Art = Work
The Owens Art Gallery exists because of a desire to expand the teaching of Fine and Applied Arts for students at the Mount Allison Ladies’ College (1854-1937). Taking this history as a point of departure, Art = Work highlights the importance of art and art education in rural communities, especially for women and gender minorities. In this spirit, the exhibition’s title is borrowed from a protest slogan created by the late Mary MacDonald, BFA ’06 (1984-2017), a beloved artist, curator, former Owens intern, and community builder known for centring rural artists.
This exhibition complements Leaders in the Field: The History and Legacy of Art at Mount Allison (1 November 2025–16 February 2026), organized by the Marion McCain Institute for Atlantic Canadian Art at the Beaverbrook Art Gallery
Works by
Enid Alexander, Ellen Ayer, Gladys Allison Borden, Dianne Bos, Mary H. Cann, Melanie Colosimo, Paula Jean Cowan, Beth Mann Couillard, Mabel Killam Day, Jean Dixon, Marjory Rogers Donaldson, Annie Dunning, Alexandrya Eaton, Ruth Eisenhauer, Christianna Buffett Forsey, Winifred McGill Fox, Leah Garnett, Kris Gunn, Hazel Gunning, Margaret Harris Fraser, Childe Hassam, Sarah Hart, Emma Hassencahl-Perley, Eugenia May Hicks, Annie Inch, Margery Hayes Jamieson, Adriana Kuiper, Sophia McLean Wood Law, Wenda Lyons, Harriet Campbell Meacher, Gwendolyn Meux, Patricia Pollett McClelland, Eunice Dixon McCormack, Christian McKiel, Elizabeth McLeod, Alana Morouney, Ethel Ogden, Greta Ogden, Mary Pratt, Catherine Della Stanley, Karen Stentaford, Roberta Taylor, Laura K. Watson, D’Arcy Wilson, Faith Wood, Susan Wood, and Janice Wright Cheney.
Essay
One way to create a more complex approach to storytelling is to highlight multiple voices and invite them to speak for themselves.[1]
—Mary MacDonald, 2012
The Owens Art Gallery exists because of a desire to expand the teaching of Fine and Applied Arts for students at the Mount Allison Ladies’ College (1854-1937). At that time, Fine Arts classes for women were uncommon, especially in rural communities. This set Mount Allison apart from other universities. Indeed, during the first eighty years of the university’s existence, the education of women and the development of the Fine and Applied Arts Programs were “inextricably bound.”[2] For example, Mary Electa Adams (1823-1898), the first Preceptress of the “female branch” of the Wesleyan Academy (later known as the Mount Allison Ladies’ College), sought to break down “the barriers which prohibited women from taking university training.”[3] A driven first-wave feminist, Adams developed a curriculum that included Mathematics, the Sciences, Literature, Moral Philosophy, and Fine Arts, and she was known to read aloud to her students as they did their needlework.[4] It is thanks to her legacy that, in 1875, Mount Allison graduated Grace Annie Lockhart, the first woman in the British Commonwealth to receive a bachelor’s degree. Although Lockhart received a Bachelor of Science and English Literature, the Fine Arts classes she took were an integral part of her degree.[5]
Art = Work takes this history as a point of departure for considering the importance of art and art education in rural communities, especially for women and gender minorities. In this context, it looks more specifically at the unique relationship between Fine and Applied Arts that emerged in Sackville, New Brunswick, thanks in part to a continuum of leaders with an interest in the relationship between art, craft, and intellectual life, including, but not limited to, Mary Electa Adams, Elizabeth McLeod, Gemey Kelly, Leah Garnett, and Amanda Fauteux. Highlighting the special synergy that artistic practice and practical arts found here, Art = Work borrows its title from a protest slogan created by the late Mary MacDonald, BFA ’06 (1984-2017), a beloved artist, curator, former Owens intern, and community builder from Pictou, Nova Scotia.[6] MacDonald was known nationally for an innovative curatorial style that worked in “the space between artists and audiences”[7] to centre rural communities. In recognition of this admirable approach, Art = Work is conceived as a gathering in which historical works from the Owens permanent collection come into conversation with the work of contemporary artists with ties to Mount Allison. In this open-ended conversation, “multiple voices” converge to tell a more deeply layered story of art education at the Owens Art Gallery.
[1] Mary MacDondald, “W(here) Festival, Pictou County, Nova Scotia: curating within rural communities” (MFA thesis, OCAD University, 2012), 18.
[2] Gemey Kelly, “The Historical Period 1854–1945,” Atque Ars: Art from Mount Allison University 1854–1989 (Sackville: Owens Art Gallery, 1989), p. 9.
[3] Elsie Pomeroy, “Mary Electa Adams: Pioneer Educator,” Ontario History 41, no. 3 (1949): p. 108.
[4] Johanna M. Selles, Methodists and Women’s Education in Ontario 1836–1925 (Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1996), p. 92.
[5] The 1870-1871 Academy Day Book lists fees Lockhart paid for Fine Arts materials and drawing classes.
[6] MacDonald devised this slogan in 2013, when the Government of Newfoundland made funding cuts that led to staff losses at the provincial art gallery, The Rooms. At the time, MacDonald was working as Executive Director of Eastern Edge Gallery (St John’s, Newfoundland).
[7] MacDonald, “W(here) Festival,” 1.
Accessibility
This exhibition is located on the main-floor. The stairs to the Owens from the entrance nearest the University Chapel have a handrail. There is also ramp access at this entrance, however, the ramp is steep. The stairs to the Owens entrance off York Street also have a handrail, but there is no ramp. The main floor of the Owens is wheelchair accessible. Our second-floor gallery is not wheelchair accessible. Two flights of stairs lead to the second floor. Find more information at owensartgallery.com/visit/accessibility/
Top Image: Mary Pratt, Supper Table, 1969, oil on canvas, 61 x 91.4 cm, Collection of the Beaverbrook Art Gallery, © Estate of Mary Pratt
