The Pelham Art Festival is proud to be celebrating its 36th anniversary in 2023, its growth over the past decades due to the tireless efforts of a legion of artists and volunteers. In particular, one woman, who arrived in Pelham 37 years ago from Richmond Hill with her family, has had a significant impact on the Festival’s success.
Heidi TeBrake has been associated with the Festival for 33 years, and has been its chair since 2008.
“The Festival has significantly grown in scope, despite our setbacks during Covid times,” TeBrake said. “We’ll be in full swing this year.”
The 2020 in-person Pelham Art Festival was cancelled due to the pandemic, and went online-only in 2021. In 2022, it went hybrid, with an in-person show (with social distancing) as well as an online presence.
An artist herself, having picked up the hobby when her daughters were children, TeBrake has twice had a booth at the Festival to display her own watercolours.
“I really don’t have time to paint anymore,” she said with a hint of regret, “and over the years I’ve given most of my art away.”
Retired from Family and Children’s Services since 2016, TeBrake is kept busy with all of the logistics and organizational minutiae steering the Festival involves. She is also looking for a co-chair to assist with the workload, and eventually take over the role solo.
“The Festival overlaps with a lot of other committees, so I network with a lot of people,” said TeBrake.
“A connection with CAA [Canadian Automobile Association] has given us a new group of visitors this year, a bus tour group from Toronto arriving at the Festival on the Saturday morning, then taking in the tulip field on Hwy 20 at Balfour Street, which is a big seasonal attraction.”
She is quick to point out that the Pelham Art Festival is not a craft show.
“All artists apply for admission to the festival, and their portfolio is vetted by a jury of professional artists,” she said. “We currently have a wait list of artists who have all been successfully juried, and may be included in this year’s festival, if we get cancellations.”
TeBrake has been involved with other volunteer activities in Pelham over the years, including church committee work, and helping with the integration of Syrian refugees back in 2016.
She and her husband have sold their Stella Street home, and are downsizing to another Pelham location. “But we’re staying in the area,” said TeBrake. “We really enjoy the community atmosphere in Pelham.”
The genesis of the Pelham Art Festival dates back to 1985, when a group known as the Friends of the Fonthill Library envisioned a backyard art show and sale to raise funds in support of the library. In June of 1986, the dream became a reality, thanks to artists from the Niagara area. The success of the initial backyard art show prompted a larger art show in the old Pelham Arena on Haist Street in 1987, to help raise funds for the proposed new library, which had been approved by Town Council. In 1988, the festival was moved to the Mother’s Day weekend, and the word quickly spread throughout the province’s creative communities that Pelham was hosting one of the top juried arts festivals in Ontario. The festival moved to the Accipiter Arena in the Meridian Community Centre in 2019.
To date, the Festival has contributed some $472,000 to enhance the services provided by the two library branches in Pelham, along with art scholarships for students at E.L. Crossley, Notre Dame, and Niagara College.
The in-person 36th Annual Pelham Art Festival is scheduled for Mother’s Day weekend, May 12-14, with concurrent plans being made for the Pelham Art Festival Online from May 8-18. The Festival website is available at www.pelhamartfestival.com.
TeBrake noted that volunteers are still needed for the Festival, both for set-up and take-down at the beginning and end of the event, as well as for three-and-a-half-hour shifts during the Festival. If you love art and have time to spare, contact Volunteer Coordinator Veronica MacDonald at [email protected].
