Abstract

As part of an alternative to canonical Canadian art history, this thesis looks at the histories of women artists' spaces in Canada Overlooked by predominant texts addressing Canadian art history, these spaces have provided a physical place where many Canadian women artists have gathered to train, exhibit, and support each other as professional artists throughout the twentieth-century. The lack of documentation of the activities of the groups has resulted in a widespread ignorance among Canadians of women artists' histories, and in a case of amnesia causing a repetition of history. The creation and growth of women artists' groups have so far been followed by their deterioration and often death. With their activities and successes forgotten, similar groups formed years later are destined, or doomed, to repeat history. By studying organizations of both "first" and "second-wave" feminisms, this thesis looks at the similarities and differences of several women artists' spaces in order to begin to understand this disturbing cycle. This material is based largely on archival information analyzed through the use of contemporary feminist theory. By pulling together these scattered pieces it is my hope to begin to trace a genealogy of women artists' groups in Canada. In documenting the activities of these spaces, perhaps the cycle can be slowed and the genealogy strengthened.