Culture Crates - Artist Incubation

Culture Crates

Interpretive Guide & Hands-on Activities

The Alberta Foundation for the Arts Travelling Exhibition Program 2011-2013

Architecture, of all the arts, is the one which acts the most slowly, but the most surely, on the soul.Ernest Dimmet

youraga.ca

The Alberta Foundation for the Arts Travelling Exhibition Program

The Interpretive GuideThe Art Gallery of Alberta is pleased to present your community with a selection from its Travelling Exhibition Program. This is one of several exhibitions distributed by the Art Gallery of Alberta as part of the Alberta Foundation for the Arts Travelling Exhibition Program. This Interpretive Guide has been specifically designed to complement the exhibition you are now hosting. The suggested topics for discussion and accompanying activities can act as a guide to increase your viewers’ enjoyment and to assist you in developing programs to complement the exhibition. Questions and activities have been included at both elementary and advanced levels for younger and older visitors.

At the Elementary School Level the Alberta Art Curriculum includes four components to provide students with a variety of experiences. These are:Reflection: Responses to visual forms in nature, designed objects and artworksDepiction: Development of imagery based on notions of realismComposition: Organization of images and their qualities in the creation of visual artExpression: Use of art materials as a vehicle for expressing statements

The Secondary Level focuses on three major components of visual learning. These are:Drawings: Examining the ways we record visual information and discoveriesEncounters: Meeting and responding to visual imageryComposition: Analyzing the ways images are put together to create meaning

The activities in the Interpretive Guide address one or more of the above components and are generally suited for adaptation to a range of grade levels. As well, this guide contains coloured images of the artworks in the exhibition which can be used for review and discussion at any time. Please be aware that copyright restrictions apply to unauthorized use or reproduction of artists’ images.

The Travelling Exhibition Program, funded by the Alberta Foundation for the Arts, is designed to bring you closer to Alberta’s artists and collections. We welcome your comments and suggestions and invite you to contact:

Shane Golby, Manager/CuratorTravelling Exhibition Program

Ph: 780.428.3830; Fax: 780.421.0479Email: [email protected]

AFA Travelling Exhibition Program, Edmonton, AB Ph: 780.428.3830 Fax: 780.421.0479 youraga.ca

Art Institutions in AlbertaVisual Learning and Art ProjectsWhat is Visual Learning?Elements of Composition/Reading Pictures ToursExhibition Related Art ProjectsGlossary & CreditsThe AFA and AGA

This package contains:Curatorial StatementVisual Inventory - list of worksVisual Inventory - images Artist/Architect BiographiesTalking ArtCurriculum Connections/Art Across the CurriculumMuseum and Art History, Architecture & Art Styles


Curatorial Statement

CULTURE CRATESMuseums, with their malleable programs, have enabled architects to interpret contemporary reality, to create emblems of who we are, and to redefine the meaning of the physical places we inhabit.Architectural Record, January, 2006

Culture: 1. civilization, customs, life style, mores, society, state of development, the arts, way of lifeCrate: noun - box, case, container

Architecture is the art and science of designing and constructing buildings and other physical structures for human use. Evolving out of the dynamics between needs for shelter, security, worship and other human functions, the practice of architecture gradually became recognized as one of the arts, housing aspects of human culture and, in some cases, directing the cultural expressions of a society. The analysis of building types provides insights into past cultures and eras and behind each of the greater architectural styles lies periods of experimentation directed toward answering the needs of a specific way of life.

Over the past two decades much of new ‘public’ architecture in Alberta has been directed towards the construction and/or renovation of cultural facilities, such as art galleries.While we often think and talk about artwork, however, we do not usually stop to consider the ‘containers’ art is presented in.The actual physical structure of Art Galleries - or the buildings which have been used to display art - are works of art themselves, however, and can tell as much of a story as the artworks found within them. Sometimes this ‘story’ is fraught with controversy with debates about everything from the financial costs of such constructions to the design of the buildings and the actual need for such facilities. In celebration of the first anniversary of the new Art Gallery of Alberta,

This exhibition was curated by Shane Golby and organized by the Art Gallery of Alberta for the Alberta Foundation for the Arts Travelling Exhibition Program. The AFA Travelling Exhibition Program is financially supported by the Alberta Foundation for the Arts.

the exhibition Culture Crates takes a peak ‘behind the scenes’, examining the architecture of art galleries in order to determine both the reasons for their development and the stories these ‘culture crates’ can tell.

The cities of Medicine Hat, Grande Prairie and Edmonton have all witnessed the construction of new or renovated art institutions. Utilizing archival photographs from the City of Edmonton Archives, the Art Gallery of Alberta, the Esplanade Arts and Heritage Centre in Medicine Hat, and the Prairie Art Gallery in Grande Prairie, as well as artworks from the collection of the Alberta Foundation for the Arts, this exhibition explores the architecture of art institutions in these cities. In the process it investigates the relationship between architectural styles and the visual arts to examine the overall purpose of such facilities.

AFA Travelling Exhibition Program, Edmonton, AB. Ph: 780.428.3830 Fax: 780.421.0479 youraga.ca

Exhibition Crates AGA TREX File Photograph



List of ImagesEdmonton Public Library16 3/4 inches X 23 3/4 inchesImage Courtesy of the City of Edmonton ArchivesEA-160-1461

View from the River Valley (Hotel McDonald)12 inches X 18 inchesImage Courtesy of the City of Edmonton ArchivesEA-160-1326

Secord House11 3/8 inches X 17 7/8 inches Image Courtesy of the City of Edmonton ArchivesET-17-81

Edmonton Art GalleryBittorf Building, 1967-196824 3/4 inches X 9 3/4 inchesArt Gallery of Alberta File PhotographsCollection of the Art Gallery of Alberta

Art Gallery of Alberta, Main Entrance, 201018 1/4 inches X 14 3/4 inchesPhotographCourtesy of Shane Golby

Art Gallery of Alberta, Grand Staircase, 201023 3/4 inches X 15 1/2 inchesPhotographCourtesy of Shane Golby

Art Gallery of Alberta Building ModelRandall Stout Architects15 7/8 inches X 21 1/2 inchesArt Gallery of Alberta File PhotographCollection of the Art Gallery of Alberta

Medicine Hat Museum in Riverside Park - 195110 1/2 inches X 17 7/8 inchesPhoto Courtesy of the Esplanade Archives, Medicine HatAcc.Num. 0061.0071

Esplanade Arts & Heritage CentreMedicine Hat Lanterns - Artist Rendering10 1/4 inches X 15 7/8 inchesPhoto Courtesy of Diamond and Schmitt Architects Inc.© Tim Griffith

Esplanade Arts & Heritage CentreFront of Building in Summer18 inches X 23 7/8 inchesPhoto Courtesy of Diamond and Schmitt Architects Inc.© Tim Griffith

Grande Prairie High School, 192910 1/8 inches X 17 7/8 inchesSouth Peace Regional ArchivesGrande Prairie

Grande Prairie College Chemistry Building17 7/8 inches X 17 7/8 inchesSouth Peace Regional ArchivesGrande Prairie

Montrose Cultural CentreSE Evening View17 7/8 inches X 23 7/8 inches South Peace Regional ArchivesGrande Prairie

Grande Prairie High School/Montrose CentreArtist RenderingPAG Exterior6 inches X 16 inchesTeeple Architects, Toronto

Karen BrownleeAbstract Grain Elevators #1, 2002Watercolour, gouache21 3/8 inches X 28 1/2 inchesCollection of the Alberta Foundation for the Arts


List of Images


Mark MuriasDan of Applewood Park,1996Acrylic, gold leaf on wood24 3/16 inches X 10 5/8 inchesCollection of the Alberta Foundation for the Arts

James NicollUntitled (Backyard Building Group)Charcoal on paper12 3/16 inches X 15 7/8 inchesCollection of the Alberta Foundation for the Arts

Stanford PerrottLondon Storefront, 1950Watercolour on paper21 3/4 inches X 15 3/4 inchesCollection of the Alberta Foundation for the Arts

George WeberCity, 1959Silkscreen on paper8 3/8 inches X 16 13/16 inchesCollection of the Alberta Foundation for the Arts

John SnowGallery, 1980Lithograph on paper17 7/8 inches X 26 inchesCollection of the Alberta Foundation for the Arts

Total Works:

20 Framed Photographs/Art Works3 Architectural Styles Didactic Panels2 Text Panels

Total = 25 Framed pieces


Visual Inventory - Images Art Gallery of Alberta

Edmonton Public LibraryImage courtesy of the City of Edmonton ArchivesEA - 160 - 1461

Secord House, 1955Image courtesy of the City of Edmonton ArchivesET - 17 - 81

Hotel MacDonaldView from the River Valley, 1939Image courtesy of the City of Edmonton ArchivesEA - 160 -1326

Edmonton Art GalleryBittorf Building, 1967-1968Art Gallery of Alberta File PhotographsCollection of the Art Gallery of Alberta




Visual Inventory - Images Art Gallery of Alberta

Art Gallery of Alberta, Grand Stairway, 2010Photograph courtesy of Shane Golby

Art Gallery of Alberta, Main Entrance, 2010Photograph courtesy of Shane Golby

Art Gallery of Alberta Building ModelRandall Stout ArchitectsArt Gallery of Alberta File PhotographCollection of the Art Gallery of Alberta


Visual Inventory - Images AGA/ Esplanade Arts & Heritage Centre

Medicine Hat Museum in Riverside Park - 1951Photo courtesy of the Esplanade Archives, Medicine Hat Acc. Num. 0061.0071

Esplanade Arts & Heritage CentreMedicine Hat Lanterns - Artist RenderingPhoto courtesy of Diamond and Schmitt Architects Inc. © Tim Griffith


Esplanade Arts & Heritage CentreFront of Building in SummerPhoto courtesy of Diamond and Schmitt Architects Inc. © Tim Griffith

Visual Inventory - ImagesPrairie Art Gallery



Grande Prairie High School, 1929South Peace Regional ArchivesGrande Prairie, Alberta

Grande Prairie College Chemistry BuildingSouth Peace Regional ArchivesGrande Prairie, Alberta

Montrose Cultural Centre SE View, EveningPhotographCollection of the Prairie Art Gallery

Grande Prairie High School/Montrose CentreArtist RenderingPAG Exterior, Credit: Teeple Architects, Toronto


Visual Inventory - Images from the Collection of the Alberta Foundation for the Arts


James NicollUntitled (Backyard Building Group)Charcoal on paperCollection of the Alberta Foundation for the Arts

Karen BrownleeAbstract Grain Elevators #1, 2002Watercolour, gouacheCollection of the Alberta Foundation for the Arts

Mark MuriasDan of Applewood Park,1996Acrylic, gold leaf on woodCollection of the Alberta Foundation for the Arts

Stanford PerrottLondon Storefront,1950Watercolour on paperCollection of the Alberta Foundation for the Arts


Visual Inventory - Images from the Collection of the Alberta Foundation for the Arts

George WeberCity, 1959Silkscreen on paperCollection of the Alberta Foundation for the Arts

John SnowGallery, 1980Lithograph on paperCollection of the Alberta Foundation for the Arts


Total Framed Works: 20


Artist and Architect Biographies


Karen Brownlee

Karen Brownlee has been a student of the visual arts since 1973. Her experience encompasses both formal training and independent research and experimentation. Her work is found in the collection of the Alberta Foundation for the Arts as well as in private collections. In the 1990s Brownlee began a series of paintings focusing on the theme of the disappearing western grain elevators. As stated by the artist:

When I started this series, the earlier pieces were true to the colour that you actually see. But as you paint and create, you either do the same thing over and over again and you become a commercial artist or you’re a fine artist and are challenged to go further, to go beyond what you immediately know. As the series grew the use of colour changed and the work became more abstract. What you have is the maturation of the work of an artist over the span of a decade, which is why not all of the images are stylistically the same.

Mark Murias

Mark Murias was born in Estevan, Saskatchewan, and has been exhibiting his work since 1990. He received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Calgary in 1993 and has participated in a number of group and solo shows in Calgary. In speaking of his work the artist has written:

My paintings are about the people I know, the places I am familiar with, and the reality of every-day life. I use Medieval illumination as a vehicle to explore these themes: as a tool to contrast and compare the common occupations of contemporary society with the piousness and sainthood of Medieval times. The early Gothic style of strong contour lines and primary colours can also be linked to the popular cartoons and/or folk art of today.

I incorporate artificial ageing in my works and this is reflective of the place I live. Western Canada has few structures or Western European traditions that are older than a hundred years. People need a sense of history and through the distressing of the wood, there is an artificial fulfillment.

One can view the works, like everyday life, as being dark and rich with meaning, or nothing but surface. I leave the viewer to read into the pieces as much or as little as they wish.




Jim Nicoll (1892-1986)

James McLaren Nicoll was a key figure in art in Alberta. He was born in 1892 in Fort Macleod and grew up in British Columbia. After serving in World War I he attended the University of Alberta where he graduated in civil engineering. During World War II he was an engineer for the Royal Canadian Air Force and moved across western Canada supervising the construction of air force bases. He painted steadily for eight years after retirement from engineering in 1956 and in 1982 was elected to the Royal Canadian Academy. Active in the arts community, Nicoll was editor of Highlights, the bulletin of the Alberta Society of Artists (ASA) and the President of the ASA in 1943. Also a writer and poet, he published The Poetry and Prose of Jim Nicoll in 1980.

Stanford Perrott (1917-2001)

Stanford Perrott was born near Stavely, Alberta, in 1917. He saw his first real oil painting in 1938, an experience which changed his life. In 1939 he graduated from the provinical Institute of Technology and Art (now known as the Alberta College of Art and Design) in Calgary. In 1940 he went to study for his teaching degree.

In 1946 Perrott began teaching at the Alberta College of Art and Design. With department head Illingworth Kerr he helped start programs for children, and was instrumental in expanding the range of exposure for the work of senior students. After Kerr’s death in 1967 Perrott took over as head of the college until 1974 when he retired to teach private lessons in Bragg Creek, Alberta.

Stanford Perrott received numerous awards during his lifetime such as the Alberta College of Art Board of Governor’s Award of Excellence; the Province of Alberta’s Achievement Award; and, in 1991, an Honorary Degree from The University of Calgary. In 1998 he was awarded the Sir Frederick Haultain Prize for his outstanding contributions to art and education in Alberta.

Perrott believed intensely in the value of art education. He once said that “there are too many amateur landscape painters out there....People say you have to have passion to paint, but you also have to have discipline to control the passion.”

Perrott was a multi-media artist, trying his hand at such techniques as charcoal drawings, ink and wash drawings, watercolour landscapes, and a variety of print-making techniques. He produced 700 to 1000 watercolour paintings in his career, many of them inspired by Alberta landscapes.

Stanford Perrott died Thursday, December 6, 2001.




John Snow (1911-2004)

John Snow was born in Vancouver, British Columbia. Following service with the Royal Canadian Air Force and with the Royal Air Force in Great Britain, North Africa and India, he began to paint seriously in Calgary. He studied life drawing a the Provincial Institute of Technology and Art, Calgary (1947-1949) under Maxwell Bates. Otherwise he was self-taught. He and Bates acquired lithography presses (1953) and were the first artists to use the medium in western Canada. After his retirement he worked full time as an artist in his own studio in Calgary. Snow’s style is derived from modernism and through his work he tried to interpret life in the Prairies. In addition to printmaking, he worked in various painting media and sculpture.

Snow received the Alberta Order of Excellence and he was also a member of the Royal Canadian Academy and the Alberta Society of Artists. His work is found in the collection of the Alberta Foundation for the Arts, Government House Foundation, the National Gallery of Canada, the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, England, and in many major private and corporate collections.

George Weber (1907-2002)

George Weber was born in Munich, Germany, in 1907. He studied at the Ontario College of Art in 1937. In 1951 he studied under Jack Taylor at the Banff School of Fine Art. He is credited with introducing fine art serigraphy (silk-screening) to both Eastern and Western Canada. As early as 1948 he lectured at the Univeristy of Alberta on the adoption of this silk-screen process, formerly used only for commercial applications such as posters of handbills, to the field of fine art. In 1950 and 1951 he lead workshops on serigraphy at the Edmonton Art Gallery. Weber was responsible for the introduction into Western Canada of handmade Japanese and European fine art papers for printmaking. Although Weber is best known as an important figure in the development of printmaking in Edmonton, he is also known for his watercolour landscapes of Alberta: the mountains, badlands, rolling plains and the parkland around Edmonton. Weber became a member of the Society of Canadian Painter-Etcher and Engravers in 1950.


Artist and Architect Biographies cont.


Jim Diamond (The Esplanade Arts & Heritage Centre)

A.J. “Jack” Diamond was born in Piet Retief, South Africa, in 1932. He received a Bachelor of Architecture degree from the University of Cape Town in 1956 and a Master of Arts Degree in politics, philosophy and economics from Oxford University in 1958. He received a Master of Architecture degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1962.

Diamond emigrated to Canada in 1964 and became the founding director of the Master of Architecture program at the University of Toronto. He held this position until 1970 and then, in 1975, established his own firm called Diamond and Schmitt Architects. In 1995 he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada and in 1997 was awarded the Order of Ontario.

The architectural firm of Diamond and Schmitt has been responsible for numerous international projects such as the Citadel Theatre in Edmonton (1978); the Jerusalem City Hall in Israel (1988), and the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts in Toronto (2006).

Randall Stout (Art Gallery of Alberta)

Randall Stout is the President and Principal-in-Charge of Los Angeles-based Randall Stout Architects Inc. Randall Stout is a graduate of the University of Tennessee and Rice University in Houston, Texas. He has also worked in the offices of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill based in Houston and Gehry Partners in Santa Monica, California. Since opening his own firm in Los Angeles in 1997, he has established a vigorous practice that exceeds his many influences.

Stout has directed many projects worldwide and he holds many roles including educator, mentor, and environmentalist. Frequently serving as an adjunct professor, lecturer, or architecture studio critic, he has contributed to the Academy of Architecture by teaching innovative design and sustainability strategies and lecturing at academic and professional conferences across the United States. Most recently Stout served as the E. Fay Jones Chair of Architecture at the University of Arkansas.

Featured in international publications and exhibitions, Stout’s projects have been honored with a number of awards for excellence in design and sustainability. Most recently the Art Museum of Western Virginia was recognized for an American Architecture Award from the Chicago Athenaeum.


Artist and Architect Biographies cont.


Steven Teeple (The Prairie Art Gallery)

Teeple Architects Inc. was created in 1989 and has build a reputation for innovative design. The firm has established this reputation through a broad range of institutional, commercial and residential projects and has become known for designing projects of exceptional material and spatial quality with a strong conceptual basis derived from the specific needs and aspirations of each client.

Through its work Teeple Architects has explored themes such as the conceptual integration of architecture and site; diversity of spatial composition; the interconnection of architecture and landscape; as well as the possibilities of translucency and transparency in spatial composition. These themes have been expressed through subtle compositions of material and texture and careful attention to detail. The firm’s body of work has been conceived in critical relation to the language of modernism in an attempt to extend and further enrich its expressive force.


Medicine Hat Museum in Riverside Park - 1951Photo Courtesy of the Esplanade Archives, Medicine Hat Acc. Num. 0061.0071


Talking Art

Medicine Hat Museum in Riverside Park - 1951Photo Courtesy of the Esplanade Archives, Medicine Hat, ABAcc. Num. 0061.0071


CONTENTS:

- Curriculum Connections- A Brief Introduction to Architecture- What is a Museum? - The History of Museums - Museums in the 21st Century- Museums and Visual Culture - What is Art? - Canadian Museums and Visual Culture: - Painting in the early 20th century - Modern Art - Post Modern Art- Galleries and Art Institutions in Alberta - Art Gallery of Alberta - The Medicine Hat Museum and Art Gallery/ The Esplanade Arts & Heritage Centre - The Prairie Art Gallery


Cross-Curricular Connections


The exhibition Culture Crates is an excellent source for using art as a means of investigating topics addressed in other subject areas. The theme of the exhibition, and the works within it, are especially relevant as a spring-board for addressing aspects of the Social Studies and Science program of studies. The following is an overview of cross-curricular connections which may be addressed through viewing and discussing the exhibition.

SOCIAL STUDIESK.2 General Outcome: I BelongStudents will demonstrate an understanding and appreciation of the characteristics and interests that unite members of communities and groups.

Students will:2.1.1 Appreciate the physical and human geography of the communities studied:• Appreciate how a community’s physical geography shapes identity • Appreciate the diversity and vastness of Canada’s land and peoples • Acknowledge, explore and respect historic sites and monuments

4.3.3 Examine, critically, Alberta’s changing cultural and social dynamics by exploring and reflecting upon the following questions and issues:1. How do buildings, historic sites and institutions reflect the establishment and cultural diversity of communities in Alberta (i.e., Glenbow Museum, Royal Alberta Museum, Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump, Writing-on-Stone Provincial Park, Father Lacombe Chapel, Provincial Historic Site, and Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Village)

ELEMENTARY SCIENCEStudents will:1–7 Construct objects and models of objects using a variety of different materials.1–8 Identify the purpose of different components in a personally constructed object or model, and identify corresponding components in a related object or model.• Select appropriate materials, such as papers, plastics, woods; and design and build objects, based on the following kinds of construction tasks: construct model buildings; e.g., homes (human, animal, from other cultures), garages, schools

GRADE 7Unit D: Structures and Forces (Science and Technology Emphasis)• Interpret examples of variation in the design of structures that share a common function, and evaluate the effectiveness of the designs• Describe and compare example structures developed by different cultures and at different times; and interpret differences in functions, materials and aesthetics (e.g., describe traditional designs of indigenous people and peoples of other cultures; compare classical and current designs; investigate the role of symmetry in design)• identify environmental factors that may affect the stability and safety of a structure, and describe how these factors are taken into account


Art Curriculum Connections


Art Connections K-6-Repetition of qualities such as colour, texture and tone produce rhythm and balance.-Attention should be given to well-distributed negative space, as well as to the balance of positive forms.-Make two and three-dimensional assemblages from found materials.-Create three-dimensional forms, using paper sculpture techniques of folding, scoring, cutting, curling, weaving, rolling, twisting, joining.

ART 7Composition: Students will:-experiment with techniques and media within complete compositions of two and three dimensions.-consider the impact of man-made structures upon human activity in the modern world.ConceptsA. Natural forms and structures provide sources for environmental design in the modern world.B. Structural design of shelters may enhance or inhibit human activities.C. Decorative and functional works enhance public and private buildings.Students will compare varying interpretations of natural forms and man-made artifacts through time and across cultures.ConceptsA. Comparisons between natural forms and architectural systems illustrate the functional aspects of natural structure.B. Natural forms and structures have been interpreted by artists of various cultures for decorative and artistic purposes.-Students will investigate natural forms, manmade forms, cultural traditions and social activities as sources of imagery through time and across cultures.-Students will understand that the role and form of art differs through time and across cultures.ART 8Students will:-Consider the impact of man-made structures upon human activity in the modern world.A. Natural forms and structures provide sources for environmental design in the modern world.B. Structural design of shelters may enhance or inhibit human activities.C. Decorative and functional works enhance public and private buildings.Students will use expressiveness in their use of elements in the making of images.C. Scale drawings and simple systems can communicate architectural ideas in drawing form.ART 9-Sculptures can be formed using materials in additive and subtractive ways to demonstrate formal and informal balance.-Careful observation of form and surface qualities is necessary for the realistic recording of natural objects.

Art Connections 10-12DEVELOP AND REFINE DRAWING SKILLS AND STYLES.ConceptsA. A change in drawing techniques can express a different point of view about the same subject matter.B. Tactile qualities of surfaces can be rendered through controlled use of line.


Art Curriculum Connections continued


C. Linear perspective is a representational device that gives the illusion of three-dimensional pictorial space.Students will:- Extend their knowledge of and familiarity with the elements and principles of design through practice in composing two and three-dimensional images.- use non-traditional approaches to create compositions in both two and three dimensions.



A Brief Introduction to Architecture

The practice of architecture first evolved out of the dynamics between needs (shelter, security, worship etc.) and means (available building materials and attendant skills). As human cultures developed, architecture became a craft and an art.

Architecture (from the Greek word arkhitektonike) is the art and science of designing and constructing buildings and other physical structures for human shelter or use. In architecture human requirements and construction materials are related so as to furnish practical use as well as an aesthetic solution. As an art, architecture is essentially abstract and involves the manipulation of the relationships of spaces, volumes, planes, masses, and voids.

The earliest written work on the subject of architecture is De Architectura by the Roman architect Vitruvius in the 1st century A.D. According to Vitruvius, a good building should satisfy three principles. These are:- Durability - it should stand up robustly and remain in good condition- Utility - it should be useful and function well for the people using it- Beauty - it should delight people and raise their spiritsThe 19th century English art critic John Ruskin, in his work Seven Lamps of Architecture published in 1849, voiced a similar sentiment stating that architecture was the ‘art which so disposes and adorns the edifices raised by men...that the sight of them contributes to his mental health, power, and pleasure.’

Architecture is evolutionary in nature and provides insights into past cultures and eras. Behind each of the greater architectural styles lies a period of serious experimentation directed toward answering the needs of a specific way of life. Climate, methods of labour, available materials, and economy of means all impose their dictates on the style of physical structures. Once developed an architectural method or style survives tenaciously, giving way only when social changes or new building techniques have reduced it.

The ‘art and science’ of architecture is much different than mere construction. A garden shed, for example, is much different than a cathedral. As expressed by the 20th century Swiss-French architect Le Corbusier (1887-1965):

You employ stone, wood, concrete, and with these materials you build houses and palaces: that is construction.... But suddenly you touch my heart, you do me good. I am happy and I say: This is beautiful. That is Architecture.


There are three forms of visual art. Painting is art to look at, sculpture is art you can walk around, and architecture is art you can walk through.Dan Rice, American Philanthropist(1896-1975)


What is a Museum? - The History of Museums: A Brief SurveyOver the past two decades the province of Alberta has witnessed a spate of museum/art gallery construction. The result of numerous factors - such as outright ‘disaster’, outmoded and aging facilities, expanding collections and perceived community needs - such constructions have proven extremely controversial with governments and the public at large providing opinions concerning everything from the design of such structures to questioning the actual need for them. Before making informed judgements on such issues, however, it is important to have some appreciation for what museums are and how they have developed over time.

As defined by the International Council of Museums, a museum is a ‘permanent institution in the service of society and of its development, open to the public, which acquires, conserves, researches, communicates and exhibits the tangible and intangible heritage of humanity and its environment, for the purposes of education, study, and enjoyment’. Museums collect and care for objects of scientific, artistic, or historical importance and make them available for public viewing through exhibits that may be permanent or temporary. Many museums offer programs and activities for a range of audiences, including adults, children, and families, as well as those for more specific professions. An Art museum, also known as an Art Gallery, is a space dedicated to the exhibition of art.

Early museums began as the private collections of wealthy individuals, families or institutions of art and rare or curious natural objects and artifacts. These were often displayed in so-called wonder rooms or cabinets of curiosities. Public access was often possible for the ’respectable’, especially to private art collections, but at the whim of the owner and his staff.

The first public museums in the world opened in Europe during the 17th and 18th centuries during the Age of Enlightenment. One of the first was the Amerbach Cabinet, originally a private collection which was bought by the university and city of Basel in 1661 and opened to the public as the Kunstmuseum Basel in 1671. A second early public museum was the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, England. This was the first public museum in the United Kingdom and its opening in 1683 marked the first use of the word ‘museum’ in English, a term derived from the Greek word mouseios meaning ‘muses’. The Uffizi Gallery in Florence was also an early public museum. Open to visitors on request since the 16th century, it was officially opened to the public in 1765. This gallery was conceived as a display place for many of the paintings and sculptures collected by the Medici family or commissioned by them.

Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Italy



Museum History continuedSuch ‘public’ museums as the Uffizi, however, were often accessible only by the middle and upper classes and it could be difficult to gain entrance. The first truly public museum was the Musée du Louvre in Paris. Originally the Palais du Louvre, the Louvre opened in 1793 during the French Revolution and enabled, for the first time in history, free access to the former French royal collections for people of all stations and status and it quickly became the model for the ‘national museum’ throughout Europe.

Louvre Museum, Paris, France

With the opening of truly public museums, art was removed from the collections of the aristocracy and the wealthy into the public sphere, and museums were seen as sites for educating the masses in taste and cultural refinement.

American museums eventually joined European musems as the world’s leading centers for the production of new knowledge in their fields of interest. A period of intense museum building, in both an intellectual and physical sense, was realized in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, often called “The Museum Age”. One of the most famous and largest museums in both the United States and the world, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City (founded in 1870) is a prime example of this period. This amazing edifice had, as its goal, the bringing of art and art education to the American people.

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, New York, U.S.



Museum History continued

By the 1920s this state of affairs began to change. In 1929 the Museum of Modern Art was established in New York City. This was the first museum devoted exclusively to modern art and introduced the ‘white cube’ method of display where works of art were hung independently on white walls. Throughout the rest of the 20th century and into the 21st, this challenging of tradition as concerns architectural space and use of space has continued. In 1959, for example, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum opened in New York City. The building, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright as his last major work, elicited a great deal of criticism from architects, artists, and the public alike upon its opening. Many claimed that the building both overshadows the artworks within and - with its recessed display niches and curved walls - provides a poor venue for their display as well. Prior to its opening, in fact, 21 artists including Willem de Kooning and Robert Motherwell, signed a letter protesting the display of their work in such a space.

Guggenheim Museum, New York City, New York, U.S.

Prior to the 1920s, museums constructed around the world emulated, both in architectural style and methods of display, the origins of their collections; the palaces and chateau of rulers and the elite. Display of work was focused on the salon style where paintings covered every inch of available space.

The re-definition of museum design, begun with the Guggenheim Museum in New York, continued throughout the 20th century and into the 21st. In 1977 the Centre Pompidou opened in Paris and revolutionized museum design by adopting the architectural model of a shopping mall, placing several different activities and attractions under one roof. In doing so it transformed the museum from an elite monument of culture to a popular social gathering place. The Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, took museum design a major step further. This museum, designed by Canadian-American architect Frank Gehry and opened in 1997, was immediately hailed as one of the world’s most spectacular buildings in the style of Deconstructivism. Architect Philip Johnson went so far as to descibe it as “the greatest building of our time”.


Guggenheim Museum, 1997Bilbao, SpainArchitect: Frank Gehry


Museum History continuedGehry’s revolutionary design serves as an object lesson in the architect’s style and method. Like many of his other works, it has a structure that consists of radically sculpted, organic contours. Sited as it is in a port town, it is intended to resemble a ship. Its reflective titanium panels resemble fish scales, echoing the other organic life forms that recur commonly in Gehry’s designs, as well as the river Nervión upon which the museum sits. Almost immediately after the museum’s opening it became a popular tourist attraction, drawing visitors from around the globe and “putting Bilbao on the map”. In so doing, The Guggenheim Bilbao inspired the construction of similar designs across the globe and created what is called ‘the Bilbao Effect”, a term used to describe the remarketing and revitalizing of urban centers with world-class, ‘destination’ architecture.

Architecture should speak of its time and place, but yearn for timelessness. Frank Gehry



Museums in the 21st CenturyMuseum architecture is not the same around the world, as the notion of how the fine arts are conceived varies from culture to culture. Also, as the ideas for the arts continue to transform, museums also keep evolving their concepts by exploring new design possibilities.

The idea that the museum was the institution in which fine artworks were collected was first voiced in plans to convert the Palais du Louvre in Paris into a large-scale national museum in 1883. In other words, as far as museums were concerned, first would come the building and then the worlds of art to be collected and displayed in it. The artworks collected were to be housed in an appropriately conceived edifice with a suitable design style and the building held precedence over the artworks themselves. In such grand museums works of art were usually displayed in a ‘salon style’ with works filling the walls and ‘stacked’ above and below each other.

In contrast, museums completed in the twentieth century for the collection of modern artworks introduced the ‘white cube’ style of exhibition spaces which were designed not to interfere in any way with the works on display. The works themselves were displayed with a great deal of space between each work so each work could be studied and appreciated on its own.

In the 19th century civic pride turned major towns into cities, endowing them with all the institutions that reinforced their role as the focal points of life and society. In the main this involved public buildings which were to be attractions, crowd-pullers and express modern urbanism. Museums, which were included in public buildings, were to join the history of architectural wonders such as the pyramids, the lighthouse in Alexandria, and the Eiffel Tower.

In this process cities have discovered that museums have marketing factors. A spectacular museum building possesses supra-regional attraction and, in the best cases, assures the city both a distinctive emblem and a city-centre function. It is believed by planners that run-down or peripheral parts of a city can be revived by a musuem and linked to the rest of the city. A museum can also act as a catalyst for economic revival in an urban area.

As the museum has become elevated in importance during the 20th and 21st centuries two diametrically opposed forms of architectural articulation have developed. The first is an expressive, deconstructivist architectural approach where the museum becomes a showcase on its own, often regardless of what is actually inside.



Museums in the 21st Century continuedThe second approach is the minimalist architectural model. This refers mainly to box-shaped museums which claim to offer a neutral and ‘democratic’ starting point for the art exhibited. Within these approaches three main tendencies can be observed with regard to museums built since 2000.

1/ Classical Modesty - this is related both to minimalist reduction and a harkening back to much earlier architectural forms. This tendency also involves a noticeable increase in the number of conversions and extensions of existing structures.

2/ New Transparency - transparency in museums is a direct response to criticism of the classic structure of museums and refers to reducing the difference between inner and outer areas. In other words, the museum is seen as a fluid extension of the public area. In this modality, the view out of the museum is linked with the view in to the museum and the museum is built with regard to openness, light and external reference.

3/ New Symbolism - museum architects make use of symbolic forms to link areas of the building and the functions of these areas. The structure of a ribbon is often used and this shape represents permanence and even eternity as the ribbon is infinitely continuable.


Spacelab, 2000-2003Kunsthaus Graz am Landesmuseum,Joannenum, Graz, AustriaPhotograph by Zepp-Cam Seidle, 2004



Museums and Styles in Architecture

Beaux-Arts Architecture refers to the academic neoclassical architectural style that was taught at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. The style was very prominent in public buildings such as banks and government buildings in Canada in the early 20th century. As part of the Romantic Movement which characterized the arts during the mid 18th to mid 19th centuries in Europe, the Beaux-Arts style embraced a number of different styles from past periods. Beaux-Arts training emphasized the mainstream examples of Imperial Roman architecture. The style also looked to the architecture of the Italian Renaissance and the French and Italian Baroque models for inspiration. Principle characteristics of this style included symmetry, ahierarchy of spaces, obvious reference to historical styles, and the use of balustrades, pilasters and sculptures.

The first Edmonton Public Library, first home to the Edmonton Art Gallery in 1924, was an excellent example of the Beaux-Arts amalgamation of older architectural styles. Constructed in 1922 and 1923, this building located on MacDonald Drive, was designed by Edward L. Tulton of New York. Constructed of cream coloured terra-cotta clay brick and Bedford stone, the library was described as a grand French Renaissance structure with Italian detailing. The centralentrances were flanked by four fluted Doric columns while the roof was of red tile and the gutters, decking, flashing and skylights were of copper. Inside the entrance was lined with Caen stone while the stairs were finished with terrazzo and marble. The central portion of the main floor was crowned by a massive skylight carried on Ionic columns. This version of the Edmonton Public Library survived until 1969 when, deemed too small for the library’s growing collection, it was demolished and replaced by the Telus Tower.

A second revival style was that of Châteauesque architecture. This refers to a style based on the French château constructed in the Loire Valley between the 1400s and the 1600s. While the French château constructed during the sixteenth century retained Gothic influences, they also incorporated classical design elements such as symmetry and a centralized design. In Canada, the châteauesque style became synonymous with Canada’s grand railway hotels. The early hotels, such as the Hotel Vancouver and the Banff Springs Hotel, both of which opened in 1888, were constructed in the châteauesque style as the lavish design and opulence were thought to be the style that expressed Canadian nationalism and refinement.Edmonton’s Hotel Macdonald, where the first exhibition of the Edmonton Art Gallery was held in 1924 and home to the gallery from 1925 to 1927, was also designed in the Châteauesque

Beaux-Arts Style

Hotel MacDonald, 2009Photo courtesy of Shane Golby



Museums and Styles in Architecture continuedstyle. Constructed between 1912 and 1915 this seven-story Grand Trunk Pacific hotel is laced with Indiana limestone and roofed with copper. It was built and furnished at a cost of over $35 million at contemporary prices.The original Hotel Macdonald offered a glamorous exhibition space for The Edmonton Art Gallery from 1925 to 1927. It was found, however, that the elite location hampered access to the Museum by all citizens and so the museum moved in 1927 to the Civic Block.

Modern ArchitectureModern Architecture refers to a set of building styles with similar characteristics. The first examples were conceived early in the 20th century but it was not until after World War II that the style gained popularity and became the dominant architectural style for institutional and corporate buildings from the 1930s to the 1980s. A number of reasons have been cited to account for the evolution of Modern architecture. Some historians see this development as a social matter, a result of social and political revolutions. Others see the movement as primarily driven by technological and engineering developments. The availability of new building materials such as iron, steel and glass drove the invention of new building techniques as part of the Industrial Revolution.

Finally, some regard Modernism as a matter of taste, a reaction against the eclecticism and stylistic excesses seen in Victorian and Edwardian architecture. Whatever the cause, around 1900 a number of architects throughout the world began developing new architectural solutions to integrate traditional styles with new technological possibilities. By the 1920s the most important figures in Modern architecture - LeCorbusier in France, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Walter Gropius of the Bauhaus in Germany, and Frank Lloyd Wright of the United States - had established Modernism as the only acceptable design solution in architecture.

Architects who worked in the modern style, also referred to as the International Style, wanted to break with architectural traditions and design simple, unornamented buildings. The most commonly used materials are glass for the facade, steel for the exterior support, and concrete for the floors and interior supports. The most common characteristics are:- an adoption of the principle that the materials and functional requirements determine the result- an adoption of the ‘machine aesthetic’- a rejection of ornament- a simplification of form and elimination of ‘unnecessary detail’- an adoption of expressed structure The Modernist style became most evident in the design of skyscrapers but is also expressed in homes and public buildings such as city halls, public libraries, university buildings and art galleries.

Edmonton Art GalleryAGA File Photo



Museums and Styles in Architecture continuedAn off-shoot of the Modernist style is that of Brutalism, popular during the 1950s to 1970s. Brutalism was a response to the glass curtain wall that was overtaking institutional and commercial architecture in the 1960s. The style was a a foil to the light airiness of the International style’s steel and glass construction. The style originated in England as economically depressed communities sought inexpensive construction and design methods for low-cost housing, shopping centres, and government buildings. It involved the development of béton brut, a type of concrete with no formal finish. Brutalist buildings usually are formed with striking repetitive angular geometries, and where concrete is used, often reveal the texture of the wooden forms used for the casting. The design of the building is largely dependant on the shape and placement of the various room masses. The Edmonton Art Gallery, designed by Bittorf and Wensley Architects and completed in 1969, was the earliest and arguably the best example of modern Brutalist architecture in Edmonton. Intended to exemplify the beauty and power of concrete, the design was meant to convey honesty, comfort and security and to provide a tough exterior in order to protect works for art from the harshness of climate and light. The Edmonton Art Gallery operated in this space until 2007 when the Bittorf building was largely demolished to make way for the new Art Gallery of Alberta.

Post-Modern ArchitecturePostmodern Architecture is an international style which began in the 1960s and continues to influence present day architecture. The style is a response to the formalism of the International Style of modernism which, topostmodern architects, was seen as soulless and bland. Postmodern architecture borrows elements and references from the past and reintroduces colour, symbolism and ornamentation to architecture. Postmodern architecture has also been described as ‘neo-eclectic’, where reference and ornament have returned to the facade, replacing the aggressively unornamented modern style. This eclecticism is often combined with the use of non-orthogonal angles and unusual surfaces.

Postmodernism has its origins in the perceived failure of Modern architecture. Modernism’s preoccupation with functionalism and economical building meant that ornaments were done away with and the buildings were cloaked in a stark rational appearance. Postmodernist architects felt the buildings failed to meet the human need for comfort both for the body and for the eye and did not account for the desire for beauty. Postmodernists thought to cure this by reintroducing ornament and decoration for their own sake, believing that ornament and historical allusion add a richness to architecture that modernism had foregone. Further to this, form was no longer to be defined solely by the building’s functional requirements; it could be anything the architect pleased.

The Art Gallery of Alberta under Construction, 2009Photo courtesy of Shane Golby



Museums and Styles in Architecture continuedIn turning to the past, post-modern architecture quotes past aspects of various buildings and melds them together to create a new means of design. An example of this is seen in the comeback of pillars and other elements of premodern designs, sometimes adapting classical Greek and Roman examples. Another return was that of the ‘wit, ornament and reference’ seen in older buildings in the terra cotta decorative facades and bronze or stainless steel embellishments of the Beaux-Arts period. Postmodernism with its diversity possesses sensitivity to the building’s context and history, and the client’s requirements. Postmodernist architects also consider the general requirements of the building and its surroundings or context during the design phase.

Both the Esplanade Arts & Heritage Centre and the new Art Gallery of Alberta are excellent examples of Postmodernism in architecture. In designing the Esplanade the architect included components that represent the climate and landscape environment in Medicine Hat. The colours in and around the building reflect the natural coulees and soils in the area, while the glass encasement of the central spiral staircase acts as an exaggerated version of the gas lanterns Medicine Hat is known for. While the firm of Randall Stout Architects Inc. does not follow a singular style, the design of the new Art Gallery of Alberta follows post-modern precepts by also considering its situational context. On his visits to Edmonton Stout noticed both the urban grid system and the meandering nature of the North Saskatchewan River. The ribbon of steel which decorates the overall geometric nature of the building and runs within the atrium symbolizes this dicotomy. The architect was also asked to preserve as much of the oldBrutalist building as possible. Stout’s design, with its geometric units, adheres to this and thus quotes aspects of past building styles.

Art Gallery of Alberta, Main Entrance, 2010Photograph courtesy of Shane Golby

Esplanade Arts & Heritage CentreFront of Building in SummerPhoto Courtesy of Diamond and Schmitt Architects Inc. © Tim Griffith


Museums and Visual Culture - What is Art?


Museums are spaces constructed for the display of visual culture and art. But what is art and why do societies bother to collect and display it?

ART is the process or product of deliberately arranging elements. It encompasses a diverse range of human activities, creations, and modes of expression including music, literature, film, sculpture and painting. Traditionally the term ‘art’ was used to refer to any skill or mastery. In the Romantic period of the late 18th century, however, this changed when art came to be seen as a ‘special faculty of the human mind to be classified with religion and science’. Art has been defined as a vehicle for the expression or communication of emotions and ideas, a means for exploring and appreciating formal elements for their own sake, and as representation. Leo Tolstoy identified art as a use of indirect means to communicate from one person to another. More recently, thinkers influenced by Martin Heidegger have interpreted art as the means by which a community develops for itself a medium for self-expression and interpretation.

Art can describe several things and serve several functions. It can involve a study of creative skill, describe a process of using the creative skill, be a product of the creative skill, or explain the audience’s experience with the creative skill. The creative arts (art as discipline) are a collection of disciplines that produce artworks (art as objects) that are compelled by a personal drive (art as activity) and echo or reflect a message, mood, or symbolism for the viewer to interpret (art as experience).

According to writers on the subject, art serves a variety of both non-motivated and motivated functions. NON-MOTIVATED FUNCTIONS of art are those which are simply basic to being human or do not fulfill a specific external purpose. In other words art, as creativity, is something which humans must do as such creation is part of their very nature. Purposes of art which fall under this function are:1/ A basic human instinct for harmony, balance, rhythm.2/ Art provides us with a way to experience the mysterious and the universe.3/ Art provides a means to express the imagination.4/ Art allows the individual to express things towards the world as a whole.5/ Art serves ritualistic and symbolic functions.

MOTIVATED PURPOSES of art refer to intentional, conscious actions by artists. These actions may be to bring about political change, to comment on an aspect of society, to convey a specific emotion or mood, to address personal psychology, to illustrate another discipline, to sell a product, or to serve as a form of communication.

Museums, by acting as spaces for the display of art, serve as a primary forum for the communication of both the non-motivated and motivated functions of art.



Canadian Museums and Visual Culture - Art in the early 20th CenturyThe history of ‘western European’ styles of art in Canada, and of the Canadian museums and art institutions developed for the display of artwork, is a very recent one. This is especially true in western Canada where it is only over the past one hundred years that one can witness both the emergence of professional art practices and art institutions. Museum design and construction throughout the 20th century and into the 21st generally mirrors changes in visual art styles throughout this time period.

In western Canada, both architecture and the visual art produced during the first decades of the 20th century were heavily influenced by European, particularly British, traditions developed over the course of the 18th and 19th centuries. Architecture was dominated by the spirit of ROMANTICISM, the dominant aesthetic trend in Europe from about 1750 to 1850.

Romanticism refers not to a specific style but to an attitude of mind. The declared aim of the Romantics was to tear down the artifices baring the way to a ‘return to Nature’ - nature the unbounded, wild and ever-changing; nature the sublime and picturesque. In this return to ‘nature’, ‘romantic’ architects favored the revival, not of one style, but of a potentially unlimited number of styles. The models of ancient Greece and Rome and medieval/Gothic architecture held particular attraction and saw their greatest expression in the construction of neo-classical, chateauesque, neo-Gothic and Beaux-Arts structures throughout Europe and the Americas.

In the visual arts styles of drawing, painting and sculpture were divided between the trends of ROMANTICISM and REALISM. Romanticism in the visual arts incorporated both the imagina-tive and the ideal, rather than the real, and embraced concepts of nobility, grandeur, virtue and superiority. In British painting of the late 18th and 19th centuries, Romanticism was most clearly expressed in landscape gardening and in the development and elevation of landscape painting where artists came to emphasize the picturesque or the sublime in their rendering of the landscape. One of the earliest theorists on these concerns was the British artist and clergyman William Gilpin (1724-1804). In his writings Gilpin spoke of the necessity of the artist to supply ‘composition’ to the raw material of nature to produce a harmonious and picturesque design. According to Gilpin, for a painting to be ‘properly picturesque’, artists should follow four main specifications:

1/ The scene should be divided into three distinct zones: a dark foreground containing a front screen of foliage or rocks or side screens, a brighter middle ground, and at least one further, less distinctly rendered distance.

2/ The composition should be planned with a low viewpoint which emphasized the sublime nature of the scene portrayed.

3/ The artist could include a ruined building as this would add ‘consequence’ to the scene.

4/ Ruggedness of texture and the distribution of light and dark within the image were essential considerations.


Museums and Visual Culture - Art in the early 20th Century - Realism


Gilpin’s ideas on landscape composition were adapted by later writers, such as John Ruskin, and became the standards against which landscape paintings and artists were measured. These ideas were transported from Britain to Canada during the mid to late 19th century and determined the approach of artists to the Canadian landscape.

Opposed to the Romantic Movement in the arts was that of Realism. In the visual arts realist artists render everyday characters, situations, dilemas and objects in a ‘true-to-life’ manner. Realism was strongly influenced by the development of photography which created a desire for people to produce things that looked ‘objectively’ real. Realist artists believe in the ideology of objective reality and revolt against exaggerated emotionalism. In the 19th century realist artists rejected the artificiality of both classicism and romanticism in academic art and discarded theatrical drama, lofty subjects and classical forms in favour of commonplace themes.

Ford Madox BrownThe Last of England, 1852-1855City Museum & Art Gallery, Birmingham, England

The Realist Movement began in France in the 1850s and independently in England at the same time. Realism set as its goal the apparently truthful and accurate depiction of the models that nature and contemporary life offered the artist. The 19th century realists chose to paint common, ordinary, and sometimes ugly images rather than what they saw as the stiff and conventional pictures favoured by upper-class society. Their subjects often alluded to a social, political, or moral message. Realism was influential in the development of many later movements, such as the American Ash Can School (early 20th century), and is seen in the work of many contemporary artists as well. The work of Albertan artist, educator and writer James Nicoll, seen in the exhibition Culture Crates, is an example of realism in Albertan art.

James NicollUntitled (Backyard Building Group)Collection of the Alberta Foundation for the Arts

Lucius O’BrienAt Rest (Near Yale, B.C.), 1888Watercolour on paperCollection of the Art Gallery of Alberta


Museums and Visual Culture - Modern Art


One of the major movements in the visual arts in the 20th century was that ofMODERNISM, an aesthetic movement which found fertile expression in both the visual arts and in architecture throughout the 20th century.

Modernism refers to a set of cultural tendencies and an array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western society in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The term encompasses the activities and output of those who felt the ‘traditional’ forms of art, architecture, literature, social organization and daily life were becoming outdated in the new conditions of an emerging industrialized world.

The first wave of the modernist art movement occured in the opening years of the 20th century. Modernist landmarks include the expressionist paintings of Wassily Kandinsky, starting in 1903 and culminating with his first abstract painting and the formation of the Blue Rider group in Munich in 1911, and the rise of cubism, which altered perspective, in the work of Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque in 1908. These movements gave new meaning to what was termed ‘modernism’. They embraced discontinuity and approved disruption, rejecting or moving beyond simple realism in literature and art.

Wassily KandinskyComposition X, 1939Oil on canvas

Pablo PicassoPortrait of Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, 1910Oil on canvasCollection of The Art Institute of Chicago

A tendencey towards abstraction is characteristic of much modern art. By one definition, abstraction involves the reduction of natural appearances to simplified forms. In this sense, abstraction may involve the depiction of only theessential or generic forms of things by elimination of particular variations. Within this abstraction can, but does not need to, include distortion and stylization. Distortion involves using incorrect or unusual reproductions of the shape of things, whereas stylization involves the representation of something through using a set of recognizable characteristics. In contrast, abstraction may also involve the creation of independent constructs of shapes and colours which have aesthetic appeal in their own right.


Visual Culture - Modern Art continued


World War 1, which made realism seem bankrupt, provided a tremendous impetus to ideas of modernism which came to define the 1920s. Art movements such as Dada and surrealism stressed new methods to produce new results and by the 1930s the tenets of modernism had won a place in the political and artistic establishment. After World War II the U.S. became the focal point of new artistic movements. During the late 1940s Jackson Pollock’s radical approach to painting revolutionized the potential for all contemporary art that followed him. Pollock’s move away from easel painting and conventionality was a liberating signal to the artists of both his time and those that have come after. Artists understood that Pollock’s abstract expressionist process essentially blasted artmaking beyond any prior boundary and expanded and developed the definitions and possibilities available to artists for the creation of new works of art. Process art as inspired by Pollock enabled artists to experiment with and make use of a diverse encyclopedia of style, content, material, placement, sense of time, and plastic and real space.

Piet MondrianComposition, 1921, Oil on canvasCollection of The Metropolitan Museum of ArtNew York

Jackson PollockNumber 8 (Detail), 1949Oil, enamel, aluminum paint on canvasCollection of The Neuberger MuseumState University of New York

One form of abstract art that bears striking similarities to modern architectural styles is that of Geometric Abstraction. This form of abstraction is based on the use of geometric forms sometimes, though not always, placed in non-illusionistic space and combined into non-objective compositions. The work of Piet Mondrian is perhaps the best example of this form of expression. Mondrian, a member of the Dutch de Stijl group (1917-1931) created a disciplined nonobjective art and his work, and the work of other artists who shared similar ideas, were applicable to many varieties of art and industrial design. The principles of geometric abstraction converged in the teachings of the Bauhaus in the 1920s and had a profound affect on ideas of modern architecture. The painting of grain elevators by Karen Brownlee in the exhibition Culture Crates, though concerned with a recognizable subject, is also an excellent example of modernist geometric principles.

Karen BrownleeAbstract Grain Elevators #1, 2002Collection of the Alberta Foundation for the Arts


Visual Culture - Postmodern Art


Specific trends of modernism generally cited are formal purity, medium specificity, art for art’s sake, authenticity, universality, originality and revolutionary or reactionary tendencies, ie. the avant-garde. Many institutions argue that being visionary, forward-looking, cutting-edge, and progressive are crucial to the mission of art. Postmodernism, on the other hand, rejects the notion of advancement or progress in art per se, and thus aims to overturn the ‘myth of the avant-garde’. It also rejects modernism’s grand narratives of artistic direction, eradicating the boundaries between high and low forms of art, and disrupting genre’s conventions with collision, collage, and fragmentation.

Many movements and trends in art throughout the 20th century are seen as precursors to postmodernism. With the introduction of the use of industrial artifacts in art and techniques such as collage, avant-garde movements such as Cubism, Dada and Surrealism questioned the nature and value of art. These movements in turn were influenced by new artforms such as cinema and the rise of reproduction as a means of creating artworks. Other modern movements influential to postmodern art are Pop Art, Minimalism, conceptual art and the use of techniques such as assemblage, montage, and appropriation.

Unlike modern art, with its constant reinvention, postmodern art has a number of movements within it. One of these is a return to classical painting and sculpture. A second movement is termed Conceptual art. Conceptual art is sometimes labelled postmodern because it is expressly involved in deconstruction of what makes a work of art ‘art’. Because it is often designed to confront, offend or attack notions held by many of the people who view it, conceptual art is regarded with particular controversy.

Al McWilliamsAppearances, 1986Photograph on boardCollection of the Art Gallery of Alberta

In painting postmodernism reintroduced representation and traditional techniques to art making. Postmodernism rejects modernism’s grand narratives of artistic direction, removes the boundaries between high and low forms of art, and disrupts genre’s conventions with collision, collage, and fragmentation.

Postmodern Art is a term used to describe art movements which both arise from, and react against or reject, trends in modernism. The traits associated with the use of the term postmodern in art include bricolage, the use of words prominently as the central artistic element, collage, simplification, appropriation, depiction of consumer or popular culture and Performance Art.


Visual Culture - Postmodern Art


A third trend in Postmodern Art is termed lowbrow art. Lowbrow art is a widespread populist art movement with origins in the underground comix world, punk music, hot-rod street culture, and other California subcultures. It is also often known by the name pop surrealism. Lowbrow art highlights a central theme in postmodernism in that the distinction between ‘high’ and ‘low’ art are no longer recognized. Another trend in art which has been associated with the term postmodern is the use of a number of different media together. One of the most common forms of ‘multi-media art’ is the use of video art.

Finally, the re-emergence of an allegorical impulse is characteristic of postmodern art. This impulse is linked to appropriation in art which debunks modernist notions of artistic genius and originality and is more ambivalent and contradictory than modern art. This allegorical impulse in Postmodern Art is clearly seen in Mark Murias’ painting Dan of Applewood Park where the artist ‘borrows’ from medieval art to address contemporary social/economic issues. In this work the artist has created an icon reminiscent of medieval icons. While medieval icons were concerned with stories from the Bible and the worship of God, however, Murias postmodern creation comments on what has come to be worshipped in the late 20th and 21st centuries.

Mark MuriasDan of Applewood Park,1996Acrylic, gold leaf on woodCollection of the Alberta Foundation for the Arts


Galleries and Art Institutions in Alberta: Art Gallery of Alberta

A Brief History of the Art Gallery of Alberta

The Art Gallery of Alberta was founded in 1924 as the Edmonton Museum of Arts Association. This organization of influential Edmonton citizens saw the Museum as a vehicle “to promote the knowledge and enjoyment of, and cultivation of the fine arts and to preserve historical relics.” Their first exhibition was held in October 1924 and consisted of a group of paintings on loan from the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa. These were displayed in the Palm Room at the Hotel MacDonald. The success of this exhibition prompted the Association to seek out a space for the permanent display of works of art and over the next 25 years rooms were rented in a variety of downtown buildings. These included the Public Library (1924), the Hotel MacDonald (1925 to 1927), the Civic Block (1927 to 1945), and the Edmonton Motors Building (1945 to 1952).

The Edmonton Museum of Arts moved into its first permanent home in November of 1955. Secord House, the former residence of businessman Richard Secord at 9842-105 Street, was a welcome refuge for a museum that had struggled with a series of inadequate exhibition spaces. A year after moving in to Secord House the Edmonton Museum of Arts changed its name to The Edmonton Art Gallery. At Secord House the Gallery could finally put its permanent collection on display, provide suitable rooms for art classes, and rent space to other cultural organizations in the city.

J. Murdock The Secord Mansion - Home of the EAG, 1912Watercolour on boardCollection of the Art Gallery of Alberta

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In these early decades the goal of the Edmonton Museum of Arts was to bring culture to the people of Edmonton through exhibitions of Canadian and international art (many of which were loans from the National Gallery), by supporting local artist associations such as the Edmonton Art Club and the Alberta Society of Artists, and by offering art classes. These activities were funded through small grants from civic, provincial and federal governments, as well as donations from private and corporate sources.

Hotel MacDonaldEdmontonPhoto courtesy of Shane Golby

Within two years, however, it became clear that the Gallery’s facilities could not meet the exacting standards required by such lending institutions as the National Gallery of Canada. By 1958 the Board began thinking about constructing a new facility with federally designated “Class A” galleries that would have the necessary environmental and security controls.



Art Gallery of Alberta ContinuedA $600,000 bequest by Mrs. Abigail Condell in 1962 brought the dream of a new, purpose-built building with the reach of the Board of Directors and Gallery Director, William Kirby. In 1969 the building on Sir Winston Churchill Square, designed by Edmonton architect Don Bittorf, opened to national and international acclaim.

The expanded Bittorf building served the Gallery for over 25 years but, with time, its mechanical and electrical systems became dated and the building envelope was not able to maintain the environment required by international museum standards. As well, over the 80 years of its existence the Gallery’s collection grew to over 6,000 works of art. This collection long out grew the capacity that was provided by the building’s three art storage vaults and gallery spaces were being annexed and converted into collection storage. These factors led to a new building capital project in 2004 and the eventual destruction and replacement of the Bittorf Building.

Don Bittorf ArchitectsThe Edmonton Art Gallery, 1968File PhotoCollection of the Art Gallery of Alberta


Shortly after the construction of the new building, the gallery acquired a new Director and with him a new acquisitions program. Terry Fenton came to Edmonton from the Norman Mackenzie Art Gallery in Regina and brought with him an interest in the modernist painting promoted by American art critic Clement Greenberg. Fenton was soon able to build a significant collection of paintings and sculptures from such artists as Jack Bush, Antony Caro, Kenneth Noland, Jules Olitski and Larry Poons, large abstract works for which the Bittorf building was perfectly suited to display. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s the gallery’s collection was significantly expanded and the original square footage of the Bittorf building was deemed inadequate. As a result, an addition was erected on the east side of the building in 1978.

Destruction of the EAG, 2007 Photo Courtesy of Shane Golby


Art Gallery of Alberta ContinuedIn October of 2005, after an international architectural competition, the Edmonton Art Gallery officially changed its name to the Art Gallery of Alberta, and Los Angeles architect Randall Stout was named as the architect for the new building. The AGA said its official goodbye to the old building at the beginning of 2007 with one its most popular exhibitions in its 83 year history, Free for All, and on June 1, 2007, the demolition of the old building and construction of the new began. In the interim the gallery moved into renovated spaces in the historic Hudson Bay store, renamed Enterprise Square, and between 2007 and 2009 continued to offer exhibitions and programming.

The new Art Gallery of Alberta opened its doors to the public January 31st, 2010. Designed by Randall Stout, president of Randall Stout Architects Inc., based in Los Angeles, the new 84,000 square foot gallery meets the highest museum standards in all exhibition areas. Forged out of steel, zinc and glass, it is a work of art in itself, and communicates the dynamic and innovative relationship between the Gallery’s architecture and its programming. In designing his buildings Stout attempts to capture the unique composition of natural surroundings, while transforming light, shadow, form and material into active architecture. His buildings are known for dynamic forms, state of the art technology and environmental sustainability. When creating his design for the new Art Gallery of Alberta, Stout took the time to study Edmonton and noticed that, though Edmonton is built on a very rigid linear grid, the North Saskatchewan River curves ‘untamed’ through the heart of the city. In his planning he sought to create this same duality and seeks to engage with the natural environment. Stainless steel captures the hues surrounding it and changes colour with the seasonal skies. By setting glass at multiple angles, the walls interact with and fool the viewer’s eye: they play with the light of day and reflections appear and disappear. As expressed by Stout himself:

“ I think if this building were alive it would swagger and dance. The zinc would swagger, the stainless steel and glass would dance. It’s kind of a cowboy with a solid build, a John Wayne type. And the dance part is the more delicate, the stainless curvilinear forms. It’s part contemplative and part extrovert. It’s not a building to stand back and take an intellectual or stylistic position. It’s to experience with your emotions.”Randall Stout


The new AGA under ConstructionPhotographs courtesy of Shane Golby


Art Gallery of Alberta Continued - Randall Stout and the new AGAIn the fall of 2005, after an intense global search, the design of Los Angeles-based architect Randall Stout won the architectural competition for the new Art Gallery of Alberta. Randall Stout is the President and Principal-in-Charge of Randall Stout Architects, Inc. Regarded as a visionary whose evocative design aesthetic consistently challenges architectural conventions, Stout creates environments that capture the unique composition of their natural surroundings, while transforming light, shadow, form and materials into dynamic architecture. Randall Stout Architects have designed numerous buildings that are recognized as prominent architectural icons within and beyond their respective communities. Not only do they aesthetically embody the ethics and values of the clients they serve, but they also engage the public with uplifting forms and spaces that incite curiosity and respect.

Randall Stout is a graduate of the University of Tennessee and Rice University in Houston, Texas. Upon graduation he workd for four years in the offices of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill based in Houston. He then transferred to Frank O. Gehry & Associates, working for Gehry for over seven years before opening his own firm in 1997. Since then he has directed a wide variety of architectural projects worldwide ranging from commercial, educational, industrial and recreational institutions to museums and art galleries. Stout’s practice is characterized by:- industrial and economic materials that allow for complex design- expressive structure, lightened mass, and dynamic spaces- experiential environments that highlight movement and fluid transition- buildings that unfold and which cannot be consumed as 2-dimensional images- the use of inspirational visual metaphors

Randall StoutBuilding Model, Art Gallery of Alberta File PhotoCollection of the Art Gallery of Alberta

Stout’s design for the AGA transforms its former 1960s Brutalist structure designed by local architect Don Bittorf. In the new building Stout’s design reuses 37,000 square feet of the former building and adds 27,000 square feet of new space resulting a new 84,000 square foot museum with enhanced exhibition spaces, educational facilities, theatre, restaurant and sculpture garden. The competition brief for the new AGA called for the winning architect to not only preserve as much of the old building as possible but also to find ways to get the building to be a more interactive and visual presence in downtown Edmonton. Stout approached this lack of engagement by basing the gallery around a four-level, full length glass atrium. This 5000 square foot atrium primarily contains public and circulation spaces.



Art Gallery of Alberta Continued - Randall Stout and the new AGAPerhaps the most visually stunning aspect of the new AGA is the circular ribbon of steel which runs across the facade and throughout the interior foyer of the building. Crafted of patinaed zinc, high performance glazing and stainless steel, this ribbon makes organic, evolving transitions from one structural function to another. It begins at the front entrance as a roof canopy and then drops down nearly to the ground level, curling around itself to form what Stout and his team call the “snow cone.” It then rises up the west side of the museum and acts as a sunscreen. Finally it stretches out to become a gallery roof and then cradles back into the building to encase an elevated members lounge. As described by Zach Mortice, Associate Editor of AIArchitect This Week,

with the circular ribbon of steel...Stout has arrived at a powerful symbol of the eternal vitality and continuum of creation of the arts, culture, and the natural world....It is a reminder that despite changes in taste, form, and medium, all artistic expressions are due for circular revision one day, and that the last generation’s flop can always hope to be the next generation’s discovered treasure.

Besides its functional nature and symbolic references, iconic regional and natural forms have also influenced the ribbon’s expression. Both the Aurora Borealis and the sinuous curves of the North Saskatchewan River have been cited by Stout as inspirations for the curving ribbon which links the external and internal forms of the AGA.

Aurora Borealis and North Saskatchewan River view

The New AGA Entrance under constructionPhoto courtesy of Shane Golby



Art Gallery of Alberta Continued -Randall Stout and the new AGAAccording to Stout, the Northern Lights “sparked my imagination and made me wonder how it might be interpreted in a building intended to illuminate the knowledge of art”. The ribbon itself, the building’s main stainless steel feature, measures 31 metres (102 feet) high and 190 metres (625 feet) in length.

The dicotomy expressed between the ‘ribbon of steel’ and the overall rectilinear structure of the new gallery also mirrors the dicotomy Stout saw all around him during his many visits to Edmonton. As he studied the site of the new museum he noticed that the streets of Edmonton were planned in a hyper-rational grid system and that the surrounding buildings were dull, dour and blandly unified. Yet, despite this, the North Saskatchewan River was allowed to run through the city very much as it had before the city existed. This contemplation of a building’s location is a characteristic feature of the work of Randall Stout Architects Inc. As expressed in the companies profile:

Although our work is unquestionably contemporary in nature, we do not have a singular style. We prefer to express the uniqueness of each site, its regional context, and client objectives in the design. These expressions tend toward abstraction, allowing individual interpretation and meaning. Collectively our buildings contain a narrative that expresses optimism about our culture, technology, and arts, evidencing their place in the 21st century.

The ribbon of steel and glass-enclosed Grand Entrance give the gallery a bold new expression and opens it up to the community. While these public spaces are highly sculptural and transparent, the actual gallery spaces are simple stacked rectangular boxes resulting in the juxtaposition of two very different architectural languages. This union of two styles heightens design interest while satisfying the practical concerns of exhibiting art.

The Art Gallery of Alberta as designed by Randall Stout has already received countless accolades from politicians, business leaders, and leaders in the arts community. As expressed by Edmonton’s Mayor, Stephen Mandel:

Not only is the Art Gallery of Alberta the perfect home for exquisite art from around the world, the building itself is a stunning piece of art. It’s an architectural showpiece for the City of Edmonton and will become an internationally recognizable building. This gallery will certainly be a point of pride for generations of Edmontonians to come.







The Medicine Hat Museum and Art Gallery/The Esplanade Arts and Heritage Centre

pictures, household articles, early firearms and so on were donated or promised and these became the nucleus of the present collections in the Medicine Hat Museum and Art Gallery. Necessitated by the growing accumulation of artifacts and prompted by the Medicine Hat celebration of Alberta’s upcoming 1955 Golden Jubilee, the historical society formed a museum committee in 1948. In the months that followed plans were made to construct a small building on a parcel of land donated by the city in Riverside Park, near the city’s center.

On July 4th, 1951, the log cabin first housing the Medicine Hat Historical Museum was officially opened. From logs contributed by the Provincial Government from Cypress Hills Provincial Park two local men were hired to construct the cabin with funds raised by families of early settlers. In return for a $25 donation, the names of these pioneers and the year of their arrival in the area, was burned into the logs of the building. The Medicine Hat Museum was incorporated under the Alberta Societies Act in 1955.

In 1956, due to city transit construction, the log cabin was moved to a new site and expanded to approximately three times the size of the original building. This building continued to be the site of the museum and became crowded with pioneer and western artifacts. The building, however, was not adequate as it was not heated and had no facilities. As a result, in 1964, the Museum and the Historical Society decided to apply for Centennial funds to build a new building on the same site. Plans were drawn up and submitted during 1965 to the local Centennial committee which recommended that a new, modern brick and tile building should be built with money supplied by municipal, federal and provincial sources. The log building was torn down and, on June 10, 1967, the doors of the new Medicine Hat and District Museum were opened to the public. The new building covered 3,600 square feet at a cost of $85,000. The City of Medicine Hat took over the operation and was responsible for maintenance of the building under a City by-law. The original log cabin was reconstructed inside the new building and is now a pioneer


A Brief History of the Medicine Hat Museum and Art Gallery

On January 29, 1948, following a meeting at the home of Mayor Hector Lang, the Medicine Hat and District Historical Society chose its first executive. The first major project of the newly formed society was to begin compiling biographical and historical information of the early settlers as well as the general progress of the Medicine Hat District.

The interests of the historical society soon became a target for the many families owning treasured artifacts and heirlooms symbolic of the community’s earlier history. Native relics,

Medicine Hat Museum in Riverside Park - 1951Photo Courtesy of the Esplanade Archives, Medicine Hat, ABAcc. Num. 0061.0071


The Esplanade continuedhome display.

In 1972 the Federal Government established a National Museum Policy. Through organization and participation of a network of Associate Museums and Art Galleries across Canada, travelling exhibits were being created in both western and eastern Canada and transported to areas whose people otherwise lacked access to museums. In order to allow access to these exhibits a network of exhibition spaces were to be built to professional museum standards. The Medicine Hat Museum Board applied for participation in this program and in 1974 approval was received for a building of 4000 square feet to be built adjacent to the existing museum building. This new complex, known as the National Exhibition Centre, was officially opened April 27, 1978. In 1981 the Art Gallery program began building its Permanent Collection to include ‘national and international contemporary art which takes as its subject the complex interplay between land, nature, the environment, and human action and interaction.’

In 1982, to resolve the problems of an over-crowded, deteriorating facility, the Board of Trustees began raising funds to expand and renovate the museum and art gallery to be housed in what is now known as the Esplanade Arts & Heritage Centre. Originally planned to be completed in one phase, building was changed to involve three phases. The first and major phase, which opened in April of 1988, expanded the facility by approximately 6000 square feet to a total of 22,760 square feet.

In designing the Esplanade, award-winning architect Jack Diamond of Diamond and Schmitt Architects Incorporated, included components that represent the climate and landscape environment in Medicine Hat. The colours in and around the building reflect the natural coulees and soils in the area, while the glass encasement of the central spiral staircase acts as an exaggerated version of a lantern (representing the gas lanterns that Medicine Hat is known for) when viewed from the exterior. To complete the Esplanade’s relationship to the Medicine Hat environment, a roof-top terrace with an open ceiling to the sky, looks over the South Saskatchewan River Valley.

Diamond and Schmitt ArchitectsThe Esplanade Exterior and Central Staircase File PhotoCollection of the Esplanade Arts and HeritageCentre



The Esplanade continuedThe Esplanade is a 110,000 square foot arts and heritage centre that combines the cultural disciplines of visual arts, performing arts and cultural heritage. It contains a permanent Museum Gallery featuring the history of Medicine Hat and area using pieces from the institutions collection of over 25,000 artifacts. These include pioneer home furnishings, Victorian period artifacts, archaeological artifacts, military, sporting and Native artifacts and much more. The centre also contains an acoustically state-of-the-art 700 seat performing arts facility complete with rehearsal space, orchestra lift, fly-tower,and flexible lighting and sound for performances ranging from local to international, and amateur to professional.

The third main component of the centre is the Art Gallery. Meeting the highest environmental standards, the gallery is capable of accommodating the most demanding exhibitions, while maintaining a permanent collection of artwork of local and regional significance. Exhibitions span all media from drawing to digital, and are accompanied by receptions, talks and other public programs. The Art Gallery also produces and circulates the Alberta Foundation for the Arts Travelling Exhibition Program, Region 4. Since 1995 themed exhibitions developed by this program have reached over 100,000 people annually in smaller venues such as schools and libraries in over 35 communities across southeastern Alberta.


Citadel Theatre, EdmontonDiamond and Schmitt Architects Inc., 1978Photo courtesy of Shane Golby


The Prairie Art GalleryIn 1974 a group of concerned citizens began the process of establishing an art gallery in Grande Prairie. The Prairie Art Gallery was formed in 1975 with its first home in an old chemistry laboratory provided by the Grande Prairie Regional College. After several location changes and extensive fundraising, restoration and renovations, the Prairie Art Gallery (PAG) officially opened its doors in 1985 in the historic Grande Prairie High School. Built in 1929, this site was donated to the Prairie Gallery Society by the City of Grande Prairie. In 1984 the building was designated an Alberta historic site. According to the terms of the donation of the building to the Prairie Art Gallery the city is responsible for all maintenance-related work while the operation and management expenses of the gallery are paid out of funds collected from various grants, fundraising events, and a small amount of self-generated income. The City of Grand Prairie and the Alberta Foundation for the Arts provide grants on a project-specific or event basis.

Prairie Art GalleryBuilding CollapsedFile Photo: The Prairie Art Gallery

In 1993 The Prairie Art Gallery was designated under Category A by the department of Canadian Heritage, due to its high standards of collections management in order to provide tax incentives for Canadians to donate works of art of outstanding significance and national importance to the Gallery. Since then 16 such works have been added to the collection and certified as Cultural Properites and the gallery currently houses a permanent collection of more than 500 works of art.


The Prairie Art Gallery Grande Prairie College Chemistry BuildingSPRA Photo Credit

On March 19, 2007, disaster struck the PAG when almost half of the Gallery collapsed under the heavy snow load on the roof. No one was hurt and no artwork was destroyed but every aspect of the Gallery’s service was affected by the collapse. From May 2007 to May 2009 the PAG was in a temporary location where the staff continued to provide the community with exhibitions and art classes.

The Prairie Art Gallery Randy Vanderveen & DHT Photo credit


The Prairie Art Gallery continued

Before the collapse the PAG had already begun fundraising and planning for an addition to their historic building - the Montrose Cultural Centre, which the gallery would share with the Grande Prairie Public Library. After the collapse construction went ahead and in June of 2009 the PAG opened its doors in the new centre while construction linking the historic building to the Montrose Centre continues. At present the Prairie Art Gallery occupies 1/4 of the new Montrose Cultural Centre. This new building was designed by Steven Teeple Architects of Toronto. The design as planned involves an 8000 square foot expansion of the Prairie Art Gallery, which includes 3 galleries in the Montrose Cultural Centre and an additional five to six galleries in the repaired historic building.

The new construction has provided the PAG an opportunity to put into practice some of the new accepted wisdom in museum design. This started with the Gallery’s partnership with the library - a co-location that benefits both organizations. Also, in both the old and new gallery spaces, Director Robert Steven wants visitors to the gallery to be able to see behind the scenes and experience how the art and artifacts are presented from start to finish. The gallery is trying to develop a theme of ‘transparency’ where windows, open space, natural sunlight, and providing background information in the gallery and online for everything the gallery does all combine to enhance visitor experience. As expressed by Steven:

“ What’s definitely changed in the museum world is that we’re now thinking as much about the needs of the visitor, as we are about the needs of the collection”.


While city councillors initially decided to demolish the damaged gallery, an expert review of the damage in 2008 showed the structure of the building was sound and Alberta Culture Minister Lindsay Blackett sent a letter to the gallery board saying ‘conservation of the building remains the most favourable option’ if such was affordable. As a result, in December of 2008 city councillors voted to rescind their decision to demolish the building and decided to go forward with plans to repair the building and have it serve as the cornerstone to the new Montrose Cultural Centre.

Grande Prairie High School/Montrose CentreArtist RenderingPAG ExteriorCredit: Teeple Architects Rendering


Visual Learning and

Hands-On Art Projects

Randall Stoutt and AGA Building Model



What is Visual Learning?All art has many sides to it. The artist makes the works for people to experience. They in turn can make discoveries about both the work and the artist that help them learn and give them pleasure for a long time. How we look at an object determines what we come to know about it. We remember information about an object far better when we are able to see (and handle) objects rather than by only reading about them. This investigation through observation (looking) is very important to undertanding how objects fit into our world in the past and in the present and will help viewers reach a considered response to what they see. The following is a six-step method to looking at, and understanding, a work of art.

STEP 1: INITIAL, INTUITIVE RESPONSE The first ‘gut level’ response to a visual presentation. What do you see and what do you think of it?

STEP 2: DESCRIPTION Naming facts - a visual inventory of the elements of design.Questions to Guide Inquiry:What colours do you see? What shapes are most noticeable?What objects are most apparent? Describe the lines in the work.

STEP 3: ANALYSIS Exploring how the parts relate to each other.Questions to Guide Inquiry:What proportions can you see? eg. What percentage of the work is background? Foreground? Land? Sky?Why are there these differences? What effect do these differences create?What parts seem closest to you? Farthest away? How does the artist give this impression?

STEP 4: INTERPRETATION Exploring what the work might mean or be about.Questions to Guide Inquiry:How does this work make you feel? Why?What word would best describe the mood of this work?What is this painting/photograph/sculpture about?Is the artist trying to tell a story? What might be the story in this work?

STEP 5: INFORMATION Looking beyond the work for information that may further understanding.Questions to Guide Inquiry: What is the artist’s name? When did he/she live?What art style and medium does the artist use?What artist’s work is this artist interested in?What art was being made at the same time as this artist was working?What was happening in history at the time this artist was working?What social/political/economic/cultural issues is this artist interested in?

STEP 6: PERSONALIZATION What do I think about this work? (Reaching a considered response)

© Virginia Stephen



Introduction to the Elements of Design Tour

AFA Travelling Exhibition Program Edmonton, AB Ph: 780.428.3830 Fax:780.421.0479 youraga.ca

The following pages provide definitions and examples of the elements and principles of art that are used by artists in the images found in the exhibition. The elements of art are components of a work of art that can be isolated and defined. They are the building blocks used to create a work of art. *Use this tour to better understand the purpose of the artist’s choices!

LINE !

SHAPE!

COLOUR!

TEXTURE!

SPACE!


Elements of Composition Tour


LINE: An element of art that is used to define shape, contours and outlines. It is also used to suggest mass and volume. See: Untitled (Backyard Building Group) by James NicollWhat is a line? What types of lines are there?A line is a continuous mark made by a pencil, brush, pen or other tool. Lines can be thick or thin, straight or curved, jagged or smooth, light or heavy.

Where can we find lines in architecture? In architecture, lines are often suggested by the structural materials designers choose for their buildings such as the random lines of natural stone or the sleek lines created by beams of steel or walls of glass. Modern buildings often use bold lines created by structural steel cross bracing. Lines can also be suggested by the shape and mass of a building. For instance, a building can look horizontal or vertical.

What lines do you see in this drawing?We see vertical lines in the fence posts, windows and sides of the houses. Horizontal lines on the rooftops and diagonal lines repeated on the fence and rooflines.

How do the lines change within the drawing and how do they create emphasis and visual interest in the work? Lines are drawn with a variety of weight to them. The majority of lines are drawn very softly, increasing pressure to the buildings near the centre of the paper. Because of the variety in the weight of line, our attention is drawn towards the darker lines and move outward across the rooftops and down the fence line towards the diagonal lines in the foreground. The repeated diagonals and diverse use of charcoal line help to give this lifeless group of houses energy.

SPACE: Space is the relative position of one three-dimensional object to another. It is the area between and around objects. See: Art Gallery of Alberta

How is space important to an architect when designing a building?Space is one of the most important considerations an architect must think about while designing a building, because the sizes of rooms and hallways, the height of ceilings and the ease of entering and exiting each living area must carefully match the function of the building. Architects choose dimensions of rooms to match the number of people who will occupy the space and the amount of activity that will occur in it.

How can an architect use space to add interest to a building?To make a building more interesting, architects will experiment with aesthetic qualities of space by varying the width and height of rooms through which people will move. They may also experiment with a variety of shapes for the exterior of the building to add visual interest. Architects also speak of space as the amount of land that will be occupied by a building on a site. The remaining area is called open space.


Elements of Composition Tour continued


What size of artwork do you think will be inside? Small paintings or really large sculpture? How many floors do you think there are inside the AGA? Looking at the height of the building, we can envision really large artworks being inside. There may be three or even four floors inside the building.

How does the size of the Art Gallery of Alberta look in comparison to surrounding buildings? The AGA, although appearing very different in shape and material, does not seem to overwhelm the surrounding buildings because of the variety in height of surrounding buildings and features within Churchill Square. Because the borealis on the facade of the structure comes down quite low, the entrance appears more inviting.

SHAPE: When a line crosses itself or intersects with other lines to enclose a space it creates a shape. A two dimensional shape is one that is drawn on a flat surface such as paper. A three-dimensional shape is one that takes up real space.

See: Art Gallery of Alberta

What kind of shapes can you think of?Geometric: circles, squares, rectangles and triangles. We see them in architecture and manufactured items.Organic shapes: a leaf, seashell, flower. We see them in nature with characteristics that are freeflowing, informal and irregular.Static shapes: shapes that appear stable and resting.Dynamic shapes: Shapes that appear moving and active.

Where can we find 2-dimensional shapes in architecture? Architectural drawings often try to indicate what the proposed building will look like as a three-dimensional form by the use of perspective.

What shapes can you see in these buildings?We can see rectangles, and squares in the photograph of the Edmonton Art Gallery.Looking at the photograph of the Art Gallery of Alberta we can still see rectangles and squares but we also can see curvy and irregular shapes.

Identify the organic and geometric shapes in the two buildings. The organic shape is represented by the large curving metal ribbon that moves through the building.

Does the curvy organic shape remind you of anything? What do you think inspired the srchitect Randall Stout to create such a shape for the Art Gallery of Alberta? How are his inspirations seen in his architecture?It may remind us of a large whale tail, a slide or a ribbon. Randall Stout was inspired by the Aurora Borealis when he designed this architectural feature. The flickering light of the Aurora Borealis inspired Randall Stout to use metal and glass that would reflect light. At the AGA we call this feature of the building the “Borealis”. Another inspiration Randall Stout used was the North Saskatchewan river and the way in which it winds and curves throughout Edmonton. We can follow similar curves if we look at the “Borealis” on the building.




TEXTURE: Texture is the surface quality of an object that can be seen or felt. Texture can also be implied on a two-dimensional surface.

See: Montrose Cultural Centre and Grande Prairie High School

What is texture? How do you describe how something feels? What are the two kinds of texture you can think of that exist in an artwork?

Texture is the apparent look or feel of the surface of an art object. Texture can be real, like the actual texture of an object. Texture can be rough, smooth, hard, soft, glossy, etc. Texture can also be implied. This happens when a two-dimensional piece of art is made to look like a certain texture. How can an architect create texture? Where can we find texture on a building?

An architect creates texture in building by certain choices of materials. Heavy, jagged stone may be used in a building to give it a rough texture, whereas delicate, carved woods can give a structure a light and airy look. Texture can also be suggested by the rich layering of shapes and forms on a building. Architects add visual interest to their buildings by using decorative building materials such as siding, stone and woodcarvings, or they can vary the pattern of concrete forms.

Look at the photograph of the Grande Prairie High School and Montrose texture. Where can you imagine texture on the buildings?

We can see the material of the buildings are different. The High School is brick and the Montrose Centre is glass. These two materials have very different textures; the brick is rough and jagged and the glass is smooth and shiny.

What effect do these different materials have on the overall appearance of the building? When was this building built? What makes you think this?

The two different textures in materials create contrast within the overall appearance of the building because of the difference in the feel and look of the material. The brick that makes up the front of the building seems much older than the steel and glass on the addition. The brick structure was built in 1929 as a high school and was donated to the Prairie Art Gallery in 1985.




COLOUR: Colour comes from light that is reflected off objects. See: Abstract Grain Elevator #1, 2002 by Karen Brownlee

Colour has three main characteristics: Hue, or its name (red, blue, etc.), Value (how light or dark the colour is), and Intensity (how bright or dull the colour is)

What are primary colours? Do you see any? Point to them in the painting. What secondary colours do you see?Colour is made of primary colours, red, blue, yellow. We see red and yellow on the roofs and sides of buildings, yellow on the ground. The secondary colours are orange, violet and green. Primary colours are mixed to form secondary colours.

What kind of buildings are these? What colour are they in our landscape? The colours we see in the painting are not what we would expect to see on these buildings. Why do you think the artist chose these colours?We recognize these buildings as grain elevators we see in small towns on the Alberta landscape. They are normally pale green in colour. The artist may have chosen these colours to draw attention to the buildings themselves; the idea of using these colours portrays the landscape in a very different way than the pale green used for the grain elevators at present.

What colour is your eye directed to first? Where does it travel to next? Why? Your eye may be directed to the area with the largest amount of black and white contrast seen in the left side of the work. Your eye may travel to the right side of the work to the black and white shapes, then down to the bottom forming a triangle. This movement within the work is important to allow the viewer’s eye to move around the picture.

Is the image mostly composed of warm or cool colours or both? What are complementary colours? Point to an area within the artwork. What effect does the use of complementary colours have within the artwork? The image has both warm and cool colour. Complementary colours are those opposite on the colour wheel. For example, red and green. When placed next to each other these colours look bright and create contrast. When we see complementary colours in an artwork it tends to draw attention to that area. For example the red-orange side of the buildings in the work draws the viewer’s attention because of the contrasting green seen right beside.

What are analogous colours? Explain the different effect these colours have when placed next to each other.Analogous colours are those next to each other on the colour wheel. For example, red, red-orange and orange are analogous colours. This effect reduces impact to these areas and has less visual interest. A range of values is often used to help increase the illusion of space.


Elements and Principles Balance is a simple visual concept that relates to our experience of physical balance. It is a natural tendency to want the world, including the visual world, to be “in balance.” We tend to relate visual balance to the horizon. This is particularly true in architecture, since buildings must be built on the ground. Balance in architecture can easily be achieved and should always be strived for in architectural composition. Methods of achieving balance can be classified as follows:

Asymmetrical balance and Symmetrical or formal balance

Look at this drawing of the Cathedral of Saint-Pierre in Angouleme, France. What type of balance is this? You can draw a line down the middle of the front face, and everything on either side would be mirror image. Symmetrical or formal balance is mirror image balance. If you draw a line down the center of the page, all the objects on one side of the screen are mirrored on the other side (they may not be identical objects, but they are similar in terms of numbers of objects, colours and other elements.

By contrast, asymmetrical balance is achieved when neither side reflects or mirrors the other.

Looking at the photograph of the Esplanade Arts & Heritage Centre, what type of balance does this building have? How do you know?This building can be classified as having symmetrical balance. We can see that the shapes on one side of the building are repeated on the other to give equal weight and balance. Both sides of the building show an almost equal weight with the orderly repeated shape. Balance is also achieved with the continuity of materials used throughout the building as well as the amount of light allowed into the space.

Why do you think symmetrical balance might be popular in architecture?Countless examples of architecture with symmetrical balance can be found throughout the world, dating from most periods of art history. The popularity of symmetrical design is not hard to understand. The formal quality in symmetry can give an immediate feeling of permanence, strength and stability. Such qualities are important in public buildings and suggest clarity and order.

What mood, if any, would you say the elements of the Esplanade give?Looking at the elements and how they are repeated and balanced gives a calm and natural rhythm to the building.

Cathedral of Saint-Pierre in Angouleme, France.



Reading PicturesGrades 4-12/adults

Objectives:The purposes of this program are to:1/introduce participants to Art and what artists do – this includes examinations of art styles; art elements; the possible aims and meaning(s) in an artwork and how to deduce those meanings and aims2/ introduce visitors to the current exhibition – the aim of the exhibition and the kind of artwork found in the exhibition. -the artist (s) - his/her background(s) -his/her place in art history3/ engage participants in a deeper investigation of artworks

Teacher/Facilitator Introduction to Program:

This program is called Reading Pictures. What do you think this might involve?

-generate as many ideas as possible concerning what viewers might think ‘Reading Pictures’ might involve or what this phrase might mean.

Before we can ‘read’ art, however, we should have some understanding of what we’re talking about.

What is Art? If you had to define this term, how would you define it?

Art can be defined as creative expression - and artistic practice is an aspect and expression of a peoples’ culture or the artist’s identity.

The discipline of Art, or the creation of a piece of art, however, is much more than simple ‘creative expression’ by an ‘artist’ or an isolated component of culture.

How many of you would describe yourselves as artists?

You may not believe it, but everyday you engage in some sort of artistic endeavor.

How many of you got up this morning and thought about what you were going to wear today?Why did you choose the clothes you did? Why do you wear your hair that way? How many of you have tattoos or plan to get a tattoo some day? What kind of tattoo would you choose? Why.....? How many of you own digital cameras or have cameras on cell phones? How many of you take pictures and e-mail them to other people?



Reading Pictures continuedArt is all around us and we are all involved in artistic endeavors to some degree. The photographs we take, the colour and styles of the clothes we wear, the ways we build and decorate our homes, gardens and public buildings, the style of our cell phones or the vehicles we drive, the images we see and are attracted to in advertising or the text or symbols on our bumper stickers – all of these things (and 9 billion others) utilize artistic principles. They say something about our personal selves and reflect upon and influence the economic, political, cultural, historical and geographic concerns of our society.

Art, therefore, is not just something some people in a society do – it is somethign that affects and informs everyone within a society.

Today we’re going to look at art - paintings, prints, drawings, sculptures – and see what art can tell us about the world we live in – both the past, the present and possibly the future – and what art can tell us about ourselves.

Art is a language like any other and it can be read.

Art can be read in two ways. It can be looked at intuitively – what do you see? What do you like or not like? How does it make you feel and why? – or it can be read formally by looking at what are called the Elements of Design – the “tools” artists use or consider when creating a piece of work.

What do you think is meant by the elements of design? What does an artist use to create a work of art?

Today we’re going to examine how to read art – we’re going to see how art can affect us emotionally... and how an artist can inform us about our world, and ourselves, through what he or she creates.

Tour Program

- Proceed to one of the works in the exhibition and discuss the following:a) the nature of the work - what kind of work is it and what exhibition is it a part of?b) examine the work itself – What do visitors see? – How do you initially feel about what you see? Why do you feel this way? What do you like? What don’t you like? Why? –What is the work made of? –How would you describe the style? What does this mean?



Reading Pictures continued–What is the compositional structure? How are the shapes and colours etc. arranged? Why are they arranged this way? –How does the work make them feel? What is the mood of the work? What gives them this idea? Discuss the element(s) of design which are emphasized in the work in question.–What might the artist be trying to do in the work? What might the artist be saying or what might the work ‘mean’?

c) Summarize the information

• At each work chosen, go through the same or similar process, linking the work to the type of exhibition it is a part of. Also, with each stop, discuss a different Element of Design and develop participants’ visual learning skills.

At the 1st stop, determine with the participants the most important Element of Design used and focus the discussion on how this element works within the artwork. Do the same with each subsequent artwork and make sure to cover all the elements of design on the tour.

Stop #1: LINEStop #2: SHAPEStop #3: COLOURStop #4: TEXTUREStop #5: SPACEStop #6: ALL TOGETHER – How do the elements work together to create a certain mood or story? What would you say is the mood of this work? Why? What is the story or meaning of this work? Why?

Work sheet activity – 30 minutes•Divide participants into groups of two or three to each do this activity. Give them 30 minutes to complete the questions then bring them all together and have each group present one of their pieces to the entire group.

Presentations – 30 minutes•Each group to present on one of their chosen works.

Visual Learning Activity Worksheet * Photocopy the following worksheet so each participant has their own copy.



Reading Pictures continuedVisual Learning Worksheet

Instructions: Choose two very different pieces of artwork in the exhibition and answer the following questions in as much detail as you can.

1. What is the title of the work and who created it?

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

2. What do you see and what do you think of it? (What is your initial reaction to the work?) Why do you feel this way?______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

3. What colours do you see and how does the use of colour affect the way you ‘read’ the work? Why do you think the artist chose these colours – or lack of colour – for this presentation?_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

4. What shapes and objects do you notice most? Why?_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


The Alberta Foundation for the Arts Travelling Exhibition Program-

Reading Pictures continued5. How are the shapes/objects arranged or composed? How does this affect your feel-ings towards or about the work? What feeling does this composition give to the work?______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

6. How would you describe the mood of this work? (How does it make you feel?) What do you see that makes you describe the mood in this way?_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

7. What do you think the artist’s purpose was in creating this work? What ‘story’ might he or she be telling? What aspects of the artwork give you this idea?___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

8. What do you think about this work after answering the above questions? Has your opinion of the work changed in any way? Why do you feel this way?_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

9. How might this work relate to your own life experiences? Have you ever been in a similar situation/place and how did being there make you feel?___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________



Perusing Paintings: An Artful Scavenger Hunt

In teaching art, game-playing can enhance learning. If students are engaged in learning, through a variety of methods, then it goes beyond game-playing. Through game-playing we are trying to get students to use higher-order thinking skills by getting them to be active participants in learn-ing. Blooms’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives, which follows, is as applicable to teaching art as any other discipline.

1. knowledge: recall of facts2. comprehension: participation in a discussion3. application: applying abstract information in practical situations4. analysis: separating an entity into its parts5. synthesis: creating a new whole from many parts, as in developing a complex work of art6. evaluation: making judgements on criteria

A scavenger hunt based on artworks is a fun and engaging way to get students of any age to really look at the artworks and begin to discern what the artist(s) is/are doing in the works. The simple template provided, however, would be most suitable for grade 1-3 students.

Instruction:Using the exhibition works provided, give students a list of things they should search for that are in the particular works of art. The students could work with a partner or in teams. Include a blank for the name of the artwork, the name of the artist, and the year the work was created. Following the hunt, galther students together in the exhibition area and check the answers and discuss the particular works in more detail.

Sample List:

Scavenger Hunt Item Title of Artwork Name of Artist Year Work Createdsomeone wearing a hata specific animallandscapea bright red objecta night scenea house

*This activity was adapted from A Survival Kit for the Elementary/Middle School Art Teacher by Helen D. Hume.


An Artful Scavenger Hunt templateThe Alberta Foundation for the Arts Travelling Exhibition Program

Scavenger Hunt Item Title of Artwork Name of Artist Year Work Created




A house constructed from cardboard

Everyone Is An Architect!For the Teacher Your students will need to consider the same information architects must have as they design their buildings. They need to decide what the purpose of the building is, how large it will be, what the materials are, what the “cost” will be, etc. The models they make will all start with approximately the same size basic tagboard box, but their building’s purpose will determine how it will be built. Ask students what building material they mostly see on houses in the area where they live. It could be brick, stone, siding, adobe, shingles. Show students some typical architectural styles from other countries such as half-timbered houses in England or thatched-roof homes in Denmark. Discuss structures such as a mill, country stores, churches.

Vocabularystructure shinglesadobe shuttersstone exteriorbrick patternrepetition

Preparation This project will take several periods. It is useful to have photocopies of various structures available for students to see. Create an architectural file of small black and white photocopies of buildings. Mount them on index cards or construction paper and laminate to keep them from year to year. Discuss scale with the students in order to have buildings approximately the same size. Make a plain sample tagboard box and roof to show students where they will begin. Talk with them about how they can transform their building before painting by adding shingles cut from tagboard, windows with small panes, and porches. The roof might be the most interesting part of the building.

Adaptation for Younger StudentsLunch-Bag Houses Young students can cut out windows, doors, flowers, etc from construction paper to glue on the fronts and sides of newspaper-stuffed paper lunch bags. A 6x9 inch piece of construction paper can be folded in half to form the two halves of a 6x4½ inch roof. Students can glue on a chimney and use marker to decorate the paper with shingles. Staple the roof onto the top of the bag/house across the fold. To add stability, glue these to a “lawn” made of 6x9 inch piece of green paper.

Alternate ProjectPueblo Each student can make a portion of a Southwestern Pueblo, such as Taos, New Mexico, by constructing a simple brown cardboard box. If cardboard isn’t obtainable, cover small boxes with brown kraft paper or paint with tan paint. The doors and window outlines can be painted turquoise. When each student has made a box, these can be grouped together, leaving some as single-story dwellings, but also stacking some together to make a two and three-story high pueblo. Round vigas (logs used to support the roofs) can be painted near the flat tops, or actual twigs can be poked in holes.



Everyone Is An Architect! continued

Materials

tagboard brushes alphabet noodlestempera paint Popsicle sticks corrugated cardboardscissors toothpicks gravelsandpaper rulers

Directions Consider what and where your building is going to be. If it is to be in the country, it might look entirely different than if it were in a city. The climate (wind, snow, scarce water), trees, location (urban or country) all help to determine how your building will be made. Because this is the exterior only, consider how it will look from the outside. How many windows will you have? How many doors? Will there be a front porch, dormer windows in the second story, shingles on the roof?

1. Do a rough drawing of your ideas, then when you have decided on a structure, carefully measure and cut the tagboard that will be used for your basic house. The two ends will be taller and come to a point to support a peaked roof. You can put a two 2-story box-houses side by side, or make a 1-story ranch house with a front porch going all the way across. The following templates can also be used to create buildings.

2. The roof will be a simple peaked roof, with a chimney attached to the top or going up one side of the house. Dormers can be added. Finish the roof with individually cut pieces (shingles) of tagboard. Begin at the bottom of the roof and apply shingles horizontally, carefully overlapping and working toward the peak. To make them resemble European-style shingles, cut them round on the bottom.

3. Use a ruler to measure, carefully spacing and drawing windows and doors. Emphasize windows by outlining with tagboard strips. The exterior can be finished in a variety of ways. Long strips of tagboard can be overlapped to look like siding (start at bottom and work up), or you can make a surface of small shingles (like the roof). Texture can be added with popsicle sticks, washed gravel, or sandpaper. Toothpicks, wooden skewers, or small twigs could make a log cabin-style surface. A name or sign can be fashioned on matboard using glued-on alphabet noodles.

4. When the building is completed, place it on an irregular cardboard base slightly larger than the structure. The base is a plot of land. You can paint the structure and base, adding sand or other materials to create texture.


Examples of dormers


Everyone Is An Architect! continued

Interdisciplinary ConnectionsLanguage ArtsDesign A Dream Home Students can write about what their dream house will contain. It could be a modern home or an old building in the country. Writing in advance of actually designing the home may help them to individualize it. Or, when the process is finished, have them write about changes they made as they went along, and how different it looks from their original idea.Social StudiesHistoric Village Students can construct similar houses to produce historical, cultural, or regional architecture, such as 18th and 19th century row houses of many North American citie, a town of the Old West, an Indian village Prehistoric village, African village, a small German town, Stratford-on-Avon, or a Greek Acropolis.


Materials

cardboard milk cartons glue construction papersmall cracker or cereal boxes scissors masking tapesheets of posterboard acrylic or tempera paint

Directions Working as a class, you will have to decide with your classmates what kind of buildings are needed in the town you will create. Plan the city by deciding on water supply, parks, transportation, schools, factories, city centre, shops, malls. Decide whether it is okay to have two buildings that serve the same purpose. Think about whether you want to build around a village square or would like to have a “Main Street.”1. Residences can be made from 3˝x3˝ milk cartons and covered or painted. To make a taller building such as an apartment building, department store, or city hall, use larger or taller milk cartons or stack and tape small cartons together and cover with construction paper.2. If you use an ordinary milk carton, the roof can simply be painted. Or fold a square of cardboard in half to make a peaked roof. These houses can be covered with construction paper or a layer of newsprint glued on with polymer medium or white glue.3. If you choose to paint the cartons, use acrylic paint or add liquid detergent to tempera to help it stick to a slick surface. Add details such as windows, doors and painted brick, clapboard or stone. When the individual houses are complete, work in small groups to complete a “neighbourhood” on a square of cardboard or posterboard.4. Students who have constructed larger buildings would probably group these together as “downtown”, while small houses might be a suburban neighbourhood. You may decide to give individual yards to each house, or group them closely together as apartments. Draw streets, make playgrounds and trees of found materials such as popsicle sticks, sponges, and/or crumpled construction paper. 5. When each section is complete, join these small neighbourhoods together to make a larger city. Talk about changes you would make if you had the chance to do this project over again.


City Planning Project

Constructing a house using a milk cartonAn example of a city plan


For the Teacher This project is to challenge your students to incorporate found materials into an architectural model, to think beyond the ordinary. Architect Frank Gehry has spent a lifetime in experimentation with materials. He even designed furniture that was manufactured from rolls of corrugated cardboard. His art museum in Bilbao, Spain is bold in its use of a stainless steel exterior.

Since at least the Renaissance, it has been commonplace for cities and sponsors to conduct architectural competitions for special buildings, civic centres, monuments, bridges, and museums. Other works of art that have been chosen by competition are stadiums, urban park designs, and gates. Architects submit renderings, blueprints, and models for the competition. A model of cardboard, balsa wood, or plastic is constructed to scale according to the blueprints. Many museums have such models in their collections. The Royal Academy in London devotes an entire gallery to displaying such models in their annual summer show. Students might be interested to learn that making architectural models is a full time career for many people.

Vocabulary

model blueprint scalecompetition rendering

Preparation You can make this project as simple or complex as you want. You might just have students do a pencil drawing or blueprint of a plan. Renderings can be done in watercolour, ink or collage. Have students begin bringing in “quality junk”. This can include plastic packaging, discarded displays from grocery stores, or plastic straws. This project can be worked on individually or in pairs.

Alternate ProjectsFoamboard or Cardboard ModelOlder students could make a model by measuring and cutting a material such as posterboard or foam core with a cutting knife. Safety Note: If you use cutting knives, count them before and after class and caution students always to have the holding hand behind the knife, never to cut towards the holding hand.

Accessorizing A BuildingSome students might be more interested in creating a sculptural maquette (model) for outdoor sculpture for the front of the building. Some cities now have laws that the costs of new buildings include some money for monumental sculpture and landscaping. Other students might like to consider what type of monumental artwork could go inside a lobby. Tapestries, sculpture, murals, fountains and mosaics are all being used in one form or another in new buildings. Someone else might be interested in designing a facade or interesting top for a basic skyscraper. The 1950’s plain black boxes have given way to buildings that are far more decorative.


The Architectural Competition: Making Models

The Door CompetitionHave students design new doors for their school or home. These can be made of layers of tagboard or construction paper, cut out and glued. Lorenzo Ghiberti was the winner of a famous competition in Florence, Italy when he designed beautiful bronze doors for the Cathedral Baptistry, called by some The Gates of Heaven.


The Architectural Competition: Making Models

Model of Gehry’s unbuilt design for the Familian Residence in Santa Monica, California, 1978



House Templates



House Templates



Exteriors: One Point Perspective ProjectBackground Do you know what an exterior is? Exterior refers to something that is outside. Can you name the term for something that is inside? Very often artists who draw a landscape or an exterior view need to show depth, the distance from front to back or top to bottom.The feeling of space or depth can be shown in several ways. Objects can overlap other objects, so that one appears to be behind the other. Distance can be shown by drawing objects in the distance much smaller than objects close to you. Distance can also be shown by drawing shadows of objects and making faraway objects appear hazy.Using lines to show depth is called linear perspective. Parallel straight lines go away from you until they seem to meet and disappear. The place where they seem to meet is the vanishing point. This point is on the horizon line, where earth and sky meet. It is sometimes called the eye-level line.

Childe HassamBoston Common at Twilight Oil on canvasMuseum of Fine Arts BostonLook at Childe Hassam’s picture, Boston Common at Twilight. Notice how the trees and posts are set in a line that goes to a point about one-third of the way into the picture. The line drawing shows how this perspective was achieved. In this lesson you will draw an exterior vanishing point using one point perspective. You will increase your awareness of depth and your ability to work with a ruler.

Instructions 1. Use a ruler to draw a line across the top part of your paper, about 2 or 3 inches from the top. In the centre of the line, place a dot to represent the vanishing point. Using the ruler, draw two straight lines, one from each side at the bottom of your paper to the dot. Your sketch should look similar to the line drawing shown in this lesson. 2. Now imagine that you are looking down a roadway, walk, or railroad that goes as far as you can see. Draw some objects along the sides of the roadway. Be sure to make the objects smaller as they appear farther down the road.3. When you achieve a good feeling of distance, colour your sketch. Colour can also show distance. Objects which are closer are usually brighter, larger, and more detailed than those in the distance.4. Display your one point perspective drawing with others in your class. Which ones show the feeling of distance best?

Line drawing to show perspective

Materials drawing paper pencils eraser paints coloured pencils/ pastels rulers brushes


Before he or she can design a building, an architect must know where a building is to be placed and what its purpose is to be. What kinds of conditions would make it important to build a home on stilts? What is the basic shape of the hut? Building materials must also be suited to the climate where the home is to be built. Unlike the hut, the Japanese building shown here is built in layers with a tiled roof and sliding doors. Room divisions are often made with rice paper partitions.Notice the picture of a Victorian style house. How is it different from the other two houses pictured here? How many shapes can you find in this design? The foil relief house shown in this lesson was modeled in the Victorian style. Creating a model increases awareness of detail, shape, line, balance and unity. The model maker must decide how to use emphasis– which parts of the house be dominant or more important, and which parts will be subordinate, or less important.

Objective In this lesson you will choose a house design and make a foil relief house.


Foil Relief Houses Project

Imperial Palace, JapanApache hut Victorian style home

Background How many different kind of homes have you lived in or observed? If you look at the three homes pictured here, you’ll notice that each one looks different from the others. People living in different countries have developed a variety of building styles for their lifestyles. An architect, one who designs buildings, must be concerned with the practical, technical parts of the building as well as its beauty.


Materials sketch paper ink pencil eraser ruler string scissors brush posterboard toothpicks spaghetti soft cloth white glue aluminum foil Instructions 1. Look through photographs, magazines, books or take a field trip to observe different styles of homes. You may wish to use a style of home found in a different country. When you find a home you like, look for the simple shapes in the design. Draw the general outline of the structure. Then add windows, doors and large details. You will be working with simple lines and basic shapes more than small details. 2. When your sketch is complete, draw it on a piece of posterboard. Use white glue to apply cut pieces of string, toothpicks, spaghetti, screen, macaroni and similar items to outline the lines and shapes of your design. Build up parts of the design that are to stand out. Then let the structure dry thoroughly.



Foil Relief Houses Project continued

3. Now brush the entire surface of your design with watered-down white glue. Pull out a sheet of foil that extends about 4 inches longer than your board. Gently crumple the foil and then smooth it out. It should have lines and texture in it. Spread the foil over your relief design.4. Next, use a soft cloth to rub over the foil to reveal the raised lines and shapes of your design. Fold the foil over the edges of the board and tape them to the back.5. Finally, brush ink carefully over the surface of the foil. With a soft, dry cloth rub off the excess. This will give your foil relief an antique, textured look.

Background Have you ever seen a building that had tall columns in front? If so, you have seen a feature of Greek architecture. The ancient Greeks and Romans built many examples of beautiful architecture. They built temples, sports and entertainment stadiums, and elaborate arches. Symmetry in balance was important to both the Greeks and the Romans so their buildings may have a similar look. But, there are important differences between the two styles of architecture. Notice the picture of the Parthenon below. This Greek temple was built about 440 B.C. to honour the Greek goddess Athena. It is an example of Doric architecture. Look at the fluted, or grooved columns. Made of marble, each is massive, stumpy and without a base. The column narrows toward the top. Carved statues decorate the frieze, the space just under the roof all the way around the temple. Do you notice any curves in this Greek building design?Now examine the Roman Arch of Constantine and the Colosseum. The Romans invented a form of concrete and were able to form curved arches. What other similarities and differences between Greek and Roman styles can you find?

Objective In this lesson, you will design and draw a building that combines features from both Greek and Roman architecture styles. You will increase your awareness of structure and experiment with a variety of lines and details to show style, balance and beauty in your building design.

Materials drawing paper pencil eraser ink and pen marking pens

Instructions1. Carefully study pictures of Greek and Roman architecture styles in this lesson, online or in books. Observe the features and details of these styles. What parts appeal to you the most?

2. Before you sketch your building, decide what its purpose is to be. Will it be used as a sports stadium? Is it to be a home? Is it to be an arch honouring the achievement of someone or a special group? When you have a purpose in mind, draw some practice sketches of a building that combines features from both Greek and Roman architecture. Remember that the design must be balanced symmetrically.

3. Make a finished drawing of your building. You may wish to go over your drawing very carefully in ink. Label your building and display your architectural design in your classroom.


Greek and Roman Architecture Styles

ParthenonAthens, Greece

Arch of ConstantineRome, Italy

ColosseumRome, Italy

Learning Outcomes 1. Name two similarities and two differences between Greek and Roman styles of architecture. 2. Identify the Greek and Roman features of your building design. 3. Tell which you prefer, Greek or Roman architecture styles, and why.



Towers and Turrets


This project is inspired by the work London Storefront by Stanford Perrott, part of the exhibition Culture Crates.

Background/Objectives

Many buildings throughout the world feature towers or turrets as part of their architectural design. A tower is a tall, vertical structure which either stands free or is part of a building. A turret is a small tower that usually contains stairs and is located at the top of a building. In Europe towers were used as part of a castle’s defense. From their high perch, lookouts could spy enemies approaching in the distance. Prison-ers could also be kept isolated in towers. For the people who lived near the castle, the towers were a symbol of safety.

In this lesson students will design and colour a building that has towers and turrets. They will increase their awareness of building structure and exercise their imaginations as they use a variety of lines, shapes, forms and details in their original architectural designs.

Standford PerrottLondon Storefront, 1950Watercolour on paperCollection of the Alberta Foundation for the Arts

Art Materials

Drawing paperPencil and eraserColoured markers, chalk, oil pastels, crayons, coloured pencils etc.Paper boxes, tubes etc. for constructionGlueScissors

Instructions1. Study structures that feature towers and turrets by looking through books and magazines or going on a field trip. What sort of tower do you especially like? think abut the purpose of your building. It may be a fantasy structure, or a modern building such as a library, or perhaps a bell tower or a fort. Think about the location of your building and what purpose the turrets or towers might have.

2. Make practice sketches of your building design. Experiment with placing the towers in different places on your building. When you like the balance of your design, draw it on another piece of paper.

3. Add details such as windows, moats, doors, walls, or patterned roof designs. Think about what materials might be used in constructing your building. Would it be made of marble, stone,


Towers and Turrets continued


wood, tile, plaster, adobe, logs, metal or something else? What colours might be used?

4. Colour your completed drawing. You may wish to add landscaping details such as trees, walkways, shrubbery, or flowers. Display your finished architectural design. If you wish, construct your design with boxes, paper tubes, cardboard cutouts etc.

Learning Outcomes1. Define tower and turret2. Describe special features of your building and name its purpose. What did you try to commu-nicate with your design?

Edmonton City Hall Bell Tower, 2010Photograph courtesy of Shane Golby

Tower of Londonhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castle


Architectural CollageAll GradesBackground Buildings are made of many different shapes. Look at the buildings in your area. What shapes do you see? Discuss the different shapes.

Objective Students could work with shapes found within the buildings they see in their neighbour-hoods or their school.

Materialslarge paper for background coloured construction paper paper with texture and pattern (wallpa-per, wrapping paper, etc.) scissors and glue coloured pencils or markers

Procedure

1. Look at and find the different shapes in the chosen building, i.e cones, squares, triangles, etc.2. Have students decide on the “look” of a building they wish to make. It can be a house, church, museum, art gallery, etc.3. Have students think about all the shapes their building could have. These could be sketched on scrap paper. Is their building tall and rectangular? Is it square, short or long?Does it have square, arched or round windows? Will the building have decorations, textures or special features? What style of roof does it have? 4. Next, have students cut and glue their chosen shapes onto their background paper.5. Add architectural details with pencils or markers.




Museum Master BuildersGrades 4-9

Rationale: Students explore the role of a museum and the job of an architect. In the studio program students work in small groups to create a building model given a specific scenario.

Key Lines of Inquiry:- What is the role of a museum?- What is the difference between geometirc and organic shapes? How do these shapes apply to architecture?- What do architects need to consider when designing a building?- What do architectus use for building inspirations? How can an inspiration be incorporated into a building design?- How does the museum’s purpose influence the design?

Program Objectives:- Investigate cultural traditions and social activities in order to determine how the function of a museum influences form and material choice.- Experiment with pictures and symbols as a means of representing ideas and experiences.- Use simple techniques and a variety of materials to design and construct structures for specific purposes.- Attempt a variety of strategies and modify procedures to solve problems when constructing objects.- Engage in all parts of the task and support the efforts of others.- Investigate the role of the musem in the 21st century through the creation of a 3D architectural ‘sketch’.- Explore architectural considerations such as environment, weather, inspiration and location when designing a building.- Work collaboratively in order to solve a problem and support the efforts of others throughpositive interactions.

Materials to collect and make ready:- small cardboard boxes/shoe boxes - pie plates- foam core - wire- matboard - 2X Mayfair paper- cardboard - Pencils; white glue- foam trays - glue sticks- acetate sheets - scissors- tin foil - xacto knives (Grade 7 and up)

Optional Materials:- pipe cleaners- wood pieces- coloured acetate- astro turf- fabric/wall paper samples


Museum Master Builders continued


Procedure:

1. Introduction:Explain to students that they will be architects responsible for designing a museum for a specific area. What are some of the things they will need to consider? Review key words/ideas on the board using guiding questions.

2. Groups and Demo:Divide students into groups of 4-5. Show the different types of materials available and the main box base from which students will work. Ask how they could use the materials to create a structure. Demonstrate maquette building techniques.a) Cut-fitsb) Proper gluing techniques/craftsmanshipc) Additions and manipulations to the box basesd) How to cut/change/manipulate the original box-form

3. Scenarios and brainstorming:Distribute scenarios and have students brainstorm ideas for their building using the pre-made graphic organizer. Encourage sharing and collaboration of ideas. Students choose a shape or element that they will use for inspiration. This element should be evident in their planning.

4. Sketch:Sketching using inspiration and scenario sheet. Students will sketch their own ideas and then collaborate to create a ‘final’ sketch.

5. Create base structure:Students begin with their box shape and workout a base shape for their maquette. Encourage the ‘inspiration shape’ to be used and to transform the base box using cut outs and other manipulations.

6. Collect and Build:Assign additional responsibilities for each person - collect materials and begin building. Encourage discussion and emphasize the importance of sharing ideas and listening to one another.

7. Display Museums & Critique:Groups study each other’s museums and critique if time allows. Students to display their models and process drawings. Each group explains their model using the following questions as guides:- what was your inspiration?- what process did you use to design and build?- what do you think is successful? What can be improved?- do you think this building could be made? Why or why not?

**Project Credit: Jessie Beier, Education Programs Manager, Art Gallery of Alberta, 2009






Make it 21 Studio Program


Grades 10-12

Rationale: Students explore the role of musems and architecture in the 21st century. In the studio project students work in small groups to create a building using a fine art example as inspiration with a focus on 21st century architectural elements.

Key Lines of Inquiry:- What is the role of a museum in today’s world? What are the characteristics of 21st century architecture?- How has the role of the musem changed over time?- How has museum architecture changed over time? What are some common architectural ele-ments in the 21st century and how do these relate to the role of the museum?- What do architects use for building inspirations? How can an inspiration be incorporated into a building design?- How does the museum’s purpose influence the design?

Program Objectives:- Investigate cultural traditions and social activities in order to determine how the function of a museum influences form and material choice- Investigae how simplified form, such as architectural models, communicates the purpose and function of designed objects- Explore and identify how art reflects and affects cultural character- Develop several approaches to a single problem in order to demonstrate a refinement of organization and structure in composition- Extend knowledge of the elements of design through composing two and/or 3-dimensional images

Key Words/Ideas:- role of the museum- architectural sketch- facade, atrium, cantilever- inspiration- form and function

Materials to Collect and Make Ready:- small cardboard boxes/shoe boxes - pie plates- foam core - wire- matboard - 2X Mayfair paper- cardboard - Pencils; white glue; glue guns- foam trays - glue sticks- acetate sheets - scissors- tin foil - xacto knives


Make it 21 Studio Program continued


Optional Materials:- pipe cleaners- wood pieces- coloured acetate- astro turf- fabric/wall paper samples

Procedure:1. Introduction:Introduce students to the project focusing on the idea of a 3D ‘architectural sketch’. Explain that students will take on the role of an architect and will be redesigning the old Edmonton Art Gallery. Speak briefly about the architectural process and how this is only a first step in a long line of steps.

2. Groups and Inspiration Choice:Break students into groups and allow them to choose an image to use as inspiration.

3. Brainstorming Race:Using large pieces of newsprint, allow students to work in the groups to brainstorm the following ideas given a limited amount of time:- what is the role of the museum in the 21st century?- what are some architectural elements in the 21st century?

4. 2-D Sketch:Using the 2D sketch sheet instruct students to brainstorm how they will incorporate their inspiration and their ideas from brainstorming into their 2D sketch. Encourage students to think about lines, shapes, space and form in addition to the architectural elements and ideas already discussed.

5. Materials and Demo:Briefly show all of the materials that students can use to construct their model. Explain that due to materials, the design may change as they build and that this is normal. Demonstrate the following techniques:- show flat base and box base which need to be used in the design.- demonstrate cut-fits and other ways of creating structure.- demonstrate how the box base can be manipulated (cut open and spread, cut windowns, expanded, walls knocked down and replaced, new shapes added on etc.)- show proper cutting and scoring (using knives)- explain the use of glue guns, white glue, glue sticks, tape and the importance of craftsmanship

6. Task List:Students divide responsibilities among themselves and assign duties.


Make it 21 Studio Program continued


7. Collect and Build:Students collect materials and begin their respective tasks.

8. Critique:Groups study each other’s museums and critique if time allows. Students to display their models and process drawings. Each group explains their model using the following questions as guides:- what was your inspiration?- what process did you use to design and build?- what do you think is successful? What can be improved?- do you think this building could be made? Why or why not?

**Project Credit: Jessie Beier, Education Programs Manager, Art Gallery of Alberta, 2009

Make It 21 Studio ProjectArt Gallery of Alberta



Elemental EngineeringElemental Engineering: Exhibition Curation and Gallery Construction(based on an Art Gallery of Alberta Creative Classroom School Tour/Studio Program)Grades 3 – 6

1/Looking At Art Introduction: Total time: approx. 20 mintues

Today you are going to be Art Detectives

What does a detective do?

Today you are going to search for clues in the art and learn what an artist does and what the jobs of an art gallery and people in the gallery are.

Exploring art is both visual and verbal. Exploring art is about seeing and thinking and talking about what we see.

Why do we talk about and look at art?

Before we can talk about what we see, however, we first have to have some idea of what art is and what artist’s do – so tell me, what do you think art is? What makes something a piece of art? What does an artist do?

How does an artist make a piece of art? What does he or she have to think about?

Before an artist can create a painting or a drawing or a sculpture he/she has to think about and use the Elements of Design – line, colour, texture, shape, and space.

By studying and then putting each of these things together we can make our own meanings and stories about the art work and, maybe, learn about what the artist had in mind when he/she made the work.

Let’s look at one painting and see what we can discover.

(work to be chosen)- What do you see in this work? What is happening here?- Pretend that you could jump into this painting and be a part of the action. How would you feel? Why? If you were in this picture, where would you be? Why? Would you like to be in this picture? Why or why not?- How has the artist constructed or made this painting? What’s the first thing you really see? Why? Where is this object in the painting? What’s the next thing? The last thing? Why?

* discuss mood and colour; light and shading



Elemental Engineering continuedSecond work – work to be chosen* discuss the same concerns as above

2/ Encounters with Art and Elements of Design Tour - tour the exhibition and focus on the Elements of Design; the story within a work; construction of a gallery spaces (wall colours; plinths; didactical information/theme; labels)

3/ Making Labels activity discussion and sheet - 15 minutes- have students choose a work in the exhibition and determine what information is on a label and discuss – then pass out label sheet, have students choose another work, and fill in the required information

4/ Building an Exhibition – picture activity and presentations

Materials: - an envelope of image sheets (images can be cut out from art magazines/advertisements etc. and then mounted on construction paper) for each group of three to five students/group - student question sheet

5/ Looking at Art worksheet

6/ Group Dioramas – 2 hour studio projectMaterials:

- large cardboard bases- masking tape/white glue- cardboard for walls- scissors/x-acto knives- plasticine and found objects for sculptures- double weight Mayfair for plinths- art/advertising magazines for pictures- tempera paint and brushes

- students to create a gallery diorama – in their creation they must:

- a) choose a theme for the artwork/images they include in the diorama

- b) determine the number of pictures and sculptures and find and create these

- c) build at least one plinth

- d) write a didactic panel

- e) create a label for at least one work of art.


Things to think of in creation of exhibition/diorama:

- Where is the door?- How many walls?- What’s the theme?- What kinds of artworks will be used?- How many artworks will be used?- Do you need plinths? How many?- What are the wall colours?- Who will build the walls?- Who will paint the walls?- Who will write the didactics?- Who will write the label?


Elemental Engineering continued

Student Diorama Example




Looking at ARTProjects and ideas developed by Glenbow Museum School

Choose one piece of artwork in the exhibition and study it really really carefully. While you study it, answer the following questions.

Your Name:__________________________________________Title of the art piece:_________________________________The Artist’s name: _______________________________________

1. Get the facts… What do you see?Jot down a short description about these elements: LINE, SHAPE COLOUR, TEXTURE or the MATERIALS that were used to create the work of art. What colours do you see? What shapes? What kinds of lines are there? If you could touch the work, how would it feel? Why?

2. How is everything put together...?Answer ALL of these questions – What is the first thing that catches your eye (focal point)? Is anything repeated? How are the shapes or objects connected? Is one colour, shape or object more important than the others? Do some shapes or objects appear to be farther away?



Elemental Engineering/Looking at Art continued

3. What is Being Communicated to you...?Answer ALL of these questions – IMAGINE you are in the middle of this work of art. What SOUNDS do you hear? What do you FEEL physically and emotionally? Is there a SMELL? Does it remind you of anything? Does the artwork tell a story?

4. Your last word…Explain why you like or do not like this work of art. What do you like most about it? Would you change anything?



Elemental Engineering continuedPUTTING ART TOGETHER!

Choosing a Theme and Laying Out an Exhibition

As curators your group needs to choose some artwork that will go together in an exhibition. That means you’ll want to start thinking about a THEME. So let’s get started:

1. Lay out all your pictures on the floor.

2. Stand up so you can look at them (look closely and take your time). Talk about them! What do they say to you?

3. Pick one person in your group to write down EVERYONE’S IDEAS about the artworks.

*Use describing words, don’t write whole sentences.

What are some of the things you see in each artwork?

How is the artwork the same?

How is the artwork different?

Which artwork(s) would you remove from the group? Why?


Based on your discussions, you as curators have selected the artwork for your exhibition. What is it about these artworks that makes them fit together?

What is your theme? ____________________________

Your second job as curators is to arrange these pictures of artwork for your exhibition so that they show your theme.

How will you decide which order to display the artwork?(by date? by colour? by size? by… ?)

How will the artwork be spaced on the wall? (you can make a sketch below if you like)

What is the title for your exhibition?Title of our Exhibition: __________________________





GLOSSARY

Edmonton Public Library, 1924Second Home of the Edmonton Art Gallery Image Courtesy of the City of Edmonton Archives



Adobe– sun dried brick made from mud and straw, used to construct homesArch– a usually curved structural element that spans an opening and support the weight aboveArcheology- The study of the buildings, containers and other, usually buried, objects that belonged to people who lived in the past. Art Deco– architecture of the 1930’s featuring flat roofs, geometric design and simplified shapesBeam– a support for a roof or floor, usually going from wall to wallBelfry– a bell tower; usually stands alone unattached to a buildingBlueprint– working drawings for constructionBrickwork– decorative arrangement of bricks, particularly popular in Victorian architectureButtress–an upright attached column to help support a wallCapital– the top of a column, seen in a variety of styles from various culturesColumn– a usually round or fluted post to support beams or a roof Community- A group of people with commonalities that may include culture, language, values and beliefs, interests, practices and ways of life, history, and/or geographically defined shared space.Cupola– a small dome atop a roof, sometimes used for ventilationCulture- The beliefs, values, socially transmitted behaviours and traditions, language, arts and other human endeavours considered together as being characteristics of a particular community, period or people.Dome– a round or evenly curved vault on a baseDormer– an attic window usually with a gable and roofEaves– the lower portion of a roof that projects beyond the wallElevation– drawing of one side of a buildingEnvironment- What constitutes immediate surroundings and can include physical, human and natural elementsFacade– the front view (elevation) of a buildingFlying buttress– an upright pilaster attached, open at the top to resemble a wing, yet further away, allowing walls to be built higherFormal balance– symmetrical arrangement of architectural elements on each side of a centre axisFresco– decorative painting done on wet lime or gypsum plasterGable– the upper, pointed part of a wall underneath a pitched roofGargoyle– a water spout of lead or carved stone that resembles a beast or monsterGroup- People who are together and connected by shared interests and characteristicsHalf-timbering– exterior decorative timber allowed to show on top, contrasting with white wallsLintel– the horizontal beam at the top of two vertical supports to support the wall above itMolding– a decoratively carved ornamental strip mostly used in classical architecturePediment– the triangular decoration above a door or temple, often decoratively carvedPilaster– a squared flat attached colomn with capital and basePost and lintel– a support system that consists of vertical uprights and a horizontal beamPyramid–a structure with a square base with triangular sides that slope upward to a pointRenaissance- The humanistic revival of classical art, architecture, literature and learning that originated in Italy in the 14th century.Rendering– an architect’s artistic interpretation of a a structure in paint, pencil or ink


Glossary

Spire– the pointed top portion of a tower Steeple–a spire and its supporting structureTurret–a small tower attached to the top of a castleVault– an arched ceiling usually of brick, stone or concrete


Art Gallery of AlbertaMain Foyer views, under construction, 2009Photographs courtesy of Shane Golby


Glossary continued

SPECIAL THANKS TO:

The Alberta Foundation for the ArtsThe City of Edmonton ArchivesArt Gallery of AlbertaThe Esplanade Arts & Heritage Centre: David Stewart Terra Rogowski Joanne Marion Dean ReevesThe Prairie Art Gallery: Rob Swanston Todd Schaber Missy Finlay

SOURCE MATERIALS:

Art in Action,Guy Hubbard, Coronado Publishers, Inc., 1987, United States, pp.90-97A Survival Kit for the Elementary/Middle School Art Teacher, Helen D. Hume, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., San Francisco, 2000, pp.97-99Back to the Future, Art Gallery of Alberta Exhibition, 2006, Art Gallery of AlbertaCurated by Dr. Anne Whitelaw, Assistant Professor of Art History, University of Alberta Art of the Peace, Art of the Peace Visual Arts Association, Spring/Summer 2009 IssuePrairie Art Gallery - www.cultureandcommunities.ca/resources/cultural-facility-profiles/artspace-north/paPrairie Art Gallery - http://prairiegallery.com/visiting-the-gallery/about-the-galleryGrande Prairie gallery to be rebuilt - http?//www.cbc.ca/arts/artdesign/story/2008/12/1/grande-prairie.htmlMuseum - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MuseumGuggenheim Museum Bilbao - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guggenheim_Museum_BilbaoAI Architect This Week - http://info.aia.org/aiarchitect/thisweek09/0403d_alberta.cfmNeoclassic architecture - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoclassical_architectureBeaux-Arts - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beaux-Arts_architectureChateau Style - www.OntarioArchitecture.comCanada’s grand railway hotels - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canada%27s_railway_hotelsHotel Macdonald - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacDonald_HotelModern Architecture - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modernist_arcitectureBrutalism (1960-1970) - http://www.ontarioarchitecture.com/Brutalist.htmBrutalist architecture - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brutalist_architectureCapital Modern - A Guide to Edmonton Architecture & Urban Design 1940-1969, Art Gallery of Alberta Exhibition Catalogue; Catherine Crowston, Editor; Printed by Metropolitan Fine Printers, 2007, pg. 69Museums in the 21st Century: Concepts Projects Buildings, edited by Suzanne Greub and Thierry Greub, Art Centre Basel, Prestel Verlag Publishers, 2006, pp. 5-19


Credits


This exhibition was developed and managed by the Art Gallery of Alberta for The Alberta Foundation for the Arts Travelling Exhibition Program

Funding provided by the Alberta Foundation for the Arts.

Shane Golby – Program Manager/Curator AFA Travelling Exhibition Program, Region 2Jordan Rule –TREX TechnicianAlexandra Walsh –TREX Administrative Assistant

FRONT COVER IMAGES:

Left: Art Gallery of Alberta, Main Entrance, 2010, Photo courtesy of Shane GolbyTop Right: Grande Prairie High School, 1929, Photo courtesy of the South Peace Regional Archives, Grande PrairieBottom Right: Medicine Hat Lanterns, Artist Rendering, Photo courtesy of Diamond and Schmitt Archives, Inc. © Tim Griffith


Credits continued


Postmodern Architecture - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postmodern_architectureDeconstructivism - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DeconstructivismArchitecture - http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/ArchitectureArchitecture - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ArchitectureModernism - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ModernismModern Art - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_artGeometric abstraction - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geometric_abstractionModernist Art - http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Modernist+artPostmodern art - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postmodern_art History of Art, H.W. Janson, Harry N. Abrams, Inc., New York, 1977, pp. 557-590Romanticism - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RomanticismArt - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ArtJack Diamond (architect) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Diamond_(architect)Randall Stout - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randall_StoutSteven Teeple Architects Inc. - http://teeplearch.com/Marion and Jim Nicoll - http://www.glenbow.org/impress/apps/index.cfm?lang=en&page=main.apMain&apPageRealism in Art - Realism - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Realism_(arts) - http://wwar.com/masters/movements/realism.html - http://www.huntfor.com/arthistory/c19th/realism.htm - History of Art, H.W. Janson, Harry N. Abrams, Inc., New York, 1977, pp. 605-614Prairie Art Gallery - article by Jill Sawyer, gallerieswest magazine, spring 2010, pg. 47where magazine - January/February 2010 issue

Documents

Culture Crates - Artist Incubation