About Us & Our Story

The Lowell Collective

We are an artist’s association, with a goal of bringing fine art, photography, writing, and digital media projects from our studios straight to you. The organization includes Fair Isle Publishing (our imprint) and Fog & Stone Creative, featuring the work of Amanda Falker. The Lowell Collective is the umbrella under which these pursuits are gathered.

The Lore

In 2019, founding members Heather Rae Ackerman and Amanda Falker traveled to Massachusetts for an artist’s retreat. They walked the Freedom Trail in Boston, explored the cobblestone streets of Salem, and traveled through literary history in Concord. As lifelong devotees of Louisa May Alcott’s “Little Women”, it was magical to visit the real Orchard House, and imagine themselves as modern members of the March sisters’ Pickwick Club. After navigating the wooded path from the Alcott home to Nathaniel Hawthorne’s house, they took a drive over to Walden Pond and looked out over the same body of water that Thoreau fell in love with in 1845. How amazing that all these writers and artists knew each other, and lived as neighbors! It was later, back in their rented Lowell apartment, that Heather and Amanda decided to form their own creative society. The seeds were planted in Lowell, and they have grown and flourished back home in Western New York.

The Ladies

Heather Rae Ackerman is a writer, poet, and artist from Buffalo, NY. Her creative passions also include embroidery, photography, assembly/collage art, and theater. View her work at Fair Isle Publishing.

Amanda Falker is an artist originating in the Finger Lakes Region of Western New York. She is a creative maker that is passionate about combining nature with her creative works in photography, sculpture, and mixed media canvases. View her work at Fog & Stone Creative.