Project Description
"A Woman's Place": How Women's Art-Making Shaped Early Victoria
Fanny Mabel Pirrie
St. George Banner, 1929-1930
Embroidery, glass jewels, and glass rhinestones on cream-coloured brocade
"A woman's place" in Victoria between the 1850s and 1920s, it is ventured, was not only in the home! While confined to a domestic setting in so many ways, women exerted influence that often extended into unexpected areas. How is it, for example, that women came to play a disproportionately large role in the artistic and cultural life of Victoria in this period?
In an effort to answer this question, we pose several other questions : Why did women make art in colonial and early post-colonial Victoria? How did they learn to make art? What sorts of art did they make? Who were they? And what role did women's art play in Victoria's dramatic transformation during this era? Despite the fact that women's contributions are generally undervalued and many women, especially those outside the dominant Euro-Canadian elite, remain hidden, research reveals a Pandora's Box of intriguing female artists and their projects.
From Victoria's earliest years as a colonial centre, women have played a significant role in its visual documentation, through watercolour painting and photography. Women were leaders in art education. Their artistic production had an economic impact that many might find surprising, for example, through the extensive network of art-making for charity bazaars. Women, both native and non-native, with varying goals, played a key role in the wide dissemination of First Nations art and design, as well as in the development of local cottage craft industries and tourism. Hardly needing to be mentioned is the impact of Emily Carr and her art on the cultural identity of Victoria and BC.
-- Dr. Karen A. Finlay