A three-studio pottery trail exceeded expectations in Niagara-on-the-Lake this weekend, pushing rare off-season traffic through Queenston Pottery and giving local arts businesses a boost before the summer tourist season.
The Niagara-on-the-Lake Pottery Trail ran April 18 and 19 at Queenston Pottery, Flax and Fire and Lakeside Pottery studios.
Visitors collected stamps at each stop for a door-prize draw, and Queenston Pottery co-owner Lisa Dahl said the joint promotion brought more people through the door at a time when late winter and early spring usually stay quiet.
Queenston Pottery added live wheel demonstrations on Saturday and a Sunday meet-the-artist event with textile artist Ann Marie Patrick from London, Ont.
Patrick creates textile wall pieces from dyed cotton, silk and linen, building layered scenes through printing, stitching and hand-cut fabric in a studio where she said she works daily.
“I was doing traditional quilting and I couldn’t do it any longer because you have to sit there and make 60, 70, 80 of the same blocks to sew together. No, that’s not me at all.”
Patrick’s work had been on display at Queenston Pottery since January after Dahl saw her at the Niagara Pumphouse Arts Centre last September.
Patrick said people often misunderstand the medium of her artwork when they hear the word “quilt.”
“When I tell people I do art quilts, I always have to put in, ‘They’re not grandma quilts, they’re not bed quilts, they’re wall hangings, they’re art,’” said Patrick.
The spring trail grew out of a fall version of the Pottery Trail the three studios incepted last year. Dahl said the three businesses see value in working together because each studio brings its own style and audience.
The trail gave them a way to widen that reach across town during a part of the calendar when arts traffic can stall.
“There’s no competition between our three studios and galleries. We all bring something different to the table,” said Dahl.
That mattered at Queenston Pottery, where Dahl said some customers still hesitate to enter the York Road location due to the lack of parking and steep driveway.
“What we’re really seeing is that if you give people a reason to come, there’s people around,” said Dahl.
Dahl said the trail will return in the fall, giving the three studios another chance to test whether collaboration can keep arts traffic moving in Niagara-on-the-Lake during the off-season.
