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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... paintings for the gallery's members' lounge. I was able to draw on an assortment of paintings that languished in the gallery's vaults. Among them was a sizeable group of British pictures from the first half of the twentieth century ...
... painting, music, and theatre a centrepiece of its activities. From 1923 to 1926, he was president of the National Council of Education, created to promote a desperately needed national dialogue on education. He actively supported the ...
... painting, modelling, china decoration, metal work, woodcarving), elocution, manual training, agriculture, household science, commercial education (including book-keeping, stenography and typewriting, and in one case also telegraphy) ...
... painting is a very important part of a liberal education in colleges and universities.'139 The annual reports of the Methodist church's Educational Society – later the Board of Education (1884–1925) – provide a profile of the growth of ...
... painting, and drawing. In the report for 1890–1, the Ontario Ladies' College at Whitby noted that its 'music pupils are prepared for the degree of Bachelor of Music. The Fine Art, Elocution and Commercial Departments are not surpassed ...
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 |