It might not yet be officially open again, but that hasn’t stopped those behind a Midland art gallery from moving forward.
Quest Art School + Gallery now has a number of new exhibitions hanging on its walls as it waits for the Midland Cultural Centre to reopen.
“Unfortunately, we cannot be open to the public like we would like to be,” Quest executive director/curator Virginia Eichhorn said. "The building isn't operational right now. We're sort of trying to work within the parameters of the MCC. They're in this holding pattern as well. There are a lot of different factors to figure out."
But they're ready when given the green light as Quest staff have worked hard to transform the exhibit halls by outlining how patrons can best move around the space while observing social-distancing protocols.
"We thought, 'what can we do to keep moving forward' since Quest is all about creativity," Eichhorn said. "We need to make sure when we do start welcoming visitors back, we'll have the protocols in place to make everybody feel comfortable. We're hoping it's sooner rather than later."
But in the interim, the gallery is open by appointment for those interested in checking out the new exhibits.
One exhibition called We’ve Got the Silver pays homage to Quest’s 25th anniversary and is also a nod to one of Eichhorn’s favourite Rolling Stones songs (You Got the Silver sung by Keith Richards) from what some consider the iconic band’s best album, Let It Bleed.
The exhibit features the work from Quest's community of artists, who have all incorporated silver-coloured themes while working in a variety of mediums.
Another exhibit, entitled Not Even the Poets, is inspired by a quote from Zelda Fitzgerald (“Nobody has ever measured, not even poets, how much the heart can hold”) and features the work of three artists: Tina Poplawski fromTiny Township, Innisfil's Jeanette Luchese and Michele Karch-Ackerman from Buckhorn.
"It touches on what society's ideals are like for those that are differently abled," Eichhorn said, adding the exhibit explores how those who have been margianlized by society over the years, including those who lived in places like the now-closed Huronia Regional Centre along with their primary caregivers, were treated.
"They were really limited and hampered by the constructs of society," Eichhorn said, noting one piece features the 'clothing of ghosts' and illustrates what it might have been like to be alone in a sanitorium while suffering from tuberculosis.
"There's a sense of grief and loss. Zelda, herself, was in and out of mental institutions."
The third exhibit, entitled The Night's Breath Responds to the Sea, features the work of Tiny Townhip's Kasia Latos and Alondra Ruiz-Hernandez from Toronto along with Clare Langan.
Inspired by the surrealist French poet Joe Bousquet, the works in this exhibition deal metaphorically with ideas around loss, of looking to the past and of using personal experiences as a means of connecting to the universal through symbolic and archetypal imagery.
Pieces feature a variety of mediums and deal with issues like stress, loss, anxieity and "the feeling that you need to breakthrough," according to Eichhorn.
And while she can't wait for Quest to open again, the extended closure has given Eichhorn time to fully inventory all of Quest's materials.
"I did a total housekeeping of all of Quest's spaces," she said. "It's something I always really wanted to do."
