Calgary Hidden Gems: SAIT’s Vintage Murals
In September, we were invited by a regular Everyday Tourist reader to the Leighton Art Centre’s Harvest Dinner. It was not only a beautiful evening weather-wise in the Alberta Foothills, but a fun night of conversation and bidding (in both the live and silent auctions) at this fundraiser.
One of the auction items that caught our eye was the personal tour of SAIT’s vintage murals plus dinner for four at its Highwood restaurant. (The Highwood is part of SAIT’s School of Hospitality and Tourism which currently is ranked #14 in the world and #1 in Canada). The bidding was hotly contested but we eventually were the lucky winners. We booked our tour and dinner for late November.
Roy Kiyooka, Sports at Tech, 1949
Ted Godwin, Untitled, 1955,
Ted Browning, Untitled, n.d.
Ron (Gyo-zo) Spickett, Frontier Scene, 1949
We arrived early to wander around the Heritage Hall, which in my opinion is Calgary’s most impressive heritage building. It was great to mix and mingle with the students. It always surprises us how multi-ethnic post-secondary campuses are these days compared to 50 years ago when we were at university.
We then met up with our guests – Cheryl Sonley and Andrea Lowe from Levis Fine Art Auctions & Appraisals and our two tour guides - Lisa Christensen, freelance art curator, writer and historian and Karly Sawatzky, SAIT’s Archivist - in the lobby of Heritage Hall. Lisa shared with us the history of the murals and some great stories about the art and artists, while Karly provided great stories of the building’s history and shared with us some wonderful SAIT artifacts gifted to the school over the years.
Mural Story
The mural program was initiated by Illingsworth “Buck” Kerr who, as head of SAIT’s Art Department engaged students to paint murals in the corridors and stairways of Heritage Hall from 1949 to 1955. The murals are a reminder of the importance of SAIT’s art department in the evolution of Calgary as major Canadian art centre and reflect what campus life was like in the middle of the 20thcentury. A few of the mural artists - Ron (Gyo-Zo) Spickett, Roy Kiyooka and Ted Godwin – went on to become important 20th century Canadian artists.
Fun Fact: SAIT’s Art Department was established in 1926 as part of the Provincial Institute of Technology and Art (PITA). In 1960, PITA was renamed Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT), and the art department became the Alberta College of Art (ACA). After eight years of planning, in 1973 ACA moved into a brand new purpose-built building that it still occupies today next to the SAIT campus. Then in 1985, it separated from SAIT to become an independent, publicly funded college with its own building. It became the Alberta College of Art and Design in 1995 and finally in 2019 the Alberta University of the Arts.
The murals are available for public viewing whenever Heritage Hall is open (i.e. 7am to 9 pm Monday to Saturday year-round except for statutory holidays. Note: The elevator operates only Monday to Friday from 7 am to 5 pm.
Rather than me trying to recreate the tour in my words and photos, I will share with you the excellent seven page article, published in the Spring 2022 issue of “Link,” SAIT’s Alumni magazine, which provides an in-depth excellent history of the murals.
Heritage Hall’s original auditorium is still in use.
More About Calgary’s History
For many Canadians, Calgary is best known for being the home of the Calgary Stampede. It is most often portrayed as a young city dominated by its shiny new downtown oil & gas office towers and cookie-cutter suburbs, without much history.
But in fact, Calgary has a lot of history, from downtown’s Stephen Avenue National Historic Site, with its preservation of 30+ early 20th century sandstone buildings, to Inglewood where you will find the City’s first main street still bustling in the original buildings. As well, Heritage Park is Canada’s largest living history museum while the Glenbow one of Canada’s largest museums. Calgary is also home to nineteen early 20thcentury sandstone schools, most still operating as schools, with one having become an art centre (cSPACE Marda Loop) and another is now the McDougall Centre - southern headquarters for the Government of Alberta.
Calgary also boasts several heritage communities where you will still find many of their original early century homes – Sunnyside, Ramsay, Mount Royal, Roxboro, Scarboro – as well as the Lougheed House with its lovely heritage garden in the Beltline. And let’s not forget the history inside the city’s Military Museums and Flight Hangar Museum.
More about Calgary as a major arts centre
Calgary punches above it weight as an arts centre with the likes of Arts Commons (one of North America’s largest performing arts centre, soon to be expanded), Bella Concert Hall and The (Music) Conservatory both at Mount Royal University, National Music Centre (that includes the storied King Eddy live music venue), Glenbow, Leighton Art Centre, Kiyooka Ohe Arts Center (art park), Beltline Urban Murals Project (100+ murals), Decidedly Jazz Danceworks, Alberta Ballet, as well as several theatre companies, two orchestras and an opera company.
In addition, Calgary has several public/institutional art galleries – Contemporary Calgary, Glenbow and Illingsworth Kerr, Nickle Gallery and Esker Foundation Gallery – as well as 30+ commercial art galleries. Calgary is home to one of Canada’s four universities dedicated to art, craft and design – i.e. Alberta University of the Arts. As well, there are dozens of music, theatre, literary and film festivals throughout the year.
Calgary is home to 100s or public art works and murals. Another hidden gem on the SAIT campus is mural on the side of the SAIT Parkade created by Ombrae Studio. It
In fact, the entire east and south façades are actual artworks created by Vancouver artist Roderick Quin. The metal façade with its thousands of holes resembling opened tabs of a beer can, each strategically punched, create a giant (560 feet long for the east wall and 260 feet for the south wall) artwork titled "The Ombrae Sky" inspired by the dramatic prairie clouds and skies. The artwork not only changes throughout the day with the changing light, but also allows natural light into the parkade.
Fun Facts:
Calgary is home to Canada’s oldest art collective still in operation - the Burns Visual Arts Society was established in 1979.
The Calgary Stampede is a huge, annual live music festival with 100s of performances attracting about 500,000 spectators for the 12 days each year.
One of Calgary’s most unique art programs is the “Bonus Density” program dating back to the early ‘70s. It allows office developers to build bigger buildings if they provide one or more public amenities (one being public art). As a result, downtown Calgary has 1000s of major artworks by local, national and international artists in the lobbies and plazas at the entrances of its downtown office towers. Works by such renowned artists include Dale Chihuly, Jaune Plensa, Jack Shadbolt and Jean-Paul Riopelle to name just a few that are all available for public viewing.
Last Word
I hope this overview of the SAIT murals will inspire you to make time to see them in person if you live in Calgary or when you are next visit. I also highly recommend reading the entire “Link” Spring 2022 magazine as it has lots of great information not only about the murals, but of the history and design of Heritage Hall itself – yet another Calgary hidden gem.