Woodstock celebrates local artist’s new exhibition at art gallery

Danielle Hoovenaars at the Woodstock Art Gallery among the life works from Jaquie Poole that bring the community to life in creative ways. (Alex Hunt Photo)

Alex Hunt, Echo Contributor

Woodstock’s own Jaquie Poole is featured in a new retrospective at the Art Gallery, tracing her artistic journey from early works to today.

The display was brought to the community by Poole and curated by Danielle Hoovenaars from the Woodstock Art Gallery. Pulled from the gallery’s permanent collection, Present in the Moment is an exhibition that focuses on works that stretched across Poole’s entire life.

Living in Woodstock since 1957, Poole has had a long career as an artist, working in a variety of mediums such as painting, photography, drawing, collage, medium, and assemblage. She was born in Port Colborne to artist Betty McArthur who passed away in 1994.

"We have work by Betty McArthur and Jaquie Poole in our permanent collection and this exhibition is a part two to an exhibition that we mounted from 2024 to 2025 which was called Present in the Moment but that included work by McArthur,” said Hoovenaars. “That’s where the concept of this exhibition came from, an opportunity to present work by the mother and the daughter and draw these parallels in terms of their practice and their connecting message of trying to stay present in the moment.”

The exhibition will run until Jan. 24, and arts lovers will have a chance to meet Poole at reception on Oct. 25 helped by the gallery.

Hoovenaars said that Present in the Moment focuses on Poole’s practice as an overall retrospective of her career. Beginning from her early work as a child as well as showing off her current projects. Poole is heavily inspired by nature and encourages audiences to slow down and focus on what's in front of them. Hoovenaars explained the exhibition has been met with positive feedback from the public which has been on display since July 26.

“As a curator I worked directly with Jaquie and were able to collaborate in a really beautiful way and envision this exhibition together in a period of about a year. We included the works from our permanent collections and explored the collection, making sure we picked works from each different series throughout her career to show all the different works she's done over the course of many decades.”

Hoovenaars stated it was a significant curatorial challenge when assembling works that were created at different times of Poole’s career and bringing them together harmoniously.

“I hope that visitors will take that title of the exhibition as a message to heart while visiting. Jaquie has a beautiful ability to really pay attention to her surroundings, and she captures these small moments and details of our landscape in order to create these impactful artworks. I hope that the audience appreciates that and in turn appreciates all the beauty that we have here in Woodstock.”

Hoovenaars said the gallery places great importance on supporting local artists through exhibitions, scholarship programs, and one which showcases regional talent. Its mission is to serve as a creative resource for the community and preserve artistic heritage while fostering new art experiences. This exhibition reflects both of those goals.