Beyond the Gallery Final exhibit at Cre8ery By: Eva Wasney Posted: 3:54 PM CDT Thursday, Mar. 27, 2025

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This article was published 27/03/2025 (236 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Jordan Miller is approaching the end of a very long countdown.

After signing her last five-year lease in 2018, the executive director and owner of Cre8ery Gallery and Studio set a 2,000-day counter on her phone.

Rent for the 8,800 square-foot Exchange District art centre had become untenable and another increase was looming on the horizon. The clock was ticking — literally.

“For Lease” signs went up at the corner of Adelaide Street and William Avenue last week and Miller was forced to finally break the news publicly: after 18 years in business the Cre8ery would be closing for good in April following one final show.

“This was not the way I wanted to do it,” she says of the announcement.

As is her nature, Miller, 45, had a detailed plan for when and how she wanted to reveal the gallery’s closure. But few things have gone to plan lately.

On top of the rent hike, the COVID-19 pandemic upended her business model. Receptions, public events and workshops were no longer possible. Artwork sales slowed to a trickle.

And despite her simmering financial anxiety, Miller chose not to raise her studio rates or membership fees during that time to avoid alienating the artistic community she worked hard to build.

Artists were the top priority when the Cre8ery opened in 2006. Miller, a painter who holds a fine arts degree and cultural management diploma, aimed to make Winnipeg’s gallery scene more accessible for a wider swath of art makers.

“I wanted to create a gallery where everybody would have an opportunity to show their art. A lot of artists get turned away from the other ones. They don’t even look at their portfolio,” she says.

The gallery is closing with a roster of 250 members and 17 artists with studio space in the building.

James Thomson is a former high school teacher who returned to watercolour painting in retirement. The chance to show his work as a Cre8ery member has given purpose and structure to his art practice over the last four years.

“There’s nothing quite as accessible for someone like me, who isn’t someone who’s doing it professionally,” Thomson says. “With Jordan’s help (my shows) have been quite successful. The whole experience has been really great.”

At the Cre8ery, there were no stipulations about status or sales history. To access wall space, all an artist had to do was pay for a $50 annual membership and a nominal gallery fee depending on the exhibition. There was also a 30 per cent sales commission to help cover the cost of rent and utilities.

Brian Longfield is a wildlife painter and former art gallery owner. In his experience, pay-to-play galleries with high rental fees and little promotion support can lead to artist exploitation. That wasn’t the case at the Cre8ery.

“One thing Jordan has managed to do is to not fall into that exploitative pitfall. She works really hard to help people sell their work and to bring people in to buy it,and that’s going to be missed,” says Longfield, who has shown and sold work as a member over the last five years.

“I’m really hoping something comes up that fills the niche the Cre8ery is in, but I think it’ll take a while and I have a feeling there’s basically going to be a hole in our visual art community for a while.”

 

Even though prices at the gallery are typically well below $1,000 for an original artwork, Miller says it’s never been easy to sell art in Winnipeg.

“People love art, but they don’t buy it,” she says, adding pop-up markets and direct sales, in which art is often available at a discount, has impacted what people are willing to pay.

“Those things are factors in my decision to close.”

Health is another factor. Miller underwent a hysterectomy in November and has been dealing with myriad medical issues in recent years. Her insulin pump beeps occasionally during our conversation.

Running a public-facing business as an immunocompromised person has become exceedingly difficult, especially as the sole staff member.

Last fall, Miller handed over the reins for the first time to a team of volunteers tasked with keeping the operation running during her surgery and recovery, although she was still keeping tabs on things from afar.

“In the hospital, I was texting them when I came out of my surgery. This is my baby. I don’t know what I’m going to do with my life without this place, but we carry on,” she says.

“I don’t know what I’m going to do with my life without this place, but we carry on.”–Jordan Miller

Miller has poured her mixed emotions about closing the Cre8ery into a solo exhibit, titled Beyond the Green: Perspectives and Layered Emotions. The show, which runs Friday until April 19, is the final exhibition in the space.

The collection is a rainbow of abstract landscapes large and small. Using a new technique of layering and scraping, the acrylic and alcohol ink paintings represent Miller’s excitement about an unknown future and embracing an identity beyond that of a gallery owner.

The pieces also include hidden imagery and colour palettes that speak to her underlying health challenges and feelings of loss that come with closing a chapter.

Miller says she’s been able to better process the transition while completing and hanging the show — the latter is her favourite part of the job.

“The accounting is the worst,” she quips.

Still, some things remain unresolved.

“I need to let go of how guilty I feel that I’m closing the only opportunity gallery in Winnipeg.”

A handful of members are also showing work during the second-floor gallery’s last month. Thomson’s nebulous, cosmic watercolours are located in a long hallway across from Longfield’s paintings of polar bears and trail-cam footage.

“It’s a big honour,” Longfield says of being included in the Cre8ery’s final farewell.

Last weekend, he and some of the other participating artists gathered to install their art and reminisce about their time in the Cre8ery community.

“It was kind of a sad day, but it was also a lot of fun. It’s neat when you get to be part of a big group of people showing their art like that. I don’t know when I’ll experience that again,” Longfield says.

“I have a lot of respect for Jordan,” Thomson says. “I wish her all the best and I know she’s going to be very busy creating her own artwork.”

Miller, unsurprisingly, has a plan for her post-gallery life. She’s going to focus on her artwork and already has several shows lined up this year and next.

She also intends to continue supporting fellow artists as a consultant, sharing everything she’s learned about the art business over the last 18 years. It’s a retirement from gallery ownership, not from her artistic career.

But first, she’s taking two weeks off to tend to herself.

“I plan on planting and expanding my garden and cleaning my house, and maybe I can catch up with people, build on some of the relationships I had because I didn’t have time to do that while I was running this place.”

eva.wasney@winnipegfreepress.com