The Toronto Heliconian Club is a non-profit association of women involved in the arts and letters based in Toronto, Ontario. It operates out of Heliconian Hall, a historic building located in the Yorkville area of central Toronto. Founded in 1909, the Club still focuses on its original commitment to women supporting and working in the arts.
Today, the club has six sections – Drama, Dance, Humanities, Literature, Music and Visual Arts – open to all professional women working in or supporting the arts. The Club runs a Literary Lecture Series (founded in 1996) and a Concert Series, as well as a Salon Series that features speakers from across the arts spectrum. These are open to the public, with the exception of the Literary Lecture Series, which is by subscription only.
A key initiative of the Club over the last decade has been to establish artistic residencies for young female artists setting out on a professional career in Music, Literature, Visual Arts, Drama and Dance. The club offers the musician, dancer and dramatist rehearsal space at the club, and an evening in which they can perform their artistic projects at the club before a paying audience. The Visual Artist is given a solo show of her works at the end of the residency in June of each year and is able to attend the Life Drawing Sessions at the Monday Sketch Club free of charge. The Writer in residence is given a subscription to the Literary Lecture Series and the opportunity during her residency to share her current writing project with members of the club.
History
Mary Hewitt Smart (later Shenstone), a teacher of singing at the Toronto Conservatory of Music, had helped establish the Women's Musical Club of Toronto in 1899, and during the early 1900s, she was contemplating a more ambitious project. She wanted to bring together women living and working in all the arts – not just music – for social interaction and intellectual stimulation. To that end, she and 59 fellow artists attended a formal meeting at the Teapot Inn on Wednesday, January 20, 1909. On that day, the Heliconian Club was born with Mary Smart as its first president. It was named for Mount Helicon, the mythical abode of the Muses.[1]
This 1934 painting of Club founder Mary Hewitt Smart (later Shenstone) by fellow member Dorothy Stevens is on display in Heliconian Hall.
Another impetus for creating the Heliconian Club was the fact that women were excluded from the Arts and Letters Club of Toronto, which had been founded in 1908.[4] Membership was by invitation only, and candidates were required to have distinguished themselves in their particular field.
The early Heliconians resembled nomads, giving performances, holding meetings and hosting receptions for visiting artists in several different locations before settling in a permanent home. In 1914, members met in a suite of rooms over a bank at the corner of Yonge and Grosevenor streets. Better accommodation was found at 617 Yonge Street; later the Club moved again to a large room over a closed movie house at 801 Yonge St. At the club's annual meeting of 1923, the acquisition of permanent headquarters was discussed and members were asked to keep an eye open for a suitable building. Shortly afterward, artist Emily Louise Elliot spotted a "For Sale" sign on an apparently empty church on Hazelton Ave. It was the former Olivet Baptist Church, then owned by the Painters' Union, whose asking price was $8,000. In July, 1923, the club acquired the building with a down payment of $2,000 and the prospect of a $5,000 bill for renovations and structural repairs. Diligent fundraising enabled the work to be done. The mortgage was discharged in 1931.[5]
In its earliest iteration, the Club hosted receptions for artists visiting Toronto, as well as mounted theatricals, skits, concerts, art exhibits, arranged art lessons and held a variety of social events such as luncheons and dinners.[6] One of its specialties was extravagant tableaux vivants involving the talents of all of the members, including musicians, artists, actors and writers.[7]
Heliconian Hall
Heliconian Hall
The club's building, known as Heliconian Hall, is located at 35 Hazelton Avenue in the Yorkville area of Toronto. It is situated on the east side of Hazelton Avenue, north of Scollard Street. The area is home to many art galleries and boutiques, as well as picturesque Victorian and Edwardian houses.
The building was constructed in 1876, and its architecture is Carpenter Gothic. It has a board-and-batten exterior, and a unique carved rose window with drip moulding on the west façade. It is one of very few board-and-batten buildings still in use in Ontario. The building is protected under Part IV of the Ontario Heritage Act, designated by the City of Toronto since 1973.[8]
In 1983, the Toronto Historical Board recognized it with an appropriate plaque as "the oldest building" in the Yorkville area. In 1990, the Heliconian Hall Foundation was founded as a vehicle to acquire funds for the preservation and restoration of what is often called the gem of Yorkville.[9] Heliconian Hall was designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 2008, due to its distinctive architecture and its association with the Heliconian Club.[10]
Other noteworthy architectural features include the square, flat-roofed tower, asymmetrically located on the building's southern elevation, two symmetrical steeply gabled entrance porches, and an arcade of narrow-pointed arched windows. The main hall has a vaulted ceiling, a low stage and a fireplace.[10] Due to its excellent acoustics, the venue is in high demand for concerts and other performances. In addition, there is a small meeting room beside the hall, with a bar and a kitchen. The hall may be rented for events and performances.
Current activities
While the Heliconian Club remains true to its objective as a forum for interaction among women in the arts, it has also evolved. Club events attract participants from across the city – the Monday Sketch Group, founded by artist and teacher Erma Lennox Sutcliffe in the early 1970s, is vigorous. The Literary Lecture Series, founded by Janet L'Heureux and Jocelyn Paul in the mid-1990s, is consistently sold out.[5] Since it was initiated, more than 170 exceptional Canadian authors have been featured. An annual concert series of varied programmes featuring the Clubs' high-caliber performers is another well-ensconced tradition. Each month, member artists present art exhibitions in the hall for public viewing; exhibitions include drawings, paintings, mixed media, found objects, textile art, photography and occasionally sculpture.
Notable members
A handsome, historic building alone does not enable a club to survive for 100 years. The strength, vitality and longevity of the Heliconian Club comes from its many dedicated and distinguished members whose reputation and accomplishments are not limited to Toronto but recognized across Canada. Many early Heliconians were trailblazers in their areas of expertise.
Seven Heliconians have received the country's highest honour, the Order of Canada:
1. Dora Mavor Moore (1888–1979), actor and director who was instrumental in establishing Canadian professional theatre and has an annual award named in her honour[11]
Lorna McLean Sheard (1901–1983) – actor and theatrical director who created an Experimental Theatre Group at Hart House Theatre in the early 20th century[32]
Mona Coxwell (1892-?) – writer, dramatist; published theatre periodical called “The Curtain Call” from 1929 to 1941; member of the Canadian Women’s Press Club[34]
Margaret Keslering Weiers (1928 – 2018) – diplomat, author; worked at the Toronto Star from 1963 until 1991 as a reporter, feature writer and member of the editorial board[52]
Prudence Heward was a Canadian figure painter, known for using acidic colour, a sculptural treatment, and giving an intense brooding quality to her subjects. She was a charter member of the Canadian Group of Painters, the Contemporary Arts Society and the Federation of Canadian Artists. Although she did not show her work with the Beaver Hall Group, she was allied with many of its artists in her aesthetic aims and through friendships.
Anne (Annie) Douglas Savage was a Canadian painter and art teacher known for her lyrical, rhythmic landscapes. She was a founding member of the Canadian Group of Painters.
Frances Bannerman was a Canadian painter and poet. She painted in oil and watercolour and made black and white illustrations.
Yvonne McKague Housser, (1897–1996) was a Modernist Canadian painter, and a teacher.
Henrietta Mabel May was a Canadian artist in the early 20th century. She helped organize two significant groups of Canadian artists and extended collegiality to women within those groups.
Kathleen "Kay" Moir Morris was a Canadian painter and member of the Beaver Hall Group.
Estelle Muriel Kerr (1879-1971) was a Canadian painter, illustrator and writer.
Mabel Cawthra Adamson (1871–1943) was a Canadian painter and decorator, who was active in the Arts and Crafts movement in Toronto.
Elizabeth Annie McGillivray Knowles was a Canadian landscape painter, known for her paintings of domestic animals, especially fowl.
Marion Florence Nicoll was a Canadian painter. She is known as one of the first abstract painters in Alberta. In 1933 she became the first woman instructor at the Provincial Institute of Technology and Art. In 1977 Nicoll became the first woman artist in the Prairies to become a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts.
Sydney Strickland Tully was a Canadian painter. She is known for her pastel and oil portraits, landscapes and genre pictures, and for her success in a number of exhibitions. Tully kept a studio in Toronto from 1888 until her death. Her major works include The Twilight of Life (1894), an oil painting in the collection of the Art Gallery of Ontario.
Helen Frances Gregor was a Czechoslovakian-Canadian artist who specialised in textile art.
Patricia Watson was an award-winning Canadian filmmaker. She wrote, directed and produced numerous films and documentaries such as The Invention of the Adolescence (1967) and The Legacy of Mary McEwan (1987) which were her most well known and significant films.
Lillian Freiman was a Canadian painter who studied in Montreal and France before settling in New York City. Influenced by Edgar Degas and Toulouse-Lautrec, she was known for her subtle interpretations of every day people.
Simone Marie Yvette Hudon-Beaulac was a Canadian painter and printmaker.
Marjorie Pigott was a Japanese Canadian artist, who adapted Japanese watercolour techniques to paint Canadian scenes.
Ulayu Pingwartok was a Canadian Inuk artist known for drawings of domestic scenes and nature.
Caroline Farncomb was a Canadian painter. She lived in London, Ontario where she was secretary of the Women's Art Association and donated work to start an art gallery, today the Museum London.
Grace Wilson Melvin was a Scottish-Canadian artist, teacher, and academic professional who was born in Glasgow. According to most sources, Melvin's date of birth was May 28, 1892; however, some sources state the year as 1896. The Scotland's People website confirms 1892 is the date. Melvin has been noted as one of two women who were responsible for bringing modern calligraphy designs to Canada. She won the Lauder Prize in 1927.
Mary Alice Peck, was a craftwork artist known for her work in founding the Canadian Handicrafts Guild of Montreal.
↑ Walbohm, p. 19 – 20 P. 19-20. Footnotes 50 and 51 (p.295). Minutes from May 20, 1909 Heliconian Archives bulletins F1182, Series C. Box MU 8096, file 6, Archives of Ontario and The Toronto Star “The Heliconia Dinner” January 21, 1909.
↑ Walboum, P. 147. Jessie Alexander Roberts described as “a founding member and Club President and one of its most active and exuberant members throughout her long affiliation, JAR helped catapult the Club into its most productive and culturally significant years.”
↑ Panofsky, Ruth (2006). "Head of the publishing side of the business: Ellen Elliott of the Macmillan Company of Canada.” Papers of The Bibliographical Society of Canada, 44(2). file:///C:/Users/Owner/Downloads/18477-Article%20Text-43012-1-10-20120826%20(1).pdf)
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