SPACES AND PLACES FOR ART
MCGILL-QUEENS/BEAVERBROOK CANADIAN FOUNDATION STUDIES IN ART HISTORY
Martha Langford and Sandra Paikowsky, series editors
Recognizing the need for a better understanding of Canadas artistic culture both at home and abroad, the Beaverbrook Canadian Foundation, through its generous support, makes possible the publication of innovative books that advance our understanding of Canadian art and Canadas visual and material culture. This series supports and stimulates such scholarship through the publication of original and rigorous peer-reviewed books that make significant contributions to the subject. We welcome submissions from Canadian and international scholars for book-length projects on historical and contemporary Canadian art and visual and material culture, including Native and Inuit art, architecture, photography, craft, design, and museum studies. Studies by Canadian scholars on non-Canadian themes will also be considered.
The Practice of Her Profession Florence Carlyle, Canadian Painter in the Age of Impressionism
Susan Butlin
Bringing Art to Life A Biography of Alan Jarvis
Andrew Horrall
Picturing the Land Narrating Territories in Canadian Landscape Art, 1500 to 1950
Marylin J. McKay
The Cultural Work of Photography in Canada
Edited by Carol Payne and Andrea Kunard
Newfoundland Modern Architecture in the Smallwood Years, 19491972
Robert Mellin
The Codex Canadensis and the Writings of Louis Nicolas The Natural History of the New World, Histoire Naturelle des Indes Occidentales
Edited and with an Introduction by Franois-Marc Gagnon, Translation by Nancy Senior, Modernization by Ral Ouellet
Museum Pieces Toward the Indigenization of Canadian Museums
Ruth B. Phillips
The Allied Arts Architecture and Craft in Postwar Canada
Sandra Alfoldy
Rethinking Professionalism Essays on Women and Art in Canada, 18501970
Edited by Kristina Huneault and Janice Anderson
The Official Picture The National Film Board of Canadas Still Photography Division and the Image of Canada, 19411971
Carol Payne
Paul-mile Borduas A Critical Biography
Franois-Marc Gagnon Translated by Peter Feldstein
On Architecture Melvin Charney: A Critical Anthology
Edited by Louis Martin
Making Toronto Modern Architecture and Design, 18951975
Christopher Armstrong
Negotiations in a Vacant Lot Studying the Visual in Canada
Edited by Lynda Jessup, Erin Morton, and Kirsty Robertson
Visibly Canadian Imaging Collective Identities in the Canadas, 18201910
Karen Stanworth
Breaking and Entering The Contemporary House Cut, Spliced, and Haunted
Edited by Bridget Elliott
Family Ties Living History in Canadian House Museums
Andrea Terry
Picturing Toronto Photography and the Making of a Modern City
Sarah Bassnett
Architecture on Ice A History of the Hockey Arena
Howard Shubert
For Folks Sake Art and Economy in Twentieth-Century Nova Scotia
Erin Morton
Spaces and Places for Art Making Art Institutions in Western Canada, 19121990
Anne Whitelaw
SPACESandPLACESforART
MAKING ART
INSTITUTIONS IN
WESTERN CANADA,
19121990
Anne Whitelaw
McGill-Queens University Press 2017
ISBN 978-0-7735-5031-5 (cloth)
ISBN 978-0-7735-5032-2 (paper)
ISBN 978-0-7735-5067-4 (ePDF)
ISBN 978-0-7735-5068-1 (ePUB)
Legal deposit first quarter 2017
Bibliothque nationale du Qubec
Printed in Canada on acid-free paper
This book has been published with the help of a grant from the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences, through the Awards to Scholarly Publications Program, using funds provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Funding has also been received from Concordia Universitys Faculty of Fine Arts and Aid to Research Related Events (ARRE) Program.
McGill-Queens University Press acknowledges the support of the Canada Council for the Arts for our publishing program. We also acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund for our publishing activities.
LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA CATALOGUING IN PUBLICATION
Whitelaw, Anne, 1966, author
Spaces and places for art : making art institutions in Western Canada, 19121990 / Anne Whitelaw.
(McGill-Queens/Beaverbrook Canadian Foundation studies in art history)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Issued in print and electronic formats.
ISBN 978-0-7735-5031-5 (cloth). ISBN 978-0-7735-5032-2 (paper). ISBN 978-0-7735-5067-4 (ePDF). ISBN 978-0-7735-5068-1 (ePUB)
1. Art museums Canada, Western History 20th century. 2. Art Collectors and collecting Canada, Western History 20th century. 3. Art and state Canada, Western History 20th century. 4. Canada, Western Cultural policy History 20th century. I. Title. II. Series: McGill-Queens/Beaverbrook Canadian Foundation studies in art history
N908.C3W55 2017 708.112 C2016-907358-0
C2016-907359-9
Set in 11/14 Sina Nova with Gotham
Book design & typesetting by Garet Markvoort, zijn digital
CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Writing this book has been a twelve-year journey of reading, thinking, archival research, and conversations. I would like to first recognize Catherine Crowston and Tony Luppino chief curator and executive director of the Edmonton Art Gallery who back in 2004 were extremely receptive to my idea of curating an exhibition that examined the gallerys collecting activities. They generously gave me full access to the gallerys archives and free reign over how to present that history in the exhibition Building a Collection: 80 Years at the Edmonton Art Gallery. This was the show that prompted the writing of this book and I am very grateful for their encouragement of this project. Catherine, now executive director of the Art Gallery of Alberta, continues to be a wonderful conversationalist on all things art and gallery related. Early stages of my research were supported by grants from the University of Alberta, and I would like to thank the Department of Art and Design and the Faculty of Arts for their support and encouragement. The final research and writing was undertaken at Concordia University and thanks go to my colleagues in the Department of Art History for creating such a warm and supportive environment in which to complete the manuscript, and to the Office of the Vice-President Research and Graduate Studies and the Faculty of Fine Arts for financial support.
Throughout this project I have received excellent help from numerous research assistants: I thank Andrea Perechitz, Karl Davis, and Taylor Leedhal for their diligent bibliographic searches, Gwynne Fulton for the sanity-saving image research, and Jessica Veevers for her detailed formatting and reference work. Friends across the country read chapters of the book at various stages of completion and coherence. Thank you for your insights, comments, and reality checks to Liz Czach, Brian Foss, Martha Langford, Sasha Mullally, Diana Nemiroff, Liza Piper, and Julie Rak. For reading the manuscript in various forms over many years and making this a much better book, Lianne McTavish earns my deepest gratitude and appreciation. Thanks FFG!
Next page