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“Scaling the pinnacle of art”: learning vacations at the Banff School of Fine Arts, 1930s-1950s

“Scaling the pinnacle of art”: learning vacations at the Banff School of Fine Arts, 1930s-1950s. Karen Wall, Athabasca University PearlAnn Reichwein, University of Alberta. Introduction BSFA 1930s – 1950s.

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“Scaling the pinnacle of art”: learning vacations at the Banff School of Fine Arts, 1930s-1950s

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  1. “Scaling the pinnacle of art”: learning vacations at the Banff School of Fine Arts, 1930s-1950s Karen Wall, Athabasca University PearlAnn Reichwein, University of Alberta

  2. Introduction • BSFA 1930s – 1950s Summer arts courses : “holiday at school”As an educational / cultural institution, BSFA = tourism generatorAs a tourist attraction = holiday with cultural status public arts education helped to institutionalize landscape art……..tourism produced selected viewpoints on scenery.

  3. Were students and instructors in this hybrid setting primarily (a) (consuming)tourists or (b) (producing) artists, or both? How did pedagogical practices of seeing & painting the Park align w/approaches of tourism and public education? 2. Questions &approach

  4. Western landscape tradition & BNP as “administrative coding of space”(Shields) • “Tourist gaze”…. • b. …revised : mobile & multiple • Records of actual experiences & viewpoints: • trace selective processes • producing the site as commodity • for consumption and (re)production • [ Circuit of culture model ] du Gay, P., Hall, S., Janes, L., Mackay, H., & Negus, K. (1997), p. 3

  5. 3. Alberta 1920s-50s: public education, landscape painting and tourism • federal government & cultural agencies (NGC, NFB…) • b. Provincial government: education extension & tourism • 1946: AB Cultural Dev’t Act (Economic Affairs) • Popular taste : landscape painting • scenic routes • BSFA: arts & tourism: • visual and literal access JEH MacDonald, Lake O’Hara 1926

  6. 4. How they spent their summer holidays a. Instructors, institutions, markets, audiences Landscape production reflected influence of market values & adapted imported (British) techniques W. Phillips, Valley of the Ten Peaks, 1928

  7. “Location” as pedagogical & promotional resource….with conceptual & aesthetic challenges …..e.g.:Students should“scale the pinnacle of Art"away from naturalistic landscapes & objective “compulsions of the mountain environment.” b. Students: as artist/producers

  8. c. as tourists/ consumers Landscape & tourist iconography: packaging “beauty spots” Holiday attitudes in a challenging environment

  9. d. as tourist attractions / hybrids Subjects & objects of picturing Paradoxical artistic & touristic experiences

  10. 5. Conclusion • As the tourism industry expanded, BSFA was actively involved in producing images that entered into the circulation of fine and commercial art, advertising, educational resources and other institutionalized frameworks. • …we argue the importance of placing the BSFA in the macrostructural context of national institutions, economic and aesthetic movements BUT • important to consider the casual, satirical and idiosyncratic reflections provided by students as they both reiterated and challenged pedagogical discourses and practices… • …interactive processes of cultural production and consumption

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