Canadian culture began, according to popular belief, in the late 1950s with the establishment of the Canada Council, and blossomed in the nationalist celebrations of the 1960s. The truth, as Maria Tippett shows in this study, is very different. From the late nineteenth century forward, Canada has enjoyed a complex, wide-ranging, and diverse cultural life. Its musicians, visual artists, dramatists, and writers, professional and amateur, have been active in rural areas and urban centres, supported by philanthropists, consumers, and governments.
Tippett reveals the breadth, depth, and character of cultural activity in English Canada. She also explores the infrastructure that sustained it in the nineteenth century and into the middle of the twentieth: educational institutions, public and private patrons, cultural organizations, and foreign influences.
By focusing on these factors rather than on cultural artefacts, she provides all those involved in cultural studies with a new way of coming to grips with the cultural and the historical process. Her study also paves the way for an understanding of the Massey Commission, the Canada Council, and the flourishing of Canadian culture in the years since the council’s establishment.
Making Culture is a richly detailed picture of a vigorous cultural environment and the foundations that enable it to grow.