Important Island artist and arts advocate dies in December

Hilda Woolnough passes

as published in The BUZZ, Jan 2008

Hilda Woolnough, a visual artist and strong supporter of the arts, died Tuesday, December 11.

For over 30 years on Prince Edward Island, Hilda Woolnough was an artist, teacher, advocate and champion of artists’ rights. She was the driving force behind The Phoenix Gallery, The Gallery-On-Demand, the Great George Street Gallery, The Arts Guild, the Printmakers Council and the Student Art Expo. She served on the boards of many professional provincial and federal arts organizations, and was a lifetime member of the PEI Council of the Arts. In recognition of her contributions to the arts in Prince Edward Island, the Council awarded her the Father Adrien Arsenault Senior Arts Award in 1999. She was elected to the Royal Canadian Academy in the same year.

Woolnough was born in Northampton, England in 1934; her mother, uncle, and brother were all artists. Woolnough attended the Chelsea School of Art in London, studying with Henry Moore, and graduated with an MFA. She immigrated to Canada in 1957 and soon after made her way to PEI. With her husband, UPEI professor, writer and publisher, Reshard Gool (1931-1989), they formed part of the nucleus for a vibrant arts community.

Woolnough had solo exhibitions across Canada, in Mexico and Jamaica, and was included in group exhibitions in Japan and Spain. Solo exhibitions of her work were mounted at the Confederation Centre Art Gallery in 1976 (which toured the Atlantic region), 1991, 2001, and 2005. Her work is in numerous public, and private collections, including the Musée des beaux arts, Montreal, Art Gallery of Ontario, Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, the New Brunswick Museum, Memorial University, St. John’s, and the Canada Council Art Bank.

The Confederation Centre Art Gallery will present a selection of Woolnough works from the gallery collection, in January and February 2008, and continue to develop a retrospective planned for Summer 2009.

To honour Hilda’s contribution to the arts on Prince Edward Island and her dedication to arts and youth the Prince Edward Island Council of the Arts has established the “Hilda Woolnough Memorial Scholarship” for Island students pursuing post-secondary education in visual arts, and who are in their first or second year of study.

The February issue of The Buzz will feature a special tribute to Hilda Woolnough.

Blog editors note: Hilda served as design instructor at Holland College School of Visual Arts in the crafts section of the school in the 1980's. Besides her career as an artist and arts advocate, she shared her great passion with her students, for the integration of strong design principles in handcraft design.