A Nation of Artists: Alice Ravenhill and the British Columbia Society for the Furtherance of Indian Arts and Crafts

Abstract

Alice Ravenhill and the British Columbia Society for the Furtherance of Indian Arts and Crafts were central figures in a localized manifestation of the broader Arts and Crafts movement, an international reform movement that was both philanthropic and socialist, and based on an ideology that championed the arts and crafts as a means towards economic self sufficiency and moral uplift. Ravenhill and the Society she founded in the 1930s provided support, opportunities, and publicity for indigenous artists. Their work was incorporated into both the Indian day and residential schools, and Indian arts and crafts were, by the postwar period, instututionalized in various policies of the Department of Indian Affairs.