Guelph lost one of its most celebrated artists and champions with the recent passing of silversmith Lois Betteridge at the the age of 91.
Lois died Feb. 21 surrounded by family, said daughter Lise in a phone interview on Tuesday.
“I believe she felt we were all around and she could finally let go,” said Lise.
Lois was a celebrated and prolific metalsmith, a craft that she practiced for more than 67 years. Her work can be found in collections and galleries around the world, including the Canadian Museum of History, the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Royal Scottish Museum.
Over the course of almost seven decades, Lois received recognition and awards too numerous to list in her obituary, said Lise.
In 1997 Lois was named to the Order of Canada, received a lifetime achievement award from the Society of North American Goldsmiths in 2010 and Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2002 and 2012.
In 2002 she was named one of Guelph’s Women of Distinction. She was elected to the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts in 1978 and received the Saidye Bronfman Award for Excellence in Crafts.
Lise said the family’s loss is difficult to put into words.
“She would grasp her grandchildren's’ hands under the table, squeezing them and being so interested in what they were doing and their next adventure,” said Lise. “She made me feel like the most cherished daughter ever and my biggest supporter through thick and thin.”
“She’s someone who was supportive and believed in people — and that was a lot of people,” added Lise.
Lise said her father Keith was her mother’s biggest fan.
“They were a pretty dashing couple,” she said. “In addition to husband and wife, he was also such a huge supporter of her work.”
For her 90th birthday, Keith hired a car to pick them up — a classic MGA sports car like the one she used to drive in her younger days.
“It was such an incredible example of love,” said Lise of her father’s gesture. “My mom was beyond thrilled.”
Even at 90 years of age, her mother was up for anything.
“She had such a sense of adventure and even though she had all of these mobility issues for years, nothing stopped her,” said Lise.
Lois was a supporter of many local issues, said Lise. Most recently she was involved in the campaign to build an elevator at The Bookshelf theatre on Quebec Street.
If there was a movie playing at the theatre, she would climb the stairs, mobility issues be damned.
“Even with oxygen and everything else, even if it took her an hour to get up the stairs,” said Lise.
Dawn Owen is currently the curator of the Guelph Civic Museum, but knows Lois best from her time working in a similar role at the Art Gallery of Guelph.
Owen said Lois’s physical works will live on forever, but her greatest contribution to the craft was her belief in mentoring up-and-coming artists..
“That’s what will be the longevity piece in terms of her own legacy, is her insistence that her knowledge be shared and extended and that people who received that knowledge would also share and extend it to the next generation,” said Owen.
Lise agrees.
“My mother was — right to the very end — an incredible teacher and supporter and mentor,” she said. “I think she saw that as being as important as her own work and her own contributions and creativity. It’s just an extension of her.”
Twenty years ago, Owen worked with Lois to curate an exhibit of the silversmith’s work, along with the work of seven other artists she had influenced.
“In 2000 there was a big exhibition which really celebrated all of that story — Lois’s own accomplishments in her craft but also how she reached people and extended her knowledge to young metalsmiths and how over generations those same metalsmiths also became mentors to other artists,” said Owen.
Lois was described by Owen as being fierce and loving.
“The reason I use the word fierce is because she was insistent that there be space created in galleries and in contemporary art for metalsmithing,” said Owen.
“Today we might find that to be an obvious statement, but that wasn’t always the case. There has often been a fascinating debate between contemporary art, fine art and craft. Lois was one of the leaders in bridging that dialogue and insisting the work of metal artists be considered in the same context as all of the other contemporary fine arts.”
Longtime friend Nancy Coates said Lois was an extraordinary woman and strong in many ways.
Coates cited as an example the red scooter Lois used in her later years because of mobility issues.
“Here she was in her late 80s, she would swim at the university and she lived close to downtown,” said Coates. “She would be going down the hill between the university and downtown on this scooter, which was sort of an example of her indomitable spirit.”
Coates knew of Lois’s work prior to meeting her and eventually the two formed a friendship.
“I just admired her work from a distance, initially,” said Coates. “Her work was unique and beautiful in the extreme.”
Owen said Lois has left behind an incredible legacy.
“The work is timeless, while pushing all of the boundaries of convention and what was possible in the materials she was working with. She was an absolute technician and understood the craft in a very finite way and she imparted that knowledge liberally and consistently to so many generations of artists who came after her,” said Owen. “That’s the way she made her work and that’s the way she mentored artists who followed in her footsteps.”
Lois left her body to medical research and education. There will be no funeral, but a celebration of life will be held in the spring.
In lieu of flowers, contributions to Hospice Wellington or Craft Ontario honouring Lois would be appreciated.
