History
The store is located on the ground floor of historic MacAulay house, a limestone home built circa 1830.
Originally, Cornerstone was a craft co-operative. It showed mainly the work of its members who all lived and worked in the area surrounding Kingston, and shared the ideal of encouraging each other's imaginations, artistic integrity, and desire to provide a good retail space maintained by the co-operative's members. The co-operative saw many artists come and go, and eventually changing times and different priorities resulted in the co-operative disbanding.
In 1998 it became the partnership between one of its original members, the ceramic artist Margaret Hughes, and the last artist to join Cornerstone, the jeweller Ellen Fraser. Between them, Margaret and Ellen had a wealth of experience in the arts, and they shared a passion for choosing select work from further afield, while still maintaining the local presence of artisans from the surrounding counties. Cornerstone is now truly a Canadian showcase, as it now hosts the work of over 150 artisans from all regions of Canada, including a vibrant selection of art from Nunavut.
In 2004 Margaret Hughes retired from being a store owner, and is enjoying working in her ceramic studio as well as producing some wonderful pastels and paintings. She still exhibits work here at Cornerstone. Ellen maintains a lively jewellery studio practice, as well as meeting with customers and staff at Cornerstone.
The store is staffed by a great group of women with a variety of skills and knowledge, and continues the co-operative's original ideal of promoting individual artists in a congenial and interesting atmosphere.