Rethinking professionalism : women and art in Canada, 1850-1970 / edited by Kristina Huneault and Janice Anderson.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

"The history of women and art in Canada has often been celebrated as a story of progress from amateur to professional practice. Rethinking Professionalism challenges this narrative by questioning the assumptions that underlie the category of artistic professionalism, a construct as influential for artistic practice as it has been for art historical understanding.

Through a series of in-depth studies, contributors examine changes to the infrastructure of the art world that resulted from a powerful discourse of professionalization that emerged in the late- nineteenth century. While many women embraced this new model, others fell by the wayside, barred from professional status by virtue of their class, their ethnicity, or the very nature of the artworks they produced. The richly illustrated essays in this collection depict the changing nature of the professional paradigm as it was experienced by women painters, photographers, craftspeople, architects, curators, gallery directors, and art teachers. In so doing, they demonstrate the ongoing power of feminist art history to disrupt patterns of thought that have become naturalized and, accordingly, invisible."--Pub. desc.

Part 1 Introduction -- 1 Professionalism as Critical Concept and Historical Process for Women and Art in Canada / Kristina Huneault Huneault, Kristina 3 -- Part 2 Professionalizing Art -- 2 "What Would He Have Us Do?": Gender and the "Profession" of Artist in New Brunswick in the 1930s and 1940s / Kirk Niergarth Niergarth, Kirk 55 -- 3 The Rewards of Professionalization: Alice Lusk Webster and the New Brunswick Museum, 1933-53 / Lianne Mctavish Mctavish, Lianne 83 -- 4 "A Story of Struggle and Splendid Courage": Anne Savage's CBC Broadcasts of The Development of Art in Canada / Alena Buis Buis, Alena 106 -- Part 3 Careers for Women -- 5 Hannah Maynard: Crafting Professional Identity / Jennifer Salahub Salahub, Jennifer 135 -- 6 From Amateur to Professional: The Advertising Photography of Margaret Watkins, 1924-28 168 -- 7 "I Weep for Us Women": Modernism, Feminism, and Suburbia in the Canadian Home Journal's Home '53 Design Competition / Cynthia Imogen Hammond Hammond, Cynthia Imogen 194 -- 8 Kathleen Daly's Images of limit People: Professional Art and the Practice of Ethnography / Loren Lerner Lerner, Loren 225 -- 9 The Girls and the Grid: Montreal Women Abstract Painters in the 1950s and Early 1960s / Sandra Paikowsky Paikowsky, Sandra 259 -- Part 4 The Limits of Professionalism -- 10 "I Want to Call Their Names in Resistance": Writing Aboriginal Women into Canadian Art History, 1880-1970 / Sherry Farrell Racette Racette, Sherry Farrell 285 -- 11 From "Naturalized Invention" to the Invention of a Tradition: The Victorian Reception of Onkwehonwe Beadwork / Ruth B. Phillips Phillips, Ruth B. 327 -- 12 Professional/Volunteer: Women at the Edmonton Art Gallery, 1923-70 / Anne Whitelaw Whitelaw, Anne 357 -- 13 "Marjorie's Web": Canada's First Woman Architect and Her Clients / Annmarie Adams Adams, Annmarie 380.