| BRITISH COLUMBIA ARTISTS |
At the first general meeting of the League, on February 3, 1921, it was noted that "it is not intended that this shall be an entirely permanent and unchangeable institution."
The founding members of the Art League were noted as follows:
| Bernard McEvoy | Journalist |
| J.A. Radford | Architect |
| John Innes | Artist |
| Edgar Bloomfield | Barrister at Law |
| W.J. Dart | Engineer |
| Irene H. Moody | Widow |
| Moses B. Cotsworth | Accountant |
| Herbert O. Frind | Financial Agent |
| Charles H. Scott | Art Supervisor |
| James Leyland | Fine Art Dealer |
| C. Marega | Sculptor |
| Arthur L. Bell | Photo Engraver |
| Edwina Constance Estcourt | Law Clerk (witness) |
The Art League put on exhibitions in borrowed spaces, but eventually had their own gallery. In October 1926 the "gallery was dismantled, preliminary to change of location". The new gallery at 649 Seymour Street opened on November 10, 1928, the space provided courtesy of the Hudson's Bay Company. In those days, as now, arts organizations existed on the thinnest of financial threads, and willing patronage such as that given by the Hudson's Bay Company would often mean the difference between success and failure, between the ability to continue exhibiting, or having to close.
After the art school opened in 1925, it took the Art League another six years of hard work and political lobbying before they had the pleasure of attending the opening of the newly-built Vancouver Art Gallery on Georgia Street in 1931. In the meantime, they resorted to exceptional measures in their efforts to get the government to provide financial backing for a Civic Art Gallery. In 1926, for example, the Art League found sponsors willing to provide $100,000.00 (a huge sum of money in those days, and substantial even now) for the purchase of art to fill the gallery - if the government was willing to fund the gallery. This fundraising was discussed in the Curator's Report in the February 1926 issue of "Museum Notes" (Vol. I No. 1), published by the Art, Scientific and Historical Association of Vancouver. In 1926 the League had a membership of 538. By 1930 this number had dropped to 240.
The League also started their own art collection, held "in Trust" for the impending (it was hoped) construction of the "Civic Centre" that would include a new Art Gallery. Their art collection was yet another "artistic carrot" being dangled in front of the politicians to induce support. Actually, the collection was also an "artistic stick" of sorts, as it was also used to embarass politicians when they were asked why they couldn't provide even the simplest of shelter for even such a tiny collection as the Art League's.
Although its members continued to be active in the arts scene once the Vancouver Art Gallery opened in 1931, the Art League itself retired after completing their mission of establishing two substantial and vitally important institutions in Vancouver. Both the Vancouver Art Gallery and the Vancouver School of Decorative and Applied Arts (now Emily Carr Institute) continue to prosper and expand to this day, reaching international recognition and status, more than one hundred years after the Art League's dream of building them was first envisioned.
| DATE | TITLE |
| Oct. 1929 | CITIZEN'S LOAN EXHIBITION |
B.C. Art League Fonds - on file at Vancouver City Archives; Add. MSS.168 Vol. 1 & 2
"Important Meeting of B.C. Art League"
From Western Woman's Weekly, April 23 1921
"The B.C. Art League"
From Western Woman's Weekly, July 23 1921
"The meeting of the B.C. Art League on Wednesday evening
last was a great success. The audience was large and highly intelligent." (continues)
From "By the Way in Art" per B.C. Art League
Vancouver Daily Province, Thursday October 6 1921, page 12
"The exhibition of Japanese art from the brush of Sekido Yoshida,
which opened Saturday in the B.C. Manufacturer's exhibition rooms, corner of Cordova and
Cambie Streets, was also an initial inauguration of the room in which the
B.C. Art League will shortly begin their permanent art gallery of worthwhile paintings."
From "By the Way in Art" per B.C. Art League
Vancouver Daily Province, Thursday October 6 1921, page 12
"Fine Art Advisory Board to the Vancouver Exhibition Association"
From Western Woman's Weekly, July 29 1922
"The B.C. Art League, 929 Granville Street, has at the present time the
finest collection . . ."
From Western Woman's Weekly, June 14 1924
"For three or four years the B.C. Art League has been working with this
end in view, and successive committees have procured and tabulated a vast
amount of information ... (continues)"
"Coming Art School"
The Daily Province, January 13 1925
"From the information available it would seem that after years of work
by the B.C. Art League, including several
deputations to the minister of education in Victoria ... (continues)"
"An Arts and Crafts School"
The Daily Province, July 7 1925
"This, it is hoped, will be for a short time only, as, owing to the activity of the
members of the B.C. Art League, notably one of our own directors
Mrs. F.T. Schooley, some public spirited citizens have been
induced to make the very handsome offer of $100,000 for the purchase of works of Art,
provided the citizens authorize the erection of an Art Gallery for the accommodation
of the same. So that there is every hope that an effort will now be made by the city to
start erecting the long-talked of "Civic Centre," which will accommodate both the Art
Gallery and Museum."
From "Curator's Report, by T.P.O. Menzies
Museum Notes, Vol. 1, No. 1, February 1926.
"... for the next two weeks will be free to the public at the gallery of the
B.C. Art League, 939 Granville street. There is considerable variety in subject
and in treatment." (continues)
From Palette and Chisel Club by Diogenes
Vancouver Province November 6 1926
"In a communication calculated to quicken the interest of all Western Canadians with vision, Mr.
W.G. Murrin, President of the B.C. Art League, has outlined the position
of the League at this time. In the circumstances "the new Secretary of the Art League" has invited
"the Editor of this Magazine" to find space for that statement - in the hope that it may come
under the eyes of some readers not yet listed as Active, Associate, or Life members, and who
only need to know the facts to ensure their identifying themselves with this altogether
commendable Society. Cheques payable to the B.C. Art League may be addressed to "The Secretary,"
at 939 Granville Street, Vancouver, B.C. ... (continues)"
From "The B.C. Art League"
British Columbia magazine, December 1927
"A Few Facts re The B.C. Art League"
From "Citizens' Loan Exhibition of Watercolours"
catalogue, October 1929
"That the exhibition of Saturday was held in rooms which, compared with those
other sordid locations, were palatial, is due to the astonishing surprise
which has been sprung upon most local people interested in art by the
executive of the B.C. Art League, in securing from
the Hudson's Bay Company a spacious and lofty room at 649 Seymour Street which,
except for its approach, is superior to anything the league has ever had,
and in getting it ready for the opening on Saturday in such a short time
that the labor involved must have been of an exceptional and vigorous nature."
From "B.C. Society of Fine Arts", by
Diogenes
Vancouver Daily Province, November 13 1930
"The plaster bust by Charles Marega of the late
Bernard McEvoy memorializes that doyen of Canadian
journalists, who died in harness last year at the ripe age of over 90 in the
service of the Vancouver Daily Province. He was a man greatly beloved,
he took a great interest in art, and was indeed one of the founders and the
first president of the B.C. Art League whose two main
objectives were the establishement of a civic art school and of a civic art
gallery. Both these aims he lived to see fulfilled."
(continues)
From "BRITISH COLUMBIA ART - Significance of First "All British
Columbia Show" by Harold Mortimer Lamb
Saturday Night December 10 1932