From Curious Hands to Lasting Legacy

 

Tara Bryan Legacy Fund keeps the art of wonder alive in Newfoundland and Labrador

 

In 1992, Tara Bryan packed her life into a U-Haul – including tonnes of letterpress equipment – and drove from New York to St. John’s.

“She fell in love with this place,” remembers her sister Teresa. “And I think it made her really think about how she needed to change her life from teaching in a high school where she wasn’t really very happy to focusing on what really did make her happy.”

That decision to make St. John’s home would transform not just Tara’s life, but the province’s arts community. When she passed away in September 2020 at age 66, she left behind what many consider an irreplaceable loss: someone who was “a cornerstone of book arts in Newfoundland and Labrador,” as local artist Duncan Major puts it.

Now, through the Tara Bryan Legacy Fund, her teaching spirit and generous mentorship continue.

 

An Artist’s Early Gift

Tara’s artistic talent emerged early in Texas, where she was born. “Tara was drawing before she was five. That was just her thing,” Teresa recalls. “She’s drawing horses that look like horses and I’m drawing stick horses.”

But making the leap to full-time artist wasn’t easy. “There was a time when she decided she needed to be a full-time artist, and that was a hard decision because there’s no guaranteed pay cheque,” Teresa explains.

In Newfoundland and Labrador, Tara found her stride. She worked as director for a local gallery, connected with local artists, and established walking bird press – a printshop that became a training ground for emerging artists and a hub for collaboration.

 

Building Community Through Art

Tara’s impact went far beyond her own artwork. “She was really embedded in the community in terms of teaching,” Teresa notes. “She taught workshops. She had assistants that she taught printmaking to. She collaborated with many different local artists.”

Major was one of those assistants, starting when he was just thirteen. “I met Tara, and she was working on a book. I came in and took a look and was kind of blown away by all the gear that was in there, all this printing equipment,” he remembers. That summer job became a decade-long mentorship that shaped his own artistic practice.

What made Tara special as a teacher was her approach to creativity. “She would find pop-up cards and then dissect them and take them apart and figure out how they work,” Major recalls. “She’d try things just for the fun of it, and I took that away into my own practice, that play is really important.”

This philosophy showed up in everything she created, perhaps best exemplified by her piece Down the Rabbit Hole. The work starts as a simple package in a box, but when you follow its playful instructions – “LIFT ME” and “PULL ME” – it transforms into a tunnel book that drops open, revealing Lewis Carroll’s text spiralling through layers of hinged paper. It captures everything Tara was about: inventive, surprising, and masterfully crafted.

“She’d always sign my birthday cards with, ‘have fun,'” Major shares. “Book arts has kind of a lofty sort of ring to it, but her work was not pretentious at all. It was very much down to earth and engaging and fun.”

 

A Voice for Artists

Tara’s commitment extended to advocacy work with Visual Artists Newfoundland and Labrador (VANL). She served as the organization’s executive director and remained an active board member and advisor throughout her career.

“When big advocacy issues came up, she would be one of the first people I would call to get her take on things, some historical context, just advice,” says Dave Andrews, VANL’s current Executive Director. “She was always there to be helpful.”

Andrews admired her approach to the often difficult work of arts advocacy. “She was always so determined. She knew if you kept at it, you could make changes over time.”

Even in challenging situations, Tara maintained her perspective. “While she had that determination, she also had this real wry humour and sense of it all, which helped me put things into perspective,” Andrews recalls.

 

From Grief to Growth

When Tara died suddenly, those closest to her struggled with how to honour someone whose influence had been so profound. For Teresa and the family, the answer became clear.

“We all mourn in a different way,” Teresa reflects. “And for me and my family, I think it is doing this fund… It’s a way of honouring her and continuing her legacy, really.”

The Tara Bryan Legacy Fund partners with VANL to sponsor the annual Tara Bryan Endurance Award, renamed from VANL’s existing award to honour her memory. “The award is specifically for consistent dedication, commitment of an artist to professional practice and to sustained creative output and performance,” Andrews explains. “And obviously that exemplifies Tara quite well.”

 

Hands-On Learning

The fund also brings visiting artists to the province annually for workshops in bookbinding, letterpress printing, and other book arts techniques. Major helps lead these sessions, which consistently sell out, attracting participants from beginners to experienced artists.

“Education was always really important to her,” Major notes. “She was a great teacher, and she didn’t only mentor me, she mentored many others.”

In today’s digital world, the hands-on nature of book arts offers something particularly valuable. “As people try to find a way to create meaning in the modern world, it’s really rewarding just to work with tools and to come out with a finished product that you can hold,” Major explains. “The nice thing about book arts is that it can engage a lot of senses, both in the making and in the experiencing too.”

 

Looking Ahead

What would Tara think of having a fund in her name? “I think she would be gobsmacked,” Teresa says. “At the same time, she would probably say, ‘no, no, wait, wait. You need to do this over here.’ She was pretty headstrong.”

Teresa’s vision for the fund extends far beyond her own involvement. “To me, success is when the artist workshops continue after we’re all gone… that in 20 years or 30 years, that it has some chance to continue.”

For Andrews, the fund celebrates someone who truly succeeded against the odds. “She was totally dedicated and constantly working and very successful on multiple fronts, bookmaking, painting, all kinds of different ways,” he reflects. “And also, she made a go of it in a province that’s not easy to make a go of living as a professional artist… She really exemplifies that aspect of it, so that’s what we want to celebrate with the award.”

Through workshops that spark curiosity, an award that recognizes dedication, and partnerships that strengthen the arts community, the Tara Bryan Legacy Fund ensures that her most important lessons live on: that art should be accessible, collaborative, and above all, fun.

 

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Follow the TBLF on Facebook to find out about upcoming workshops and events. You can donate to the Tara Bryan Legacy Fund here. Learn more about how CFNL can be a partner in your generosity with the Giving Guide.