 Collyer, along with other artists Anne Savage, Sarah Robertson, Mabel Lockerby, and Kathleen Morris, received virtually all their professional training at the Art Association of Montreal (AAM).Collyer studied for nine years at the AAM with Alberta Cleland, William Brymner, and Maurice Cullen.Brymner, who was a director for thirty-five years, had previously trained in Paris at the Académie Julian and organized the Montreal school on the Parisian model.