Anne Whitelaw - Spaces and Places for Art: Making Art Institutions in Western Canada, 1912-1990

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

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!