In 1933, the Banff School opened in the stunning surroundings of Banff National Park in the Canadian Rockies. From its beginnings offering a single drama course, it has since grown into the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, a renowned cultural destination. Uplift traces its first four decades as it generated ideals of culture and liberal democratic citizenship intrinsic to the development of modern Canada. In an era of unstable cultural policy and state support, Uplift draws welcome attention to the continued place of the arts, culture, and the humanities in public education and a life well lived.

PearlAnn Reichwein is Associate Professor at the University of Alberta where she teaches Canadian history, environmental history, and leisure philosophy in the Faculty of Physical Education and Recreation. Her early work with Parks Canada as a research historian, cultural resource planner, and heritage interpreter living in Banff and Yoho national parks enriched her understanding of mountain landscapes.

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Athabasca University

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This is a thoughtful, at times entertaining book which provides a valuable lens through which to view no just the history of the Banff Centre but also the complex and vital relationships between culture, education, and the state.

Alberta Views

Uplift reflects Reichwein’s expertise in social and environmental history and Wall’s expertise in communication, public art, and memory. They build the Banff School for readers and illustrate how attitudes around nature and Canadian identity prevalent in the 1920s were formalized and regionalized in the 1950s.

NiCHE

Uplift is the first history of the Banff School of Fine Arts. The historical narrative presented therein is comprehensive and investigative ... Pearl Ann Reichwein and Karen Wall adroitly weave together a wealth of primary source information to show how the Banff School was embedded in a complex network of interactions between national park tourism, art, adult extension education, and cultural policy.

Journal of the Austrian Association for American Studies

Uplift is an impressive work of scholarship and will be of great value for academics in various fields.

The Canadian Historical Review