Home > History > The Beginnings
As Virginia Slim used to say... "We've come a long
way Baby!"... and that is an understatement!!
The Alberta Society of Artists have maintained an important role
in the history and development of the visual arts in this province.
From its meager beginnings... the germ of an idea, the figment of
the imagination, born in the collective minds of a small parcel of
friends in Calgary, Alberta, the ASA became a reality.
Today we are sixty-seven years "young"--and still growing... we
are not about to be pensioned off... in fact we are anxiously
focused on the starting gate--ready to meet the new millennium in
full palette!
Artists have always led an isolated existence. It's the very
nature of the beast. From a work ethic point of view this is an
advantage. Communication, however, is just as important between
artists as it is a catalyst combining artist and viewer. Artists
outside of our teaching facilities, particularly, need that social
and artistic contact. Quite simply, that is why the ASA has
survived, through lo these many years! Artists are strongly
individual. Each has his or her own distinct, and often disparate
ideas. At times these ideas culminate in a clash of wills ... or
egos. Any organization suffers when the few pragmatists impose
their will on the whole, regardless of the overall results. All
Societies go through periods of turbulence, social change,
exploitation, aesthetic highs, lows and at times what one might
term depleted exhaustion! But the ASA has weathered these many
dramatic, and at times traumatic, transitions.
In the early days, Alberta was considered a wasteland for
culture and the arts.... Indeed fine arts were looked upon as very
"unnecessary incidentals."
It wasn't until a group of Edmonton art teachers formed the
Edmonton Art Association that things began to perk in Alberta. By
1924, this city established the Edmonton Art Museum, under the
capable direction of R. W. Hedley. It was enthusiastically
supported by an association of amateur artists under the auspices
of the "Edmonton Art Club." The museum provided the cornerstone for
Provincial artistic awareness. By the way, Mr. Hedley was the first
Albertan to be made a fellow of the Royal Canadian Academy.
The Calgary Sketch Club was formed in 1922, and four years later
a local artist, Harry Hunt, assembled a few friends together to
study with Norwegian, Lars Haukaness. He was the sole teacher to
the infant art program set up at the Tech... eventually renamed
SAIT, then as we know it--the Alberta College of Art and Design.
This institution became the pivotal point of early ASA
activity.
A. C. Leighton replaced Haukaness at the Tech and generated the
enthusiasm and organizational skills to form our own Provincial Art
society. Reg Harvey, supervisor of the Calgary public school
system, and Wes Irwin, art teacher, joined Leighton in his quest
and invited the Calgary Art Club contingent, including Hunt's
splinter group, to join forces. Never could there have been two
more diverse groups, according to their respective artistic
philosophies. A. C. Leighton had been trained in the specific
British Tradition of technical excellence... ANY deviation from the
"norm" was treason! Leighton was determined to establish this
culture for the great "unwashed frontier mentality" of our
province. He could see precious few artists who could fulfill his
recommended qualifications and greatly distrusted any proponents of
"modernism." The Group of Seven, for instance, were definitely not
high on his most distinguished painters list. In essence, Leighton
considered the new born ASA as an extension of his art department
at Tech an demanded that all members (some of whom were graduates
of the Ontario College of Art) complete a series of exercises and
assignments for his personal assessment! This did not go down
well!