The Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia (UBC) campus in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada displays world arts and cultures, in particular works by First Nations of the Pacific Northwest.[2] As well as being a major tourist destination, MOA is a research and teaching museum, where UBC courses in art, anthropology, archaeology, conservation, and museum studies are given. MOA houses close to 50,000 ethnographic objects, as well as 535,000 archaeological objects in its building alone.[3]
The Museum's beginnings lie in the University of British Columbia's acquisition of the Frank Burnett Collection in 1927. These works, in addition to two important Musqueam house posts that were acquired and donated by the UBC graduating class of 1927, a number of salvaged totem poles acquired from Canadian anthropologist Marius Barbeau, and the Buttimer collection of First Nations basketry, were displayed in the basement of the UBC Main Library. The museum was officially founded in 1947. Harry Hawthorn served as the first director of the new museum, with his wife, Audrey Hawthorn, serving as its first curator.
In 1971, the museum received funds from the Government of Canada and UBC to begin construction of a building. In 1976, the new building, designed by renowned Canadian architect Arthur Erickson, opened under new director Michael M. Ames, who served from 1974 to 1997. Walter and Marianne Koerner's 1975 donation of their extensive collection of Northwest Coast First Nations art to the museum formed a large part of the building's contents.
In 1997, Ruth Phillips became museum director. In 2002, Ames returned as acting director. Anthony Shelton was director from 2004 until 2021. In 2021, Susan Rowley, a long-time curator at the museum, was appointed director for a three-year term.
On March 9, 1999, Canada Post issued a stamp commemorating the Museum, designed by Barbara Hodgson, based on photographs by William McLennan and Jacqueline Gijssen, and prominently featuring the sculpture The Raven and the First Men by Bill Reid. The 46¢ stamps are perforated 13.5 and were printed by the Canadian Bank Note Company.[4]
Building
Concrete exterior at the museum entrance. Concrete is the primary material used to build the museum.
The museum is located at 6393 NW Marine Dr, on the campus of the University of British Columbia. MOA and UBC lie on the University Endowment Lands, which are not officially part of the City of Vancouver. The Arthur Erickson's building was designed in 1976, inspired by the post-and-beam architecture of northern Northwest Coast First Nations people. Like much of Erickson's work, the building is made primarily out of concrete. The building takes advantage of second world war gun emplacements, with the Bill Reid Raven sculpture located on a repurposed gun battery.
In 2006, the museum launched a project to create a new research wing, as well as new offices, laboratories, a 'culturally sensitive research room'[clarification needed], recording studio, and a 5,800-square-foot (540m2) exhibition hall, the Audain Gallery. Other enhancements included MOA's new Multiversity Galleries, the creation of the RRN (Reciprocal Research Network) linking Northwest Coast collections around the world, a relocated and expanded Museum Shop, year-round cafe, and courtyard and outdoor 'events pad' suitable for facility rentals. The project was completed in January 2010. Budgeted at $55.5 million, the Renewal Project received $34.4 million in funding from the Canada Foundation for Innovation and British Columbia Knowledge Development Fund ($17.2 million each), the University of British Columbia, UBC Faculty of Arts, and the museum itself. In 2009, MOA received a major gift of $5.5 million from the Koerner Foundation, Toronto, towards the project.
In 2010, a reflecting pool was permanently added to the front entrance of the museum
In September 2010, a reflecting pool was added to the front, funded by Yosef Wosk, OBC. Arthur Erickson and landscape architect Cornelia Oberlander originally intended the pool to be opened as part of the new Museum of Anthropology in 1976; now, nearly 35 years later, their original vision for MOA has been fulfilled. Pools had been installed temporarily three times in MOA's history: for a movie shoot in 1993, for the APEC leaders’ summit in 1997, and to celebrate Arthur Erickson's 80th birthday in June 2004.[5]
In November 2020, the museum began a seismic upgrade project to rebuild its Great Hall in order to upgrade its resiliency and protect its collection in the event of a major earthquake. The design for the Great Hall seismic upgrades is to utilize base isolators under the suspended main floor slab to absorb the impact of seismic activity, separating the building from the ground and from the adjoining museum structures. Feedback from the Arthur Erickson Foundation has informed the architectural and construction approach to the project, ensuring the Great Hall will retain the appearance of the original space to preserve its architectural character and heritage values. Likewise, the Musqueam Indian Band has participated in planning meetings. When the project is complete the Great Hall will look like it originally did with some improvements, including new lighting, skylights, and carpeting. The project is estimated to be complete in late 2023. While the Great Hall portion of the museum will be closed for the seismic upgrades, the rest of the museum and gallery spaces remained open to the public until 15 January; now the museum is closed until November 2023.[citation needed]
Galleries
Audain Gallery
The 539m2 (5,800sqft) Audain Gallery for temporary exhibitions.
Elspeth McConnell Gallery of Northwest Coast Masterworks
The Elspeth McConnell Gallery of Northwest Coast Masterworks was unveiled on June 22, 2017. Designed by Stantec Architecture, the new gallery was converted from the former Michael M. Ames Theatre, and was funded by Montreal-based collector Elspeth McConnell, a $3-million donation from the Doggone Foundation, and a $500,000 grant from the federal government as part of the Canada 150 Community Infrastructure Program. The 210-square-metre gallery features exterior sensors that synchronize both the colour temperature and intensity of the interior light with the changing light conditions outside.[citation needed]
In a Different Light: Reflecting on Northwest Coast Art was the first exhibition held at the gallery.
Koerner European Ceramics Gallery
The Koerner European Ceramics Gallery opened in 1990 and contains over 600 European ceramics collected by Koerner, which he donated to the museum in 1987.
Multiversity Galleries
The Multiversity Galleries housing more than 9,000 objects from around the world. Multiversity Galleries showcases items from the museum's collection that would normally be stored.
Audain Gallery
The inaugural exhibition at the Elspeth McConnell Gallery of Northwest Coast Masterworks, 2017
The Museum of Anthropology includes a number of large sculptures, totem poles, and cultural artifacts. Although MOA's focus is on the First Nations of the Northwest Coast, the collection of close to 50,000 ethnological objects includes objects from all continents. The collections include contemporary works as well as historical objects. In addition to the ethnographic collections, MOA houses an archaeological collection of approximately 535,000 pieces. These are managed by UBC's Laboratory of Archaeology. The museum also has a small wing dedicated to European ceramic art works collected by the late Walter Koerner.
There are several large Musqueam artifacts in the museum from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, as well as many contemporary works commissioned from Musqueam artists such as Susan Point, Joe Becker, and Robyn and Debra Sparrow. There are many fragments of totem poles from Haida and other First Nations villages along British Columbia's coast in the museum's Great Hall.
Fragments of totem poles from various First Nations villages in British Columbia are situated in the museum's Great Hall
There is an extensive collection from the South Pacific in the MOA.
There are about 6000 textiles in the collection; about half of these come from Asia. Of particular note are the Cantonese opera costumes that are considered some of the world's finest.[citation needed] There are holdings from the Northwest Coast, Oceania, Africa, and South America.
The Audrey & Harry Hawthorn Library and Archives is open to the public. The archives contain approximately 90,000 photographs that cover a wide range of cultures, ethnographic subjects, and historical events. The collection dates from the 1890s.
There are approximately 2800 belongings in the African collection. The earlier collections came to MOA via missionaries, travelers, and ex-colonial officers. The collection includes masks, Yoruba thorn carvings, over 100 Makonde figures from Tanzania, approximately 100 Asante gold weights, weaponry from South Africa and about 100 mortuary objects from Egypt.
About 40% of MOA's collection is from Asia. The Chinese collections include between 1000 and 1500 pieces of Chinese ceramics, Chinese calligraphy, and paintings (with four recently identified masterpieces from the collection of Ho Ping-ti). In addition, there is a large collection of Japanese prints, Buddhist art, Hindu art (including Gandhara sculpture), textiles and clothing, and Indian calendar prints. Other collections include 2300 Chinese coins and amulets, 200 Sichuan blue thread embroideries dating to circa 1900, rare Tibetan robes, and masks from Noe (Japan), Sunni and Kolam (Sri Lanka), and Pongsan and Yangju (Korea).
The Haida houses outside the museum were built under the direction of Bill Reid, who carved, with Doug Cranmer, many of the totem poles surrounding them. The original Reid/Cranmer totem pole mounted on the front of the big house was taken inside in 2000 due to deterioration and replaced with the new "Respect to Bill Reid Pole" by Haida artist Jim Hart.
"Respect to Bill Reid pole," carved by Jim Hart at the Museum of Anthropology at UBC
Odler dish ware (Koerner European Ceramic Gallery)
Kendi pot (Koerner European Ceramic Gallery)
Slovak jug (Koerner European Ceramic Gallery)
Holitsch dish (Koerner European Ceramic Gallery)
Programs
The Museum of Anthropology works with the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre and others to support the Indigitization program, which provides funding and training for Indigenous communities and organizations to digitize cultural heritage materials.[6][7] Each summer, MOA hosts the Native Youth Program (NYP), the longest running training program for Indigenous high school students in British Columbia. It provides summer employment and training to six urban Indigenous high school students and two UBC students as program manager and research assistant. NYP is co-organized by MOA and the First Nation House of Learning at UBC.[8][9]
William Ronald Reid Jr. was a Haida artist whose works include jewelry, sculpture, screen-printing, and paintings. Producing over one thousand original works during his fifty-year career, Reid is regarded as one of the most significant Northwest Coast artists of the late twentieth century.
Totem poles are monumental carvings found in western Canada and the northwestern United States. They are a type of Northwest Coast art, consisting of poles, posts or pillars, carved with symbols or figures. They are usually made from large trees, mostly western red cedar, by First Nations and Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast including northern Northwest Coast Haida, Tlingit, and Tsimshian communities in Southeast Alaska and British Columbia, Kwakwaka'wakw and Nuu-chah-nulth communities in southern British Columbia, and the Coast Salish communities in Washington and British Columbia.
Robert Charles Davidson LL. D. D.F.A., is a Canadian artist of Haida heritage. Davidson's Haida name is G̲uud San Glans, which means "Eagle of the Dawn". He is a leading figure in the renaissance of Haida art and culture. He lives in White Rock, British Columbia.
Wilson Duff was a Canadian archaeologist, cultural anthropologist, and museum curator.
Dempsey Bob, is a Northwest Coast woodcarver and sculptor from British Columbia, Canada, who is of Tahltan and Tlingit First Nations descent. He was born in the Tahltan village of Telegraph Creek on the Stikine River in northwestern B.C., and is of the Wolf clan.
The Museum of Vancouver (MOV) is a civic history museum located in Vanier Park, Vancouver, British Columbia. The MOV is the largest civic museum in Canada and the oldest museum in Vancouver. The museum was founded in 1894 and went through a number of iterations before being rebranded as the Museum of Vancouver in 2009. It creates Vancouver-focused exhibitions and programs that encourage conversations about what was, is, and can be Vancouver. It shares an entrance and foyer with the H. R. MacMillan Space Centre but the MOV is much larger and occupies the vast majority of the space in the building complex where both organisations sit as well as separate collections storage facilities in another building.
Northwest Coast art is the term commonly applied to a style of art created primarily by artists from Tlingit, Haida, Heiltsuk, Nuxalk, Tsimshian, Kwakwaka'wakw, Nuu-chah-nulth and other First Nations and Native American tribes of the Northwest Coast of North America, from pre-European-contact times up to the present.
Chief Mungo Martin or Nakapenkem, Datsa, was an important figure in Northwest Coast style art, specifically that of the Kwakwaka'wakw Aboriginal people who live in the area of British Columbia and Vancouver Island. He was a major contributor to Kwakwaka'wakw art, especially in the realm of wood sculpture and painting. He was also known as a singer and songwriter.
Norman Tait was a Nisga'a First Nations sculptor and totem pole carver from northwestern British Columbia, Canada.
The Salish peoples are indigenous peoples of the American and Canadian Pacific Northwest, identified by their use of the Salish languages which diversified out of Proto-Salish between 3,000 and 6,000 years ago.
Primrose Adams was a Canadian First Nations artist and member of the Raven Clan from the Haida nation. She wove hats and baskets in the Haida method and is most notable for her spruce root basketry, which involves working in the traditional manner of collecting and dyeing her own spruce root. Adams died in January 2020.
Michael James Audain, is a Canadian home builder, philanthropist and art collector. He is the Chairman and major shareholder of the privately held Polygon Homes Ltd., one of the largest multi-family builders in British Columbia.
Doug Cranmer (1927–2006), also known as Pal'nakwala Wakas and Kesu', was a Kwakwaka'wakw carver and artist as well as a 'Namgis chief. Cranmer was a significant figure in the Northwest Coast art movement, both in its traditional form and in a modern contemporary form that he created and developed.
James Hart is a Canadian and Haida artist and a chief of the Haida Nation.
Phil Gray is a Canadian artist who specializes in wood carvings from the Tsimshian and Mikisew Cree communities. His work uses traditional technique and features imagery from legends. In 2014, Gray was awarded a British Columbia Creative Achievement Award in Aboriginal Art from the Government of British Columbia.
Debra Sparrow, or θəliχʷəlʷət (Thelliawhatlwit), is a Musqueam weaver, artist and knowledge keeper. She is self-taught in Salish design, weaving, and jewellery making.
Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun is a Cowichan/Syilx First Nations contemporary artist from Canada. His paintings employ elements of Northwest Coast formline design and Surrealism to explore issues as environmentalism, land ownership, and Canada's treatment of First Nations peoples.
Diamond Point is a contemporary Coast Salish artist and member of the Musqueam Indian Band.
The Raven and the First Men is a sculpture by Haida artist Bill Reid. It depicts the Haida creation myth. It was carved from a single block of laminated yellow cedar, beginning in the fall of 1978, and took two years to complete, with work completing on April 1, 1980. Raven and the First Men is depicted on the reverse of the former Canadian twenty dollar bill of the Canadian Journey series.
Don Yeomans is a Haida artist from Prince Rupert, British Columbia best known for his silkscreen art. His art is in the collection of Museum of Anthropology at UBC and on permanent display at the Canadian Museum of History.
References
↑ "MOA By the Numbers 2016". Museum of Anthropology Annual Report 2016/17. University of British Columbia. 2017. p.26. Retrieved 27 August 2017.
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