Alberta Society of Artists: The First 70 Years

M. Wayne Cunningham is a past executive director of the Saskatchewan
Arts Board and the former director of Academic and Career Programs at
East Kootenay Community College.

The history and achievements of Alberta’s oldest organization of
professional artists, the Alberta Society of Artists (ASA), are
documented in a volume that has been assembled with obvious pride and
professionalism.

The first section contains 10 concisely written, fact-laden chapters
that outline the ASA’s history, the roles that women artists have
played in it, the members’ general preference for landscape art, and
the wide diversity of the members’ interests. Noteworthy are Chapters
3 and 4, in which two of Alberta’s preeminent visual artists and
educators, A.C. Leighton and H.G. Glyde, are remembered for their
influence on the ASA and on instruction at the Provincial Institute of
Technology and Art (now the Alberta College of Art and Design).

The second section is a gold mine of archival data. The five appendixes
include the ASA charter and bylaws, an alphabetized list of members from
1931 to 2000, and a list of selected exhibitions, 1931 to 1999. In
addition to a bibliography and an index, there are almost 12 pages of
chapter notes. Occupying the book’s final 72 pages are blazing
full-color reproductions of the art of 136 ASA members. This book will
appeal to art historians, archivists, educators, and students; amateur
and professional artists across Canada; and anyone with an interest in
Canadian art and culture.