Purple Hills fosters arts, heritage for 40 years
This year marked the 40th anniversary of Purple Hills Arts and Heritage Society, the organization behind the Creemore Festival of the Arts, annual studio tour, Tea and History, the village’s historical plaques and Artists in the School, to name a few.
For four decades, volunteers with the society have been working to foster the arts and heritage in this community by creating opportunity for people to share local history, for artists to show their work and bring in an audience. The society, over the years, has supported the music program at the school and given bursaries and awards to students in elementary and high school, who excel in arts and history related subjects. It has also funded books about local history and was the organization behind Creemore Mocks.
Over four decades, many people have come and gone from the organization, funded through annual memberships, which pays for all of the projects.
Although under a different name, it is said the origins of Purple Hills Arts and Heritage Society begin with a 1977 art show at the school in honour of the Queen’s jubilee. The organization, founded by Olive Adams, held art shows, concerts, craft shows and film screenings in the following years.
Potter Paul Vorstermans, an early member and past president, said there was some strife on the board in the early years and a mini-revolt resulted in a changeover in board members but the society went on promoting arts and heritage. (Vorstermans also said, ironically, for a heritage society, there isn’t a thorough record of its history.)
“People just didn’t have the energy anymore to put on this annual art show on Thanksgiving weekend and do the house and garden tours to raise money, so that’s when it fizzled,” he said.
In the early 1990s the society wasn’t very active but then-treasurer Russ Thornton kept the charitable status active by filing annual statements to the government.
It was revitalized in the mid-1990s. People recognized that it was a very worthwhile thing to have arts related events in Creemore. That’s when the arts festival started again and the studio tour was added. The society had wide ranging programing, from Creemore Mocks and high profile concerts, with the like of guitarist Liona Boyd, to bird watching tours and helping to fund local history books.
Since then, the projects undertaken have grown in scope and profile. In recent years, thousands of dollars are distributed to mount arts festival shows that attract significant numbers of art lovers.
In 1985, the society embarked on a project to archive Creemore Star newspapers and paid to have them transferred to microfiche.
In the old Creemore Star newspaper office, back issues were piled from floor-to-ceiling and they were the only copies, so if something had happened to them, all records would have been lost.
“The microfiching of The Creemore Star is probably the most lasting thing Purple Hills did,” said Vorstermans. “If that building had gone up in flames or if someone had heard of recycling and got rid of all those papers… that is a lasting thing… that is advantageous to everybody in Creemore.”
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