Mary Ella Dignam, founder and first president of the Women's Art Association of Canada, was a pioneer in this country's arts and crafts movement. Although born in an era when a woman was expected to function solely as wife and mother, Dignam managed to live a life devoted to her family, children and her art. Her enormous capacity to focus on each of the many facets of her life enabled her to study abroad, to paint and exhibit internationally, to promote women artists, and to bring about the opportunity for them to exhibit their work alongside men.
She was a versatile artist who worked in pastels, water-colours and oils. Early on she painted in the Dutch style popular at the end of the 19th century, followed by a modernized form of Impressionism and exhibiting mainly floral studies, genre and landscapes.
Dignam was born January 30, 1860 in Port Burwell, Ontario and died September 6, 1938 in Toronto. As a young girl, her art studies began in London, Ontario, probably with artist William Lees Judson and then at the local Western School of Art and Design. In 1886 she left Toronto where she was teaching art in her studio, to continue her training at the Art Students League in New York City under H. Thompson, William Merritt Chase and Kenyon Cox followed later by a time studying in Paris at the ateliers of Luc Oliver Merson (1846 - 1920) and Raphael Colin (1850 - 1916).
Her work was shown in many annual exhibits of the Art Association of Montreal, the Royal Canadian Academy, and in European exhibitions. She was one of five Canadian women artists who exhibited at the world's 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago.
In 1897 in Toronto she spearheaded the production of "The Cabot Commemorative State Dinner Service for Canada"; 192 pieces of china dinnerware, each hand-painted with Canadian scenes by Canadian women artists, created to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the discovery of Canada by John Cabot. The service was eventually presented to Lady Aberdeen, wife of the seventh Governor General. To this day the Governor General is the official patron of the WAAC.
Dignam was hired by Moulton College (now McMaster University) in Toronto to establish their first art department. She also helped establish the International Society of Women Painters and Sculptors with branches in London, Paris, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Melbourne, Australia.
In 1900, she helped organize the first all-women, international art exhibition calling on Women's Art Association members & Women's International Art Club members for 235 works which were displayed at the Grafton Gallery in London, England. In 1897-98 she organized WAAC shows at Toronto's prestigious Roberts Gallery, 79 King St. E., at a time when the WAAC lacked appropriate space for a public exhibition.
She maintained close friendships with The Group of Seven, who included 15 WAAC artists in their 1923-30 shows. Despite having more than 40 paintings accepted in Canadian juried shows, Mary Ella Dignam was constantly refused membership in the Royal Canadian Academy & the Ontario Society of Artists. However, she is well remembered with respect and esteem by historians and connoisseurs.