Introduction

“It was the most exciting place you could ever imagine,” recalled Calgary-based fibre artist Inese Birstins (cat. 6).¹ The place was the Banff Centre and its celebrated weaving and fibre art program. The period was the late 1970s/early 1980s when fibre was a burgeoning and exuberant sphere of creative practice—especially for women artists—and the very best in the field travelled to the scenic “Campus in the Clouds.”² They came as participants, as faculty members, and as guest artists for the annual Fibre Interchange (1979–1988), or for other fibre-related workshops in Weaving/Textile Arts. Serving as a bridge between international developments in the field and the Prairie scene as represented by Prairie Interlace, the weaving and fibre art program at the Banff Centre is an episode long overdue for an assessment.

One of the faculty members was Mildred Constantine (1913–2008). “Connie,” as she was commonly known, had become a familiar face, attending nine of the ten sessions in Banff. She was a powerhouse thinker and writer who as curator at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) (1948–1971) in New York City had organized or co-curated more than twenty-six exhibitions. Her most “important”³ was Wall Hangings, 1969,⁴ in which thirty-nine pieces by contemporary weavers from nine different countries were presented on the main floor as original art. It was a first for the august institution, which was better known for its championing of modernist painting and sculpture.⁵ Working with her on this mid-century reassessment of weaving was the innovative textile designer Jack Lenor Larsen (1927–2020).⁶

Larsen was celebrated, as The New York Times later recounted, for blending “ancient techniques and modern technology to weave fabrics that are now in the collection of MoMA and the Louvre.”⁷ Significantly, he also bridged the worlds of design, industry, and art and was a champion of craft. In 1980, the Seattle-born designer appeared as a guest lecturer at the Banff Centre’s Fibre Interchange alongside Brooklyn-born Constantine. Despite his association with the fabric industry, Larsen could see a different, more expressive role for weaving, including working off-loom.

Off-loom work comprises a myriad of techniques, such as knotting and braiding, crocheting and knitting, looping and netting, coiling and twining, or hooking and punch needle. Constantine, in an interview with Calgary Herald art critic Nancy Tousley, noted how “art fabric,” as she preferred to describe such artwork, had emerged in the pluralistic 1970s “as one of the strongest forms of contemporary art.”⁸ As curator-historian Glenn Adamson observes, the result of this wider practice was more room for improvisation and spontaneous action—all without the preplanning needed for weaving a pictorial tapestry.⁹ More to the point, the opportunities for large-scale and site-specific sculptural installations, often made with rougher fibres like jute and sisal, were endless. All that was needed was the space, energy, and freedom to create some of the most advanced art of its time, and the Campus in the Clouds in Banff, Alberta, with its annual international Fibre Interchange gathering, provided the venue, fed the ambition, and facilitated the gift of freedom and time.

A Framework for Weaving at the Banff Centre

Established as a summer school in the early 1930s,¹⁰ the Banff Centre first featured a weaving program (as part of a new Division in Applied Arts and Handicrafts¹¹) in 1941. With a new and ambitious policy of inviting “leading artists of the world to develop a richer Canadian culture in the friendly atmosphere of the Canadian West,”¹² the date of 1941—just for perspective—puts the Banff Centre a full decade ahead of the Ontario College of Art (now OCAD University) in Toronto, which established its textile department in the mid-1950s.¹³ Initiated with aid of the American weaving revivalist Mary Meigs Atwater (1878–1956) and supported by the efforts of her assistants Winnipeg’s Ethel M. Henderson (d. 1966) and Edmonton’s Mary I. Sandin (1901–1991) (p. 25),¹⁴ the alpine summer school helped to nurture “the idea of teaching textiles as art”¹⁵ in postwar Canada.

By the 1960s, weaving at the school had morphed into a well-respected, albeit conservative program with Master Weaver Mary Garnham Andrews (1916–2018) also providing formidable instruction and mentorship. Born in Montréal, Andrews began her own journey—with spindle-shaped shuttle in hand—as a Banff Centre student in 1948. In the following decades, Andrews represented history and continuity as she taught a myriad of weaving techniques, encompassing primitive, plain tabby or taffeta weave, basket, corded, two-block patterns or two harnesses, tapestry, and so on. At Andrews’ passing at the age of 102 in Banff, participant Jane Stafford, now herself a highly experienced weaver, wrote in her blog: “I would not be the teacher I am today if she had not been my weaving master.”¹⁶

If Mary Andrews provided a sense of tradition, then Mary E. Snyder (dates unknown) of the popular Lace and Lacey Weaves¹⁷ brought new courses and created a reinvigorated environment for the newly named Weaving/Textile Arts Department.¹⁸ With a floor plan drawn-up by the Kansas-educated weaving instructor,¹⁹ looms, equipment, and supplies were moved from Lloyd Hall to the more light-filled facility of the recently opened Glyde Studio Building. The year was 1976 and, as head of the department, Snyder established the first “Winter Diploma Course in Weaving”²⁰ with the ambition (short-lived as it turned out) of offering a two-year diploma program.²¹

Intent on offering an all-around textile education in a non-academic setting, which had always been one of the attractions of the Banff Centre, the courses were both technical and artistic with the study of colour and design, directed reading, and art history. Practical concerns were also addressed in the program, such as how to set up and operate a studio, the preparation of a portfolio, and exhibition display.²² Two studios were at the service of the participants: a large weaving studio on the third floor, and a print studio in the basement where working with a range of dyes and fibre media was possible and, to a certain extent, papermaking could be accommodated. Based on available information, the diploma program likely ran from 1976 to sometime in 1980.

During her thirty-five-year professional career in handweaving, Mary E. Snyder had exhibited widely, written several how-to books, and given summer workshops since 1973 in Banff. She was also listed in the Who’s Who of Women in Education.²³ Although a first-rate weaver, the American met her match with the appearance of the internationally known Mariette Rousseau-Vermette of Québec (cat. 47).

A Canadian Textile Superstar Arrives

Just as experienced and just as respected as Snyder, Mariette Rousseau-Vermette was regarded by many as a “visionary.”²⁴ Textile artist Patricia (Pat) Askren worked as an instructor and studio coordinator at the time. “[Rousseau-Vermette] saw the direction craft was moving in the world. She, like Les Manning in the Ceramics Studio at Banff, brought craft to a new, exciting place.”²⁵ On a more personal level, Jane Stafford considered herself fortunate to have met the Québec artist because she offered the young weaving enthusiast a full-time position in the winter cycle with full tuition. “If it hadn’t been for [Rousseau-Vermette], I would not have been there [from 1981 to 1988].”²⁶

First invited by the Banff Centre in 1977 to teach a three-week “Art in Architecture”²⁷ course, the school’s weekly Centre Letter later described how “students were electrified by [Rousseau-Vermette’s] own work and by her generosity towards participants. She returned the next year to teach the same course and began planning the first Fibre Interchange, for the following year [1979].”²⁸ For this special six-week intensive which ran until 1988, many of the looms were moved out of the studio area.

Rousseau-Vermette was a product of the Quiet Revolution²⁹ and a witness to the emergence of abstract painting in Québec; as a “painter-weaver,”³⁰ she was a member of the New Tapestry movement which “saw tapestry emerge as an autonomous art form, on par with painting.”³¹ Her idea for Banff was to bring emerging and professional artists together in an open studio format in Glyde Hall: in other words, to create a hothouse environment for self-directed learning with no required courses, only the stimulation of optional workshops, lectures, and discussions by critics, curators, and artists. Selected by submission, the emerging artist would propose a project or body of work with the opportunity to confer with an international faculty of professionals and knowledgeable support staff in one-on-one critiques, demonstrations, and optional workshops. In the school’s literature, Fibre Interchange was described as a program unique in North America.³²

Giving the first lecture for the 1980 Fibre Interchange was Elsa Sreenivasam ( –2017), a teacher at Iowa State University and president of the international Surface Design Association. Her talk was titled, punfully, “Dyeing to Know, Knowing to Dye.”³³ Some of the other guest artists were fibre/textile rebels, such as: experimental weaving fiend Sheila Hicks (American, b. 1934; attended Fibre Interchange in 1981); figurative sculptor, Magdalena Abakanowicz (Poland, 1930–2017; attended Fibre Interchange in 1982); installation artist, Neda Al-Hilali (Czechoslovakia, b. 1938; attended Fibre Interchange in 1980); knotting and braiding master, Claire Zeisler (American, 1903–1991; attended Fibre Interchange in 1981³⁴); and the Reason Over Passion feminist quilter Joyce Wieland (Canadian, 1930–1998; attended Fibre Interchange in 1982). The full list is much longer and equally impressive. Suffice it to say that the Banff Centre facilities, with the exception of ventilation issues in Glyde Hall, excelled as a base for creative explorations, with its support staff, workspaces, selection of harness and tapestry looms, print studio for textiles, darkroom, and rudimentary papermaking area.

Aside from Fibre Interchange, other activity also caught the attention of textile participants. In the 1980 Summer Program, for instance, there was information about a seven-week “Woven Fibres, Multiharness, Sculptured, Manipulated” course instructed by Mary Snyder and fellow Americans Warren Seelig and Rai Senior.³⁵ At that point, Snyder was described in the Program as experimenting with several looms with one piece involving eight looms.³⁶ Doing more also included offering courses in “Ukrainian Folk Weaving,” which began as a co-operative partnership between the Banff Centre and Ukrainian Museum of Canada in Saskatoon and ran from 1976 to 1987.³⁷

With the two-year success of Fibre Interchange, Rousseau-Vermette was now listed in the 1980–81 Winter Program³⁸ as the Acting Head of the Fibre Studio with Pat Askren as the Program Coordinator. As for Mary Snyder, no mention is made of her again in Banff Centre material³⁹ with the Latvian-born Inese Birstins recalling an unhappy departure,⁴⁰ a fate which Rousseau-Vermette would also experience when she quit in 1985.⁴¹

In the meantime, it was the golden era of fibre art at the Banff Centre. Leading an enthusiastic group of participants, professional guests also appeared in both the summer and winter cycles and the aforementioned six-week summer Fibre Interchange. John Bentley Mays, a high profile Canadian art critic for the Globe and Mail was not a guest in the fibre arts area, but on a 1984 summer sojourn⁴² to the Banff Centre he let it be known that, as a casual observer, the most innovative and interesting work was being done in the fibre area of the school.⁴³ No doubt, this was unsettling news for some visual art faculty members not involved in the contemporary fibre/textile world and still unused to its status as a largely female-centred, feminist-driven disruption in what was then a largely male artistic preserve.

By all indications, Rousseau-Vermette, upon assuming the role of Studio Head in 1982, led a dynamic Weaving/Textile department with Mary Andrews still in the picture with her expertise at “Multi-Harness Weaving.” In addition, Kaija Sanelma Harris continued to push the envelope with “Multi-Harness Architectural Weaves.” Working on samples such as double weaves, Finnweaver, warp and weft overshot, satin weaves and combined weaves, Harris introduced participants to the creative use of traditional weaves for large, structurally sound woven works displayed in buildings (cat. 20). In that same summer, Inese Birstins introduced “Feltmaking,” while Joan Livingstone in “Image in Non-Woven Structures” explored with participants the use of markmaking, language, and the development of images in non-woven structures. For Livingstone’s workshop, Poland’s acclaimed fibre sculptor Magdalena Abakanowicz gave the final critique.

There was no doubt that Rousseau-Vermette’s international reputation and direction only furthered the mountain school’s attraction as a place geared for the mentorship and development of young women artists. Speaking in broader terms, Arts Planner Michael Bawtree wrote in the Winter Cycle 1980–81 Program, “Banff can and should offer to the artists what no one else can provide, either within the constraints of formal education or in the harsher world outside: the gift of time, and the gift of freedom.”⁴⁴ More to the point: “Everything was taken care of and you could work overnight.”⁴⁵ Or, in the case of Patricia Oleszko (b. 1947, American), meet with the Detroit-born artist in the dead of night to stage a performance either body-painted or dressed in ritual clothing created by the participants in her “Costume, Fantasy, Performance” workshop.⁴⁶ The location: the popular jewel-like Grassi Lakes above Canmore, east of Banff.

By 1986 both Rousseau-Vermette and Birstins were gone, the latter only brought back as acting head for the summer programs of 1986 and 1987. Despite weaving and other fibre art practices being validated as contemporary art over a more than ten-year period, a perusal of the Banff Centre programs from 1989-on indicates fibre art as a singular discipline has faded into the background. What happened? Unlike the Ceramics Studio and Photography Studio, Fibre was absorbed into the Visual Arts program—done, supposedly, for its own good and out of concern in the larger visual arts faculty that the sisterhood of weavers and off-loom fibre artists were too insular.⁴⁷ Too caught up in their own thing, worse, too much on its own trajectory to fully absorb the new thinking at the Banff Centre, which had become all about the interdisciplinary. It was a curious perception, given the sculptural/installation/performance record of the Rousseau-Vermette years.

For some, like Montréal artist Ruth Scheuing, who worked as Assistant Head of Fibres (1989–91), the new arrangement was all to the good. “Banff was truly hoping to break down the disciplines and have people work interdisciplinarily.”⁴⁸ From the point of view of Ingrid Bachman, who succeeded Scheuing⁴⁹ but now only as Residency Assistant, “Fibre was becoming more and more accepted as a fine art practice. I think feminism and post colonialism had something to do with that.”⁵⁰

Under the new leadership of President Dr. Paul Fleck (1982–1992) and the 1989 hiring of Lorne Falk as the Art Studio Program Director, three ten-week residencies a year were established, each with a thematic approach. Residency themes evoked conceptual rigour and attention to the socio-political, as well as the cultural and artistic: in Summer 1990 the residency theme was “Border Culture,” followed by “Fluxus” in Fall 1990, then “Neomythism” in Winter 1991, and, always a critical favourite any time and any place, “Mass Culture and Art” in Summer 1991. That was the brave new world to which weaving and off-loom artists were expected to conform. Now, more than thirty years later, themed residences are still de rigueur at the Banff Centre with the intent that everyone has access to the artmaking facilities, including whatever is left from the glory days of fibre art at the centre.

Jane Stafford is less in accord regarding what happened to the fifty-year legacy of weaving/textiles and fibre art at the Centre. She describes its incorporation into Visual Arts as “disastrous” and “tragic.”⁵¹ Despite any number of artists who wanted to lead the program, Birstins points out how, after Rousseau-Vermette and she left, no serious attempt was made to fill that position.⁵²

In Sandra Alfoldy’s “Canada’s Textile Arts: A Brief History,” she observes how “Canada’s textile history is analogous to the illusion of unity provided by draping cloth—the surface may be smooth but underneath disconnected parts co-exist.”⁵³ The situation she describes is similar to the divide and disconnect between visual arts and craft at the Banff Centre. What happened at Canada’s unique Campus in the Clouds is clear: in the name of what was considered “contemporary” at that moment in time, history and past practices were quickly dispensed with and the theoretical trajectory of contemporary art allowed to level and flatten anything related to craft-based skill or thinking. A few years later, a similar fate would befall ceramics, the other craft-based object-making activity at the Banff Centre, which had flourished under the energetic leadership of Les Manning (1944–2020). Here today, gone tomorrow. Thirty years later, the question now is: what was lost in that transformation?

With its span of artwork from the 1960s to the late 1990s, Prairie Interlace might provide some insight into that lingering question.

Notes

1. 1 Inese Birstins, interview with the author, January 7, 2022, Calgary, AB. From 1980 to 1989, Birstins held several positions at the Banff Centre, including: Programme Assistant; Assistant Studio Head; Associate Studio Head; Acting Studio Head/ Artistic Director; Studio Head/ Artistic Director; and lastly, Consultant for Fibre Programme. The author wishes to thank the following for their contributions to the preparation of this essay: Jessica Zimmerman and Lois Quail, Paul D. Fleck Library and Archives, Banff Centre; Michele Hardy and Julia Krueger, Nickle Galleries, University of Calgary; and artists Pat Askren, Ingrid Bachmann, Inese Birstins, Katharine Dickerson, Ruth Scheuing, Jane Stafford, and Barbara Todd for their comments and assistance.
2. 2 Donald Cameron, Campus in the Clouds (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1956).
3. 3 Jenni Sorkin, “Way Beyond Craft: Thinking through the Work of Mildred Constantine,” Textile: The Journal of Cloth and Culture 1, no.1 (January 2003): 30, DOI: 10.1080/17518350.2003.11428630.
4. 4 Wall Hangings was on view from February 25 to May 4, 1969.
5. 5 Sorkin observes, “the [Museum] of Modern [Art] is distinguished by its distance from arts and crafts.” Sorkin, “Way Beyond Craft,” 32.
6. 6 It is known that Larsen was a guest artist in 1980 and 1985. No information could be found about the specifics of his visit.
7. 7 “Larsen, 93, Textile Designer With an Architect’s Touch Dies,” New York Times, December 24, 2020, B11.
8. 8 Nancy Tousley, “Battle for art fabric being slowly won,” Calgary Herald, August 2, 1980, D8.
9. 9 Glenn Adamson, “The Fiber Game,” Textile: The Journal of Cloth and Culture 5, no. 2 (2007): 154–77, DOI:10.2752/175183507X219434.
10. 10 Briefly, the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity has been training artists in the Canadian Rockies since 1933. It was founded by the University of Alberta Extension Department with funds provided by the Carnegie Foundation. This continued until 1966 when the University of Calgary assumed responsibility for the then named Banff School of Fine Arts. In 1978 the Banff Centre was granted autonomy as a non-university institution.
11. 11 David and Peggy Leighton, “From Craft to Art,” in Artists, Builders and Dreamers: 50 Years at the Banff School (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1982), 93–98.
12. 12 Ken Liddell, Calgary Herald, quoted in Pearlann Reichman and Karen Wall, Uplift: Visual Culture at the Banff School of Fine Arts (Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2020), 174.
13. 13 Sandra Alfoldy, “Canada’s Textile Arts: A Brief History,” in Art Textiles of the World: Canada (Brighton, UK: Telos Art Publishing, 2009), 11.
14. 14 M. Sandin left the school in 1961; E. Henderson retired in 1963.
15. 15 Alfoldy, “Canada’s Textile Arts,” 11. Author’s emphasis.
16. 16 “Remembering Mary Andrews,” janestaffordtextiles.com/blog/July-2018 newsletter.
17. 17 Originally published in 1960, a paperback edition was released in 1986. No information about the publisher was found.
18. 18 The department was also described in the Centre’s programs as “Weaving/Fabric Arts”; by 1979 the term used is “Fibre Arts,” followed by simply “Fibre” or “Fibre Studio” in the early 1980s.
19. 19 From the University of Kansas, Mary Synder earned a BFA 1970 in Textile Design in Weaving and an MFA 1971 in Design.
20. 20 1978 Weaving/Textile Arts Program, 78, Fibre Arts Program Files, Media and Visual Arts fonds, Paul D. Fleck Library and Archives, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, Banff, AB.
21. 21 Although former participant and instructor Barbara Kreutter attended the two-year diploma program beginning in 1976, she is uncertain how long it continued after she left in 1978. Email interview with the author, March 1, 2022. The diploma program is listed in the 1978 and 1979 program calendars, but in the 1980 calendar, it states: “ The studio program is not a diploma course, and no credits or grades will be assigned.” No other information could be found by the author.
22. 22 1978 Summer Program, 78, Fibre Arts Program Files, Media and Visual Arts fonds, Paul D. Fleck Library and Archives, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, Banff, AB.
23. 23 1979 Winter Program, 67, Fibre Arts Program Files, Media and Visual Arts fonds, Paul D. Fleck Library and Archives, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, Banff, AB.
24. 24 Pat Askren, email interview with the author, March 9, 2022.
25. 25 Askren, interview.
26. 26 Jane Stafford, email interview with the author, March 21, 2022.
27. 27 As an example of Rousseau-Vermette’s work in this area, in the Fall of 1982, the artist’s woven tubed ceiling for the new Roy Thompson Hall was greeted with enthusiastic applause on opening night. A collaboration with the architect Arthur Erickson, the unusual ceiling was designed for the acoustics. With a speciality in woven art for public spaces, Rousseau-Vermette’s structure (fabricated by a Montreal company) was yet another triumph for the artist already known for her theatre curtains at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa (1966) and the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. (1971).
28. 28 “She Led Development of Exciting Fibre Program; A Tribute to Mariette Rousseau-Vermette,” Centre Letter (newsletter) 5, no. 16 (August 1984), Newsletters-Centre Letter, Marketing & Communications, Paul D. Fleck Library and Archives, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, Banff, AB.
29. 29 The Quiet Revolution in the 1960s signaled the end of Quebec’s church-based education system and a move towards a secular society with no interference from the clergy. Government replaced the Catholic Church in this largely francophone society. A popular slogan was “Maîtres chez nous” (“Masters of our own house”).
30. 30 Anne Newlands, “Mariette Rousseau-Vermette: Journey of a Painter-weaver from the 1940s through the 1960s,” Journal of Canadian Art History / Annales D’histoire De L’art Canadien 32, no. 2 (2011): 74–107.
31. 31 “Mariette Rousseau-Vermette: 1926–2006,” artpublicmontreal.ca/en/artiste/66589.
32. 32 The Banff Centre School of Fine Arts Summer 1982, 40, Fibre Arts Program Files, Media and Visual Arts fonds, Paul D. Fleck Library and Archives, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, Banff, AB.
33. 33 Centre Lettre 1, no. 28 (July 11, 1980), Media and Visual Arts fonds, Paul D. Fleck Library and Archives, Banff, AB. Elsa Sreenivasum was involved with the Weaving/ Textile program and Fibre Interchange. Her years at the Banff Centre as an instructor and guest artist: 1978–1984.
34. 34 Zeisler, known for her large totemic works, taught a two-week “Sculptural Forms” course.
35. 35 Summer Program 1980, 50, Fibre Arts Program Files, Media and Visual Arts fonds, Paul D. Fleck Library and Archives, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, Banff, AB.
36. 36 Summer Program 1980, 52.
37. 37 The instructors were Patricia Olsen, Rose Dragan, Nell Pawlik, Marie Kischuk, Alice Nicholaichuk, Olga Semchuk, Patricia Pelech, Jean Meketiak, Nadia Kreptul. Jane Stafford provided technical assistance. The very existence of this centuries-old practice was a testament to an artistic tradition deeply rooted in the Prairie soil.
38. 38 Winter 1980–81 Program, 9, Fibre Arts Program Files, Media and Visual Arts fonds, Paul D. Fleck Library and Archives, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, Banff, AB.
39. 39 Due to the ongoing closure of the Paul D. Fleck Library and Archives from 2020 to 2022, the author was only able to access materials first-hand in mid-March of 2022 and again later that year in July.
40. 40 Inese Birstins, interview with the artist, November 1, 2021, Calgary, AB.
41. 41 Birstins, interview, November 1, 2021.
42. 42 John Bentley Mays appeared as faculty in the Visual Arts Art Studio program. May’s comment about Fibre Interchange remains a strong recollection of Inese Birstins, and also of the author, who as a member of the public attended one of the critic’s talks that summer.
43. 43 Birstins, interview, January 7, 2022.
44. 44 1980–81 Program, 7, Fibre Arts Program Files, Media and Visual Arts fonds, Paul D. Fleck Library and Archives, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, Banff, AB.
45. 45 Birstins, interview, January 7, 2022.
46. 46 Summer/Winter Program 1986–87, Fibre Arts Program Files, Media and Visual Arts fonds, Paul D. Fleck Library and Archives, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, Banff, AB.
47. 47 Birstins, interview, January 7, 2022.
48. 48 Ruth Scheuing, email interview with the author, March 1, 2022; telephone interview with the author, October 23, 2021.
49. 49 Bachman was at the Banff Centre from 1991 to 1993.
50. 50 Ingrid Bachman, email interview with the author, March 11, 2022.
51. 51 Jane Stafford, email interview with the author, March 21, 2022.
52. 52 Birstins, interview, January 7, 2022.
53. 53 Alfoldy, “Canada’s Textile Arts,” 9. Author’s emphasis.