Gayle Dempsey

Gayle Dempsey believes that arts and culture are very significant factors in quality of life and play a key role in defining who we are as individuals, communities and as a society. She is committed to reclaiming and promoting Muskoka’s rich culture and heritage both locally and globally with a view to facilitating international cultural exchanges.

Education and life-long learning have been important aspects of Gayle’s life. For three years, she was Trustee with the Muskoka Board of Education and has lent her management and administrative support and energy to many community groups through executive positions and as an enthusiastic volunteer. She currently facilitates very popular art classes in the local community cultural centre and in her new Muskoka Place Gallery which opened in June 2004.

She has served on provincial and federal arts, culture and heritage task forces and roundtables, and sits on the steering committee of the newly formed Muskoka Healthy Communities and the Arts Council of Muskoka . Gayle is Past President of the Port Carling Community Centre Board and headed up the building of a new community and performance centre. She is also a Founding Director of the new Bracebridge - Muskoka Lakes Rotary Club.

During the last few years, Gayle has returned to one of her early interests, visual and performing arts. She has taken numerous workshops and courses in painting, drum making, mask making, drawing, pottery, and set design and decoration. She is currently involved in several ‘arts in community’ projects and arts enrichment programs in local schools.

Professionally, Gayle has owned and operated a successful company providing organizational management and consulting for profit and not-for-profit organizations for the past twenty-five years. Currently her main client is the Muskoka Lakes Music Festival for whom she serves as CAO/Director of Festival Development and was one of the founders. Several years ago she and her partner Gary Froude founded Muskoka Cultural Impresarios, a company that not only brings first-class artists to Muskoka but is embarking on international cultural exchanges.

Gayle’s passion for arts, culture and community development is reflected in her work. In 2002 Gayle was nominated for the Community YWCA of Muskoka Women of Distinction Award in Arts and Culture and in 2004 in Entrepreneur and received the Township of Muskoka Lakes’Award for Dedication and Advancement in Arts and Culture.

Gayle is a fourth generation Muskokan and feels a deep connection to the spirit of the land, the lakes, the natural beauty and the peace that is Muskoka. She is focusing more energy these days on he Gallery and water colour and acrylic painting, and writing and is studying with and representing renowned painter Pat Fairhead. Examples of Gayle’s painting and writing can be found in a recently published work – “My Story Listens to Your Story: An Anthology of Women’s Leadership Images and Stories” through the Centre for Emerging Leadership in Minnesota. She continues to work on her own book, “Fruit of the Spirit”, while she is working on a new degree at Nipissing University’s Muskoka Campus in Studies in Culture and the Arts.

Exhibitions

Muskoka Place Gallery, 2 group exhibitions – 2007
Muskoka Lakes Spring Art Tour – 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007
Muskoka Place Gallery, solo exhibition - 2006
Chapel Gallery, Bracebridge, Muskoka Arts and Crafts Spring Show – 1995-2007
Chapel Gallery, Bracebridge, Muskoka Arts and Crafts Members Show – 1995-2007
Silver Bridge Gallery, Port Carling – 2003
Muskoka Place Gallery, Port Carling – 2004 Three Group Shows
WKP Kennedy Art Gallery, North Bay – 2005 Group Show
Muskoka Place Gallery, Port Carling – 2005 Juried Group Show
Catto Gallery, Muskoka Lakes Museum, Port Carling, three-artists’ exhibition - 2005
Muskoka Tourism Information Centre, Gravenhurst – 2005

Professional Development

2001 to present - studying with Pat Fairhead, M.A., M.Ed., R.C.A., C.S.P.W.C., O.S.A.
2007/8 – Muskoka Futures Innovators Program
2007/8 Cultural Careers Council of Ontario Pilot Project Peer Learning Circle
2007/8 Advanced Painting – Ed Novak
2006/7 Studies in Culture and the Arts – Nipissing University – Robert Hemming
2005/6 Drawing I and II – Nipissing University - Janet Stahle Fraser
2004/5 Women and Art History, Nipissing University – Professor Michelle Roycroft
1993/4 Painting with Dr. Paul Kelly, Professor of Fine Art, Nipissing University
1994/5 Matrix Studio course with Dr. Paul Kelly, Professor of Fine Art, Nipissing University
1993-present - A number of classes and workshops with Audrey Jolly, Ed Novak, Linda Blix, Joan Holben, Jon Oelrich,
1971/2 University of Waterloo Fine Arts

Juried Tours (by peers)

Muskoka Lakes Spring Arts Tour 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007
Big Art Thing summer arts tour 2005, 2006

Memberships

Muskoka Arts and Crafts
Arts Council of Muskoka
Visual Arts Ontario
Canadian Society of Painters in Water Colour – associate member
CARFAC

Published Articles, Stories, Books, Papers, Artwork

Art and Healing for MAC Newsletter 1998
Barriers to Democracy for Muskoka Magazine 1999
Muskoka Lakes Association Yearbook – painting 2000
The White Dress and 8 paintings in My Story Listens to Your Story – An Anthology of Women’s Images and Stories – Centre for Emerging Leadership – 2001
CD Cover (back cover) – Muskoka Lakes Music Festival – Festival Favourites – Vol. 1
Websites – Centre for Emerging Leadership, Muskoka Arts and Crafts, Muskoka Place Gallery
Township of Muskoka Lakes Ratepayers Association – 2004 Arrow – painting
Township of Muskoka Lakes Ratepayers Association – 2005 Arrow – painting
Hildegard of Bingen – unpublished paper with painting

Speaking Engagements/Interviews

Mobilizing Community around Arts and Culture – Direction Ontario Tourism conference, Ottawa
St. Thomas Anglican Church, Bracebridge – guest speaker, Divine Dinner series
Women’s Resource Centre, Bracebridge – guest speaker, Daphne’s Drop In – Hildegard of Bingen – an historical perspective in a contemporary context framed in the domains of leadership, art, and community
Gravenhurst Manor Women’s Group – Hildegard of Bingen
Women’s Art Association, Toronto - Hildegard of Bingen

Radio Interviews

December 2004 – Brain Brew Radio – PRI Public Radio International – Re: Anthology
August 2005 – Radio Body Talk – Health Network Radio – Arts and Healing
heard on several radio stations across the United States with live web broadcast worldwide on http://www.healthradionetwork.com.