Groove to the art and music in the Matilda Swanson Art Gallery, the welcoming new Collingwood exhibition space that aims to make art accessible.
by Dianne Rinehart // Photography by Anya Shor
The first thing you should know about the Matilda Swanson Art Gallery is that there is no Matilda Swanson.
The gallery’s laid-back owner, Sarah Filion, laughs when she explains that the name behind the two galleries she owns—one on Hurontario Street in Collingwood and other in Stratford—is completely made up.
What isn’t made up is the care she puts into taking the mickey out of the intimidation factor in the art world. “I want everyone to feel welcome and enjoy the art, which is why it was created to begin with. Art should not make anyone feel less than,” says Filion.
Filion’s message that art is for everyone comes across the moment you walk into her Collingwood gallery. It isn’t a cold, concrete box with stark white walls and intimidating staff looking you up and down. Instead, it is a rambling, huge home with a cottagey feel, filled with an unbelievably diverse collection of paintings from landscapes to portraits to a giant monkey wearing headphones on a backdrop of brightly coloured polka dots created with glitter paint.
Tucked into a corner almost hidden by paintings stacked along the floor is a table with a young woman manning the cash. Can this be the owner? Indeed! She gives out a welcoming smile that lets you know you aren’t expected to know anything about art, never mind prove your knowledge. You are invited instead, as Filiion describes, to “groove to the music, enjoy the art, and look at things you would not normally think of.”
Filion is firm that art shouldn’t be intimidating. “We all like different kinds of food and fashion and movies,” she says. “So Mexican food or Chinese food? Glitter monkeys or landscapes?” She compares buying art to the shopping experience women have when they are out with friends. “It’s like ‘Buy the leather pants!’ If it makes you happy, go for it!”
Meanwhile, the Matilda Gallery & Art Bar in Stratford is a cozy bar/restaurant with massive paintings adorning its wooden-planked walls. “You can eat, drink and enjoy art,” she says. “There may even be an impromptu dance party.”
She describes the two galleries as drastically different, but complementary. “My galleries are best friends,” she jokes.
And if you think Sarah Filion is too young to possibly own and operate two galleries filled to the brim with works from the 60 artists she represents, you should think about the fact that she opened her first gallery in Clarksburg 14 years ago, when she was about 20 years old.
Not that she’s had time to rest on her laurels. Last August she unexpectedly had to move out of her Clarksburg location, only months after she had opened Stratford.
But by September, she had found her new Hurontario Street location in Collingwood.
“Last year feels like four years for the amount we accomplished and went through,” she says of her gallery team. “Some colourful craziness,” she sums up.
So how did Sarah Filion end up owning two galleries, one including a bar/restaurant? Does she have a background in the restaurant business? No, she acknowledges. But then again, she didn’t have one in art either.
Instead, she grew up in the bush in northern Ontario where there were no galleries, and being a gallery owner certainly wasn’t something one aspired to. “It’s not something you did. You became a nurse, a teacher or a hairdresser.”
“Art is its own language,” Filion explains. “It’s like mathematics. It can speak to anyone.”
Nonetheless, she says she was always creative as a kid and was an A student.
When she came down to Clarksburg to visit family, she loved it and never left. For two years, she worked in an art supply store, and when that closed, she opened her gallery in December 2009.
“I was just a baby when I opened Clarksburg,” she says. “It’s just how I make my life. Consequences are what commitment means.
I just jump in and do my best to make it work.”
Filion aims to create community through her galleries. In Clarksburg she started a not-for-profit organization called the Clarksburg Village Association to draw attention to the town. Now she is promoting economic development in Collingwood and Stratford through the synergy of her two locations, which are only two hours apart. Because they offer totally different experiences, she finds people from Stratford driving to Collingwood to see her gallery here and vice versa.
Many of the artists she represents are local to Stratford and Collingwood such as Jon Houghton and Andrew Peycha. Others are from across the country, including Dominique Desmeules from Quebec, Erika Beyea from New Brunswick, Dakota Ray Hebert, an indigenous artist from Saskatoon who is also becoming a well-known comedian and actress (“If you’re creative you are creative,” Filion laughs), and Randy Hayashi from Alberta. And there is also still Diane Lingenfelter, the first artist Filion ever represented.
The variety and diversity of artists means that there is a “little bit of something for everyone—or a lot!” Indeed, some clients who build new homes and are faced with blank walls can go home with paintings by 12 different artists at a time.
And her gallery attracts multiple generations. She loves it when students come in and look at the art and ask questions, or when an 85- or 90-year-old comes in “and buys the craziest art that the 15-year-olds like.”
“Art is its own language,” Filion explains. “It’s like mathematics. It can speak to anyone. Just because you are middle class does not mean you shouldn’t have art in your life. You should be able to walk in, even if you can’t afford it.”
Life for Filion is now a far cry from the life in the bush where she grew up hunting, fishing and snowmobiling. Oh, and playing hockey as the only girl in the boys’ league. But maybe that is where she got the determination to jump into the cutthroat art world. Afterall, her nickname on the team was “goon.”
“I was always in the penalty box, always picking fights [on the ice] with the boys. I grew up as a creative tomboy, I would say.”
She gets, probably more than anyone else, that you don’t have to have an art background to appreciate it. And so, she has created “a place where you can let your imagination roll, and if you don’t have a strong sense of imagination, you can look at other peoples’.”
Creating these galleries, one could say, is an art in itself. “All of life is an artistic journey, “says Filion. “Just dip your paint brush in and see what you create.”
