren’t being told elsewhere.”
There are a few exhibitions on display this summer. One is titled ‘Form and Reform.’
“It’s our major exhibition featuring works by Bruce Cochrane, who taught at Sheridan for many years and he’s really well known within the ceramics community,” Flannery explained. “It’s a really interesting way of working with ceramics, as well as architectural themes and styles.”
Part of The Canadian Clay & Glass Gallery's 'Patterns that Bind Us' exhibition featuring Hello Kitty glasswork. (Stefanie Davis/CTV News)
There’s also an exhibit called ‘Patterns that Bind Us’ which is part of the Emerging Talent Series.
“’Patterns that Bind Us’ features glassworks that relate to Priscilla Kar Yee Lo’s experience as an Asian Canadian and the ways that different stereotypes and standards are placed upon Asian women, and ways to break through those in kind of subtle and interesting ways using images like Hello Kitty as this kind of critique,” Flannery said.
Part of The Canadian Clay & Glass Gallery's 'Patterns that Bind Us' exhibition featuring Hello Kitty glasswork. (Stefanie Davis/CTV News)
Additionally, there’s a small exhibit called ‘A Better Tent City.’ It was created through the gallery’s Sharing Experiences program, which invites different community groups in to work with clay.
“We invited their clients and the staff to come and do a plate while sharing their experiences, so it was humbling to listen about homelessness, how they got there, and their wanting to go back into society,” Longchamps said. “I think art can play a big role in changing the perception of people, so sharing those experiences and having an exhibition, people can come and see and read about those experiences that people share with us. I think it’s creating awareness.”
A look at the A Better Tent City exhibition at The Canadian Clay & Glass Gallery. (Stefanie Davis/CTV News)
Connecting to the community
The gallery wants to appeal to people of all ages, backgrounds and interest levels by offering a variety of different programs. There are summer day camps, Saturday art activities, teen and adult workshops in September, and more.
“We try to connect with the community,” Longchamps said. “It’s a way for people to come and engage. That’s why we have sketchbooks on benches, because people can leave notes and leave their thoughts. Sometimes reading them is quite humbling as well, to see the baggage sometimes that people bring here, and to find hope or an answer to a question.”
Form & Reform exhibition at The Canadian Clay & Glass Gallery in Waterloo. (Stefanie Davis/CTV News)
Offering programming for children is something that holds personal significance for Longchamps.
“In my case, my art teacher in Grade 3 made all the difference because I didn’t feel that I belonged anywhere,” he explained. “I was not good in sport, I was not good in gym. I didn’t feel that I belonged. And then I found art as an outlet, and the art classes is where I was quite successful.”
He’s hoping to offer that same feeling to other kids.
“It’s giving them an outlet where they can express themselves and they can hopefully grow up and that stays with them. I think we need to start engagement with art at an early stage for people to understand it. It’s not in all schools’ curriculum anymore, so at least here they have a chance to engage with it and discover it and hopefully they’ll come back.”
Longchamps said he hopes everyone who walks through the gallery’s doors feels welcome and included.
“[I hope they] recognize themselves in maybe some of the displays we present,” he said. “Through the years, we’re trying to address different issues, different communities, different groups. We’re trying to bring voices that we don’t hear anywhere else through the arts.”
It’s also giving a platform to artists who might not get the opportunity elsewhere.
“I think we’re the only gallery in Canada that focuses on clay and glass, so it gives us a really unique opportunity to highlight artists that aren’t being shown in a lot of other galleries, and just do very creative exhibitions with their work,” Flannery explained.
With free admission all year round, this hidden gem has its doors opened for everyone.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
'Summer Olympics': Summer McIntosh wins gold in women's 200 medley
The Toronto swimmer won her third gold in Paris with a victory in the 200-metre individual medley in an Olympic-record time of two minutes 6.56 seconds.
Doug Emhoff acknowledges affair during first marriage after tabloid report
Vice-President Kamala Harris’ husband Doug Emhoff acknowledged Saturday in a statement to CNN that he had an affair during his first marriage.
She wanted 'the world' for her daughter. Instead, she got a landmark prison sentence
Ruqia Haidari was the baby of the family. The youngest of five children, she was born in Afghanistan in 1999, just a month before her father, a fruit and vegetable seller, was killed by the Taliban.
Donald Trump proposes alternative U.S. election debate, Kamala Harris says no
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump proposed to debate Democratic U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris on Fox News on Sept. 4, and the Harris campaign responded saying Trump is trying to back out of a debate that had been set to run on ABC.
She hit it off with the guy she met at the bar on vacation. Then he sent her an unexpected text message
When Giuseppe Morisani first suggested it, Skyler Mapes thought she must have misread his message.
Cut your risk of dementia by 20% with this dietary change
Dementia risk rose by 14 per cent when people ate about one ounce of processed red meat a day — the equivalent of slightly less than two three-ounce servings a week — compared with people who only ate about three servings a month, a preliminary new study found.
Getaway car found, but suspect who lit shopkeeper on fire still at large: Surrey RCMP
Mounties in Surrey say they have found the stolen car he fled in, but the man who allegedly lit a shopkeeper on fire Friday remains at large.
Canadian cities sweltering in wildfire smoke: Here's what to know
Wildfire smoke is drifting over Canada from the Rockies all the way to the Newfoundland Sea, according to modelling for the August long weekend.
Father of Algerian boxer Khelif says he is honoured by his daughter
The father of Imane Khelif, the Algerian boxer at the centre of an Olympic row over whether athletes with Differences of Sexual Development (DSD) should compete as women, said she had honoured his family, calling attacks against her immoral.