One Year in Fenelon Falls
It was almost a year ago to the day that Tim and I said goodbye to living in Toronto. We sort of cheated a little, and counted from mid-September because our routine was to come up to the cottage for the summer anyways. Looking back a year, it’s funny I was so nervous of ‘officially’ leaving the city. What a move it has been!
We started with a small space on Colborne Street, in Fenelon Falls, that we thought would be where we would meet clients. As per our usual, plans aren’t set in stone, but rather fluid. A friend at the cottage thought we’d probably do a pretty good job of making a special space and asked if she might share it with us and display a project she had been working on in her head for years - she was finally ready to put paint to canvas. When Joan Horsfall Young decided to show her ‘Cottages’ on canvas with us we thought, hey! Why don’t we just call the space The Colborne Street Gallery and make a gallery out of it!
A snapshot of Joan Horsfall Young’s Cottages paintings.
As the idea grew and the concept of inviting new people into our space continued to make more and more sense, we decided that of course it was to be an art gallery. Now we should probably find some more space for design! As the corner unit came up directly beside the gallery, the concept of blowing through the wall to make a larger gallery and eventually a design space excited us to no end. At the beginning of July this year, we opened the second space and introduced our first show, the aforementioned Cottages by Joan Horsefall Young. Now you’ll find us, our gallery director, Darcie Kennedy, and our assistant designer/administrator/organizer, Madeline Brown, working at the dining table which we share so fondly with friends, clients, and our work family.
Soon, you’ll find a show kitchen and design space pop up in the back corner. We’ll be able to invite our clients and patrons to join us for a coffee and conversation around a big island. Heck, we’ll even be able to throw a dinner party in the gallery with the help of appliances in our working kitchen by Fisher Paykel!
Tim and I keep saying how surprised we have been with the welcome to this small town we have spent so many years surrounding, but never fully participating in. It’s such a beautiful privilege to have been so welcomed both personally and professionally!