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CRAWLEY, Alice Marion Finnie
- Born
- Peterborough, Ontario, 1915
- Died
- St. Catherines, Ontario, 2011
- Biography synopsis
- Crawley began taking art classes while raising her family and working as a librarian; she also created the first stage set for the Shaw Festival during this period. She studied painting at Ridley College (St. Catherines) with David Partridge who submitted a work of Crawley's to a juried art show without her knowing; A.Y. Jackson, the juror, gave it a watercolour prize. Throughout the 1950s, Crawley exhibited at galleries in Montreal, Winnipeg, London, Hamilton and Niagara. She abandoned painting in the 1980s and took up sculpture after taking a course with An Whitlock at the Dundas Valley School of Art (Hamilton). She worked with found objects as well as a variety of materials including metal to create experimental installations which often represented her concerns for the environment. Birds were one of her favorite subjects. She was a co-founder of the Niagara Artists' Company, a long-standing artist-run centre. In addition to various group exhibitions, a solo retrospective of her work was held at Rodman Hall (Brock University) in 2005. Alice Crawley received the Trillium Arts Awards Mayor's Lifetime Achievement Award in 2007. Her work can be found in the collection of the Canada Council Art Bank.
- Media used
- Installation
- Painting
- Sculpture
- Textiles
- Education
- Ridley College (St. Catherines) (under D. Partridge)
- Dundas Valley School of Art (Hamilton), 1980 - ? (under An Whitlock)
- Memberships
- Niagara Artists' Company, 1969 cofounder
- File & Archive locations
- Art Gallery of Ontario - Edward P. Taylor Research Library and Archives
- National Gallery of Canada, ON - Library and Archives
- University of British Columbia - Fine Arts Library
- Vancouver Art Gallery, BC - Library
- BIBLIOGRAPHY
Writings about- "Crawley’s Display Exhibits 60 Years of Art." The Brock Press 20 Sept. 2005
- Baele, Nancy. "Early Artist Gets her Due in Solo Show" Ottawa Citizen 30 Aug. 1990
- Baele, Nancy. "Good Craft supporting Good Ideas." The Ottawa Citizen 12 Nov. 1987: D11
- Cameron, Don. Alice Crawley The Shaw Festival Oral History Niagara on the Lake: Shaw Festival, 1997
http://vitacollections.ca/notlheritage/2771179/data - Canada House Gallery. The Twelve Mile Creek Exhibition: Exhibition by the Niagara Artists' Co-Operative London: Canada House Gallery, 1975
- Crawley, Alice and Carolyn Wren. Alice Crawley St. Catharines, Ontario: Niagara Artists Centre, 2006
- Littleton, Lori. "Art-scene Matriarch: Exhibit celebrates a Half-century of Work by Alice Crawley." The Standard (St. Catharines) 26 Aug. 2005: B1
- Nave, Lisa. "Installing Respect: Alice Crawley." Matriart: A Canadian Feminist Art Journal 6.1 (1996): 8-11
- Sharman, Lynne. Flight Pattern Uninterrupted: Alice Crawley, An Whitlock, Michael Belmore. Thunder Bay, Ontario: Definitely Superior, 1986
