About The Lyceum Gallery
The Lyceum Gallery is a contemporary Canadian art gallery located in a light-filled highstreet space at 969 Queen St W, across from Trinity Bellwoods Park. A reinterpretation of the traditional gallery concept, The Lyceum Gallery is a creative hub for an array of artistic disciplines and a nexus point for community collaboration. The gallery is co-located with The Orchard Lyceum, a grade 6-7-8 day school, where young people are mentored by working artists in various disciplines including photography, painting, music and drawing while also pursuing studies in the the classical arts: poetry, mathematics, geometry and physics.
The Lyceum Gallery Founders
In 2019, Holly Venable and Melody Incledon co-founded The Orchard Lyceum, an alternative art school, and The Lyceum Gallery, a commercial art gallery.
Marina Dempster Photography
Holly Venable
Co-Founder and Director
Holly completed degrees in English, Psychology and Social Work before switching tracks to work in an advertising agency. In 2000, she took over as Managing Director of Three in a Box Illustration. Implementation of an in-house design department that specialized in creating unique print promotions saw the agency expand to become the largest in Canada, representing over fifty artists from Canada and the UK to international clients in advertising, design and editorial markets.
Her daughter’s experience in Montessori proved transformative and in 2012, she co-founded The Orchard Montessori School with Melody Incledon. In 2015, Holly completed her teacher training and developed the elementary programme at The Orchard Montessori School.
Holly now acts as the Director of The Lyceum, where she curates the work in the gallery and leads the grade 6-7-8 alternative school programme in collaboration with visiting artists, mentors and teachers.
Photo by Andrew Long
Melody Incledon
Co-Founder
After completing her B.A. in Literature and Classical Studies, Melody began her career in Early Education in 1990. She has worked with children from infancy to school-aged in university and college lab schools, literacy groups and Montessori schools. In addition to teaching and guiding children, Melody was a college instructor in Early Education.
In 2004, Melody earned her Association Montessori Internationale Casa teaching certification from the Foundation for Montessori Education. This evolution in her career was the result of a growing frustration with traditional early education programs and philosophies and an increasing awareness of alternative educational theories and outcomes garnered through her extensive travels and research.
In 2012, she co-founded The Orchard Montessori School in an effort to create an environment that honours Montessori theory and embodies a true spirit of peace and respect for all children.