Ainslie's Q Gallery celebrates salon owner's commitment to creativity, community

Like many Canberra residents, I’ve grown to love my local shopping centre. It has everything I need on a day-to-day basis – great places for eating and drinking and a fantastic supermarket. And, most importantly, people I have come to know.

When you’ve lived in one suburb a long time, it’s impossible to run to the shops quickly. In Ainslie, meeting up with those you know is inevitable.

In turn, many shop owners have been operating in the suburb for decades and come to know their customers well.

Through this connection is a commitment to the community demonstrated time and time again, including that shown by Maddie Quigley, owner of Q Hair salon which she established in 2000.

Beyond her work at the salon, Maddie has a passion for art, particularly painting, which she has fostered over many years. This was reinvigorated in 2024 when Maddie and her two teenage children took a trip to the Northern Territory.

“I went into the Readback Gallery in Darwin and was absolutely blown away by the beauty of the indigenous paintings,” Maddie recalls. “I had never seen so many different styles and colours and felt like I wanted to bring these artists to Canberra to have a pop-up show.”

Her desire to showcase First Nations art remained. And one day in Ainslie, right next door to the IGA, she saw the space that was to become Q Gallery.

“I was overjoyed but I did not have the money to set up the gallery. So I borrowed $15,000 from my dad,” she says.

“I got in contact with a gallery in Darwin and Alice Springs, Mbantua Galleries, to see if they would wholesale works to me and I contacted the person who once owned ArtMark Gallery in Fyshwick and asked if she had any works she’d like to sell.

“Then I patched together an opening on September 13th last year and the show was almost a sellout. It was enough for me to pay the next two months’ rent and buy some more pieces. I did all this with Eryn Marshall who is the gallery manager and marketing manager.”

Maddie and Eryn have now developed the gallery into a community space in Ainslie.

The road to establish and continue the gallery has not been without its challenging times.

Maddie’s father, the Q Gallery’s only benefactor, passed away in February. Her father understood and fully supported Maddie’s vision to foster community, creativity, connection and culture. And his passing only inspires her to see it through.

“From that first show, it is now a diverse artistic hub that offers so many different things,” Maddie says. “We have afternoon art classes for adults to classes for teens, and kids’ school holiday classes, creative play on Tuesday and Thursday mornings with Charlotte for kids aged 18 months to five years. And the gallery can be hired out for class or activity or pop-up exhibitions.”

Maddie wants to support local artists, new and established.

The latest Q Gallery show features paintings by Sophie Ryan.

Originally from Bathurst, Sophie moved to Canberra in 2018 to study art at the Australian National University. Her landscapes colourfully depict scenes from the Bathurst and Canberra regions.

“When artists show their works here, they are paving the way for other artists to do the same,” Maddie says.

“When the community supports the artist by buying a painting, they are taking home something they love and they are helping keep the gallery going; and so the cycle can continue.”