Gallery Room Bakery
The Gallery Room in the Bakery Farmhouse was the original exhibition room for Fine Art. In 2009, owners Doug and Karen Whitty with their business partners John and June Mann opened the now existing production and hospitality facility at 1776 Fourth Avenue in St Catharines. The historic farmhouse housed the original art gallery, today the Gallery Room will continue to exhibit guest artists and exhibitions will rotate regularly. View current and past exhibitions below.
The large harvest-style table in our Gallery Room is made from a single piece of tropical hardwood (not a rainforest tree) from the island of Java in Indonesia. It is called Koh Meh wood. It is also called the “village wood”. It is a very fast-growing, almost “weedy” tree similar to a Norway maple here. It is part of a sustainable economy over there as it grows easily on small farms or even in someone’s backyard (hence the name). The Indonesians can cut one of these trees and supplement their income for several years. It was cut by hand with a chainsaw.
It weighs about 1200 lbs and is about 18 ‘ long. It took 12 men to carry it into the gallery room. The grain is multi-coloured if you look closely. The supports were made by a fellow farmer down the road out of tubular steel. The supports are offset and even though they are simple, they have a contemporary edge to them. The table and supports relative to the glass curtain wall are designed to give the impression that the table “floats” over the potager garden and the valley beyond
