Peterborough and area artists can let out a sigh of relief as a new premium art store arrives in town to fill the hole left by the closure of Victory Art Supply.
Artspace is opening a satellite operation for Renfrew’s Art Factory, an arts centre launched in 2019 by abstract painter and poet Patrick John Mills.
The announcement comes just months after Victory Art Supply owner Scott Delaney decided to retire and close his Rubidge Street shop after 18 years of serving the arts community with all the paints, canvases, chisels, and pencils they need.
The closure of Victory Art Supply coincided with Artspace arriving at its own crossroads, prompted by the increasing gap between operational costs and government funding.
“We’re incredibly lucky and grateful to receive funding; however, none of those sources have been able to keep up with the rate of inflation when it comes to our rent and utilities and our cost of keeping the lights on,” says Artspace executive director Leslie Menagh. “We’ve been pinched over the years … and we’re feeling it in a very real way now.”
Artspace had already been considering options to increase revenue, like renting out Gallery II as a co-working office space, when Victory Art Supply closed and presented the artist-run centre with a clear opportunity. Artspace purchased the remaining Victory Art Supply inventory and launched the aptly named “Victory Lap” pop-up store as an opportunity to see if an art supply shop was a feasible revenue generator.
“Of course the customers who came in were, I’m sure, artists in the community who were bracing themselves for the absence of this kind of service and these sorts of products in the community,” Menagh says. “They were thrilled that Artspace was considering doing this. We had a basically 100 per cent positive response from our customers, really encouraging us to figure out how to do it.”
Despite the enthusiastic response, Artspace lacked the staff to manage the inventory and back-end operations of a permanent art supply store — and then Mills called Menagh to inquire about opening a satellite location for Art Factory in Peterborough.
On its way to becoming the largest independently owned and privately funded art centre in Canada, Art Factory already has satellite locations in Arnprior, Bancroft, Carleton Place, Perth, and Stittsville.
The proposal was a win-win for Artspace: Art Factory would take care of the inventory and back-end operations and Artspace would supply the volunteers to work the cash and earn 25 per cent commission on all sales.
“It potentially becomes a really wonderful source of additional revenue for us so I’m pretty excited,” Menagh says. “We sort of feel like we’ve won the lottery.”
Menagh says the art supply store will also provide an opportunity to get more artists seeing the work and exhibitions at Artspace.
“Our foot traffic probably tripled,” she says, referring to the Victory Lap pop-up store. “It was this unforeseen benefit of actually having something the artists need to do their work. Getting people into a member-driven organization and getting people interested in what we do and supporting us was a real bonus of undertaking this little venture.”
Menagh adds that some of the artists who dropped in to purchase supplies also subsequently became members of Artspace.
“It actually is not just for the revenue, but for the organization and the level of interest and engagement with the organization. Those customers would end up walking through our exhibition space and enter into conversation with the artwork as well. Artspace prizes itself in being a space where people commune, where community gathers, and where people work together and enter into ongoing conversation with each other and build relationships.”
With sales beginning in early March, the art supply shop is just one of the upcoming changes Artspace has in the works. Other volunteer-powered renovations will include movable walls that will create new exhibition surfaces and make the main gallery a convertible space for exhibiting artists.
“We will have more options to offer new artists in terms of how literally they want that front gallery to take shape,” says Menagh. “That’s going to create some real dynamism in that front gallery space that we didn’t have before, so that’s really exciting.”
Menagh sees all the upcoming changes as “incredibly positive” for the organization and for the arts community.
“Growth doesn’t necessarily have to be literally growth — it also can just be change,” she points out. “Sometimes thinking about sustainability is thinking about bucking the norm in terms of notions of growth. We don’t have to be bigger and bigger and bigger every year. We can be small and more creative about what we’re doing.”
For more information about Artspace, and to become a volunteer, member, or donate, visit artspaceptbo.ca.
