Finding Community
Elizabeth
Broere Jackson
artist in residence
artist
in
residence
November 4 – 29, 2025
Tuesday to Saturday, 11am – 4pm
Sponsored by The Old Hastings Mercantile & Gallery
Closing reception:
Saturday, November 29 from 2pm – 4pm
2025 Artist-in-Residence Program
In mid 2024, the AGB invited emerging artists of all disciplines to apply for a residency centered on the theme of Finding Community.
In a time of shifting connections, we were looking for creative works that explored the many ways communities are formed, nurtured, and reimagined. How do we connect in an increasingly fragmented world? What does it mean to belong, and how are communities formed across different spaces and identities? Whether through personal experiences, collective action, or cultural intersections, we encourage submissions that delve into the dynamics of belonging, solidarity, and shared identity.
During this self-directed residency, the chosen artists set up a studio workplace in the gallery, where visitors watched them working and discussing their art. Works created during the residency will be exhibited at the gallery in May 2026.
This residency was made possible through an Ontario Arts Council grant.
Artist statement
I really never have felt like a bonafide artist, just a girl with a passion to create with whatever I have on hand.
I have had the pleasure of winning art lessons over the years and taken high school-level art, but really, life has shaped me.
My father painted houses and when I was old enough he had me scraping those colors together. Sitting in that shed surrounded by pots of paint is how I learned what colors I could blend together.
But it was my mother who truly inspired me. She started painting beautiful pictures when she became a senior. I was amazed and became hooked on art. I aspire to be just like her: warm and loving and talented.
I have won many ribbons at the Buckhorn art shows and had the pleasure of painting many commissioned pieces of art, many of them house portraits.
My art is simple, as I wish my life to be. Colorful, for the universe has supplied us with so many hues, and, as realistic as I can paint it without my art looking like a photograph.
I suppose simplistic realism is what I would call my style, and try as I might, can do no other.
About the artist
Elizabeth (Betty) Jackson has seen a few communities. Born in the Netherlands, she and her husband moved from London, Ontario to North Kawartha after a wrong turn in the dark while honeymooning landed them in Glen Alda.
They later went to Newfoundland on a whim and fell in love with the island. They now divide their time between their two favourite communities.
