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Uplift: Visual Culture at the Banff School of Fine Arts
Since 1933, the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity has been a renowned cultural destination and educational institution. As PearlAnn Reichwein and Karen Wall recount in this engaging history, over its first four decades the school produced and circulated ideals of culture and liberal democratic citizenship that were intrinsic to the development of modern Canada. Uplift traces the role of the school in shaping arts and cultural education. Situated within Banff National Park, the school and its surroundings combined stunning natural scenery and cultural capital in a symbolic national landscape. In an era of unstable cultural policy and state support for the arts, Uplift offers a nuanced account of one particular engine of nation building and tourism development. It draws attention to the past and present place of fine arts, culture, and the humanities in public education and in Canada’s history, exploring what they mean to democracy, citizenship, and a life well lived.
352 pages, Hardcover
Published December 4, 2020
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March 19, 2026
Poised on the side of Tunnel Mountain with fabulous views up the Bow Valley, the Banff Centre is not only spectacularly located but is also one of Alberta’s most internationally recognizable institutions, hosting arts and cultural events, celebrating mountain culture and offering a venue for business development and conferences of all kinds. Today it is facing, in a time of pandemic and government austerity, what some consider to be an existential crisis. In this context, PearlAnn Reichwein’s and Karen Wall’s rewarding new book Uplift is especially relevant.
Founded in the mid-1930s under the leadership of the charismatic Donald Cameron (who would remain its director until 1969) and with support from the Carnegie Foundation, the Banff School of Fine Arts developed into a central part of the University of Alberta’s Department of Extension and eventually a free-standing institution within the province’s post-secondary system. From its first course in eurythmic movement in 1935, the school quickly expanded to offer courses in a variety of fields, including theatre, dance, business and visual art...
Review by Ben Fullalove
Full review at https://albertaviews.ca/uplift-visual...
Founded in the mid-1930s under the leadership of the charismatic Donald Cameron (who would remain its director until 1969) and with support from the Carnegie Foundation, the Banff School of Fine Arts developed into a central part of the University of Alberta’s Department of Extension and eventually a free-standing institution within the province’s post-secondary system. From its first course in eurythmic movement in 1935, the school quickly expanded to offer courses in a variety of fields, including theatre, dance, business and visual art...
Review by Ben Fullalove
Full review at https://albertaviews.ca/uplift-visual...
Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review