In his big city life, back a little more than 25 years ago, Chris Ahlers worked in a popular, quirky art supply shop on Spadina Avenue in Toronto. The place had character.
Ahlers had a couple of jobs to make ends meet while studying film, but the art shop job was special because of the colourful clutter of the place, and because the most interesting of interesting people came through the door.
Those seeking visual art supplies tend to be a thoughtful, reflective and creative lot, and not infrequently eccentric. It's pretty much the same kind of folks in Guelph.
Working at Gwartzman’s taught him the art supply business and rekindled his love of painting. He has been an artist, and an enabler of art as an art supply guy, ever since.
Over the last 25 years, Ahlers, his wife Tammy Ratcliff, along with Ahlers' business partner parents Otto and Margaret, have built one of the country’s leading independent art supply stores. Ask any artist and they will tell you how vital it is to have such a shop in their community. Guelph has a very good one.
Wyndham Art Supplies, owned and operated by Chris and Tammy, borrows from Ahlers’ early experience at Gwartzman’s, but takes it to an even more robust level. Wyndham Arts is a place any artist would be happy to get lost in for an hour or two. There is an anniversary sale on now, and other quarter century celebrations coming. And you can own the t-shirt.
Ahlers sat down on Monday to talk about the 125 Wyndham St. N shop, and the third floor studio space that serves as the Guelph School of Art, a component of the business that offers art instruction of all kinds for all ages.
In between the first (jammed with art supplies) and third (a studio jammed with art-making materials) floors, there is a second-floor picture framing component.
“The customers of an art supply store are tremendous – a very broad cross-section of humanity,” he said. “For the most part, when people come into an art supply store it’s for a good, creative reason.”
Those people, he said, are looking to solve interesting problems, problems of an intellectual, technical and/or spiritual nature – or all three wrapped together.
“It’s usually a happy sort of situation when they come in, one that’s full of potential and positive vibes,” he said. “It’s the nature of the business. We often hear people say that it’s like a candy store in here. The place is packed to the gills with all sorts of weird and wonderful stuff.”
Delving into Wyndham Arts inventory is a kind of artistic treasure hunt. There are layers upon layers of creative tools - a diversity of materials that hold an infinite array of possibilities for the creatively minded.
“One of my original visions was of an antique apothecary type of look,” he said. That vision has been realized.
Ahlers said being an enabler of art is a very good line of work to be in.
“If we’re able to provide materials, and provide hints and some direction in terms of the material properties and suitable combinations, it really does open the flood gates of people’s creativity,” he said. “There are a lot of ‘aha’ moments.”
The business’ art school component has been running for about 15 years, with Margaret Ahlers taking the lead on it in the early stages at the former location at 164 Wyndham. It has grown over the years. Some staff members, who are also artists, teach courses, and there are as many as 20 local artists also on the teaching roster, including Pearl Van Geest, David Caesar, Austin Gibson and Julianna Cox.
Eight week’s worth of Guelph School of Art summer camps are nearly sold out.
Otto Ahlers was the first to propose the idea of starting an art shop in Guelph. In 1992, his son Chris made a three-year commitment to the idea. Three years have become 25. The father and mother remain partners as co-owners of the building. Chris runs the business.
“Otto brought the business acumen, and I brought the art materials angle,” Chris said. “We worked closely, but our little theatres of expertise didn’t overlap a lot. We pretty much gave each other free reign in our respective areas.”
The father was able to temper the son’s “insatiable appetite for inventory.”
Most all Wyndham Art Supplies staff members have been and are artists, with an active creative life outside of work, in a great many artistic areas. The philosophy behind the human resource leaning is that artists are best able to help those in need of art supplies.
“Most of our customers pick up on that pretty quickly, that they are talking to somebody who knows and is interested,” Ahlers said.
The shop has a new and improved website. Check out anniversary deals, product lines, and learn more about Guelph School of Art online.
