SUMMERSIDE, P.E.I. — Kiele Poirier and Julia Campbell have always dreamed of owning their own business.
Two years ago, the pair met through the P.E.I. Business Women’s Association – clicking immediately.
“Julia was very smart and very articulate,” said Poirier, “and she seemed like my type of person.”
At the time, Poirier was working to establish Art Box Studio in Bayside; Campbell, meanwhile, was working on her own disc golf-related enterprise.
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It took no time before the two formed a friendship – and later, a business partnership.
In mid-April, the pair opened Art Buds: an art studio, gift shop and gallery in downtown Summerside.
“I’m not always the most organized in the business side of things, so I got my science-minded friend here, who I tricked into artistry,” said Poirier. “So now we have this balance of the skills, and I feel like it just came together that it made sense.”
Julia Campbell, one of the Art Buds owners, shows off one of the crafts for sale at the Summerside store. – Kristin Gardiner/SaltWire
Although Campbell doesn’t come from an art background, she was eager to get on board. Owning the space is a new experience for them both, and they’re glad to learn together as the business gets settled.
“Really, we decided to take a risk and invest in our own abilities,” said Campbell. “Part of that is going to be that we have to learn from new skills.”
Artistic origins
Poirier’s passion for art traces back to her childhood.
For the last 20 years, she’s worked in graphic design. While the job engages her creative side, she craves the freedom that comes with making art from scratch.
“I’ve always felt like an artist,” said Poirier. “It’s the only identity I kind of could connect with.”
Kiele Poirier has spent the last few years working on Art Box Studio in Bayside. In April, she also opened Art Buds in Summerside, an art gallery and workshop. – Kristin Gardiner/SaltWire
Campbell’s background is education and science-focused; until meeting Poirier, she never defined herself as an artist.
“I’ve always been a crafter, I’ve crocheted and knitted and done all kinds of handcrafts like that,” she said. “But it’s only been since I started hanging out with Kiele that I started enjoying painting and playing with colour.”
As a novice, Campbell emphasizes that, above all, art is therapeutic – not a perfectionist endeavour.
“I’ve always been very high anxiety, if I don’t know I can do it well, I’m probably not gonna try,” she said. “But between art and disc golf … I’ve learned the value of just doing it and not caring about the results.”
Getting ready
After moving their budding business into 329 Water St., in February, the co-owners acquired crafts and artwork for the retail section. More importantly, they turned the space into a cozy home away from home.
“The amount of work, I think other people probably wouldn’t have any idea, but we know how much work went into lipsticking this pig – that’s what we keep saying,” said Campbell.
Art Buds, at 329 Water St. in Summerside, features arts, crafts, and gifts from 20 local creatives. – Kristin Gardiner/SaltWire
Against the far wall, is a Poirier-designed mural. For a week, the women – and their families – worked on bringing to life the purple and orange flowers against a dark green backdrop.
“It was a giant colouring book on the wall, basically,” said Campbell. “My youngest – she’s 10 – fell in love with large-scale artwork. I think I could probably just supply her with pieces of plywood, and she’d go for it.”
Poirier added: “She’s got the bug and I love it.”
The other three walls are white, emphasizing the arts and crafts from 20 different creators.
“We like collecting the little group of misfits, that maybe their art doesn’t fit into every other place,” said Poirier. “It doesn’t have to all be beach scenes. We do have some beautiful P.E.I. scenery in here, but it’s not all like that. We want to really showcase Island artists, not just Island art.”
Julia Campbell, left, and Kiele Poirier love the art gallery at the front of Art Buds, but they also look forward to hosting events and workshops in the craft space behind. – Kristin Gardiner/SaltWire
Campbell added that Art Buds welcomes artists of all experiences – especially as she comes from a more science-focused background, rather than an artistic one. In the studio, Campbell said, there is no pressure for perfection.
“We want people to understand that art doesn’t have to meet some sort of standard, right?” she said. “Kiele’s children and my children come in here and they make art, and they’re kids. It looks different than something we might make. But it’s still art.”
Creation Space
It’s not just the art gallery that has the co-owners excited, but the workspace at the back of the building. Just a week after opening, they’ve already hosted successful workshops, with more on the horizon.
“We’re trying to build a community of artists who can also teach their craft,” said Poirier. “We have Keri from Lupin Isle Beauty Co. … she does small batch, hand-mixed cosmetics. She’s gonna be doing a mixing workshop. Things like that, where I don’t know that skill.”
When Kiele Poirier, left, and Julia Campbell met in an online business workshop, it didn’t take long for them to become friends. Shortly after that, the pair began brainstorming a business endeavour to undertake together. – Kristin Gardiner/SaltWire
Campbell adds that she is eager for people to book the space for events and parties for children and adults alike.
Above all, Campbell and Poirier hope to use the space to encourage creatives at any skill and experience level, helping them get comfortable with the craft.
“We’re hoping this is a welcoming and friendly place,” said Campbell. “Just a place where people can feel more at ease with art, and less intimidated.”
LONDON (AP) — With a few daubs of a paintbrush, the Brontë sisters have got their dots back.
More than eight decades after it was installed, a memorial to the three 19th-century sibling novelists in London’s Westminster Abbey was amended Thursday to restore the diaereses – the two dots over the e in their surname.
The dots — which indicate that the name is pronounced “brontay” rather than “bront” — were omitted when the stone tablet commemorating Charlotte, Emily and Anne was erected in the abbey’s Poets’ Corner in October 1939, just after the outbreak of World War II.
They were restored after Brontë historian Sharon Wright, editor of the Brontë Society Gazette, raised the issue with Dean of Westminster David Hoyle. The abbey asked its stonemason to tap in the dots and its conservator to paint them.
“There’s no paper record for anyone complaining about this or mentioning this, so I just wanted to put it right, really,” Wright said. “These three Yorkshire women deserve their place here, but they also deserve to have their name spelled correctly.”
It’s believed the writers’ Irish father Patrick changed the spelling of his surname from Brunty or Prunty when he went to university in England.
Raised on the wild Yorkshire moors, all three sisters died before they were 40, leaving enduring novels including Charlotte’s “Jane Eyre,” Emily’s “Wuthering Heights” and Anne’s “The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.”
Rebecca Yorke, director of the Brontë Society, welcomed the restoration.
“As the Brontës and their work are loved and respected all over the world, it’s entirely appropriate that their name is spelled correctly on their memorial,” she said.
