Barbara Builds a Home for Art

Robert Ollerenshaw: When I first met Barbara, she said, “You know, Robert, you’re never gonna be enthused or happy with your career unless you do something creative.” And boy did that stick with me.

Philippa Finnis: In her era-she was married to him, she was loyal to him, he came first. And it wasn’t until after he died that she branched out.

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Melissa Cole: She would take his paintings and use lino blocks to create these prints. Some of them have eight or nine plates, which is hugely labour intensive, and it shows how much time and technique and knowledge and skill it takes to create something like that.

Barbara Ballachey: So I think she really took that side of her life seriously.

Barbara Leighton: After I got my degree in fine arts crafts I decided to establish a craft centre in the gallery for the exhibition of Alberta art.

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Robert Ollerenshaw: It was funny to be able to come out here and everybody’s in a t-shirt and jeans, you know, and that’s they way they are, that’s the way the people are real. And their various paintings and you know, various educational things that were set up with the artists and whatnot. But to be able to come out and just talk with them and get to know them, and understand their process, and why do they love it out here. And it was because of that, and Barbara made that happen.

Crys Harse: When my-my daughter was born in 1971 and when she was six she came here to the children’s camp that fell once a week. I mean it was here for a week. She used to bring a friend, they would camp on the lawn, and then they’d come for a week or two weeks every summer.

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Robert Ollerenshaw: So I met Barbara and then you know, she asked me if I would like to help out, teach some of the kids, you know, with the programs and various things. And I thought, well that’s kinda cool, and so that’s how I really got to know her. And then I realized it wasn’t just teaching kids, she had all studios set up to do various things, you know, knitting, quilting, you know, an incredible amount of things and they all had their little clubs. So this really became a centre for the arts and crafts.

Melissa Cole: She showed the work in her home and she wanted people to see it. She opened her home up for people to see art in a comfortable place where it wasn’t the white cube, it wasn’t the pretentious art community, it was an easy place to come and be.

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Barbara Ballachey: So she was a bit of an anomaly, I think, a very strong strong positive person.

Crys Harse: She’s a very formidable person, but a very positive person and therefore she gave everybody energy. So, yeah, she had a positive influence.

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