Wednesday, January 3, 2018

New Western Canadian studies point to Banff's postwar modernist design

Congratulations to University of Calgary Press for its publication of Finding Directions West: Readings that Locate and Dislocate Western Canada's Past (2017)

Editors George Colpitts and Heather Devine bring together a new anthology that "prompts readers to think differently about a region where ideas, people and communities were in a constant but energetic flux, and how newcomers converged...or moved on to new experiences to leave a significant legacy for the present-day."

In their contribution, professors PearlAnn Reichwein and Karen Wall investigate and analyze "the Banff School of Fine Arts campus as a postwar manifestation of an international modernist cultural landscape within a broader cultural landscape of a famous national park. They argue the construction of the campus reflects the intersections of capitalism and processes of spatialization in modernist Canada."  
For Michelle Murphy's synopsis of their research, see Designing the Banff School of Fine Arts  on the Canadian Mountain Network portal.