End of the line for Cre8ery Gallery and Studio

Exchange District

Winnipeg

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This article was published 26/03/2025 (504 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

On the morning of March 19, Jordan Miller got up, posted the announcement that Cre8ery Gallery and Studio will be closing in April, put her phone down, and walked away.

It wasn’t what she had been planning to do that day. In fact, she hadn’t planned to share the news at all until March 25, when her monthly newsletter would arrive in subscribers’ inboxes. But an earlier-than-expected ‘for lease’ sign on the building housing Cre8ery fried her plans.

So, Miller deleted the entire post she had planned, wrote a new one and signed off with the number ‘42’ — the number of days remaining before her lease to the gallery space expired.

“I’m sad,” she said by the phone next day. “If I had an endless amount of money, and if I had the sales that we needed, and if I had the energy that I had when I was 21 … I would still be doing it. I would be doing it until I was dead, because that’s how important the arts community is for me.”

Cre8ery’s closure is due to several factors, including Miller’s health and financial troubles dating back to 2020. Miller, who has been Cre8ery’s sole employee, curator and general manager for nearly two decades, said she realized years ago that she wouldn’t be able to renew her lease.

Cre8ery (located in 125 Adelaide St.) opened 18 years ago, when Miller first gained access to the space on the edge of the Exchange District. She spent her entire bank account tearing the interior down and building it back up again — including the clean, white walls for which the space is known.

“I’m gonna miss that big open space, the white walls, the grey floor, even the chunks of concrete on the ceiling … it (is) such a unique place in Winnipeg, and I built those walls,” she said. “I physically built those walls with drywall, screws, and my own plastering skills, and I transformed the grossest place I have ever walked into a nice white place where people love going to. They love walking through.”

Cre8ery’s final show will run March 30 to April 19. It’s titled Beyond the Green: Building Perspective & Layered Emotions, and will feature works Miller herself has created over the past few years — ever since she realized she would be closing.

Her artworks, created using a blend of alcohol-based media, were made as Miller processed what a series of changes in her life, and are abstract portrayals of nature, from water to dirt.

Some of the work is experimental, she added, as she used new ways of using the materials.

“I did inks on the one panel, and then I took the other panel … and I sort of created a print of the ink, but the ink didn’t set exactly the same,” she said. “So it’s almost like an ink blot, right? And I had fun fighting around with that because I had never tried it before. And so there’s one section of those in the show.”

There’s also white space, she added, something she’s not used to, as “colour is (her) thing!”

The show will run in tandem with one in Cre8ery’s auxiliary gallery, which will feature artists whose work has been featured in the gallery over the years.

“She’s done a lot for the artistic community,” said Jim Thomson, who held his first show at Cre8ery five years ago. He works with watercolour, and enjoys creating depictions of galaxies. His current chow aims to tell the story of space from an alien’s point of view.

“Having this space there — really, there isn’t a space like that, and I’m really going to miss that. Having an environment where just anyone can be a member … if you want to want to have a spot in the gallery, you got it, and quite easily. And there was a lot of effort on her (Miller’s) part to manage that in a way where people would be able to do it and be successful about it.”

“I was honoured that she (Miller) would want to include me in the last part of the show,” said Monica Hansen, who has been involved with Cre8ery for more than a decade. She specializes in oil paintings, most often depicting Manitoban nature and landscapes.

“I can’t even imagine it not being there, so it’ll take a little bit of an adjustment. But it’s been a good experience,” she said.

“All these people have become my friends,” Miller said. “And some of them have even become my family. I think of Monica … she’s like a mom to me, and was one of my very first shows that I had at the gallery.”

Following Cre8ery’s closure, Miller will continue to work as an art consultant for hire, as well as an artist — with several upcoming exhibitions in the works.

As a consultant, she operates as the middle ground between artist and client during art sales and commissions.

For more information on Miller, visit www.jordanlmiller.com or jordanlmillerartist on Instagram.

For more on cre8ery, including prices on the upcoming pieces and original, $10 cards which will be on sale during the show, visit www.cre8ery.com or its official pages on Facebook and Instagram.

Cre8ery will close permanently on April 20.