The Force of Culture: Vincent Massey and Canadian SovereigntyA misunderstood and sometimes maligned figure, Vincent Massey was one of Canada's most influential cultural policy-makers and art patrons. Best known as Canada's first native-born Governor General, he chaired the landmark Royal Commission on National Development in the Arts, Letters, and Sciences that led to the creation of the Canada Council. The Force of Culture examines Massey's notion of culture, its conflicted roots in late nineteenth-century and early twentieth-century Canadian Protestant thought, and Massey's transformation into a champion of culture as a bastion of Canadian sovereignty. Karen Finlay's study goes beyond existing literature by examining the role of Massey's Methodist upbringing in instilling an education gospel as the bedrock of culture and the foundation of a national citizenry. The study also reassesses Massey's reputation as a supporter of the fine arts. Steeped in Methodism, his attitudes towards the arts were ambiguous. He never adopted a purely art-for-art's sake doctrine, but came to understand that the arts, without being moralizing, could serve a moral and cultural purpose: the expression and affirmation of national character and sovereignty. As well as charting Massey's evolving attitudes towards culture and the arts, Finlay attempts to redress the common charges of sexism, elitism, and anglophonism levelled against him. Finlay stresses Massey's contradictory views on issues relating to gender, race, and class, outweighed by the ongoing legacy of his belief in Canadian cultural diversity. Above all, Massey valorized the principles of excellence and diversity as twin antidotes to the anathema of conformity and cultural homogenization. The tenet Massey sought to honour, pertaining deeply to the collective and moral nature of humanism in Canada, Finlay argues, was community without uniformity. The Force of Culture shows that Massey was, in certain respects, a democratizer and even a populist, who believed that difference need not divide. Electronic Format Disclaimer: Images removed at the request of the rights holder. |
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... collection in the period immediately following the Second World War and seemed an anomaly in an institution long captivated by the New York School. My curiosity yielded a small exhibition and catalogue that attempted to situate in a ...
... collection (now housed at the University of Toronto Archives) and the Massey Family Papers (National Archives of Canada) constitute the primary resources for this investigation, and I would like to record my appreciation for the ...
... collections and subsequently chaired Canada's Royal Commission on National Development in the Arts, Letters, and ... collection, which, by the mid-1930s, was the largest private assemblage of contemporary Canadian art in the country ...
... collection of pictures, valued at $50,000, known as The Owen's Art Gallery, has been transferred to the College, and the Fine Arts Department has been placed under the direction of an R.C.A. of eminence, with two associate instructors ...
... collect and publish reports on educational problems and developments in the provinces, the Dominion, and the British Empire.24 The ministers agreed to give the matter consideration but made no commitment. The NCE continued to lobby for ...
Other editions - View all
The Force of Culture: Vincent Massey and Canadian Sovereignty Karen Finlay No preview available - 1999 |
The Force of Culture: Vincent Massey and Canadian Sovereignty Karen Finlay No preview available - 2004 |