BRITISH COLUMBIA ARTISTS  

Ada Currie (Mrs. Ada Currie Robertson)
(m Hamish Robertson)

January 31 1908 - February 24 2010

Vancouver School of Decorative and Applied Arts (Diploma 1929)
Vancouver School of Art Graduates' Association
P.A.S.O.V.A.S.



From 1929 graduating class photo


Ada Currie was born in Manitoba in 1908. She was a member of P.A.S.O.V.A.S., the Pioneer Art Students of Vancouver Art School, an artist's group formed in 1930 from the students who entered the Vancouver School of Decorative and Applied Arts in its first year and a half of classes in 1925 and 1926.

Ada Currie started classes at the VSDAA in 1925, while living at 914 West 21st Avenue in Vancouver, and was in the first graduating class in 1929, later exhibiting in the PASOVAS group exhibition at the B.C. Art League gallery in 1930.


1929 Graduating Class

The Spring 1936 edition of The Smock Pocket, the Vancouver School of Art Graduates' Association newsletter, noted that she had written a letter stating that she had "done a letterhead for a new store, the "Totem", in Chilliwack." The same newsletter also included the information that Currie had married "Mr. John B. Robertson on April 27th, 1935. Her address is Box 113, Chilliwack, B.C."

Many years later she was able to attend the 75th Anniversary celebration for the art school, held in Vancouver in 2000. A short biography was published in the art school newsletter VISIONS. She died in Washington State in 2010 at the age of 102.


GROUP EXHIBITIONS
DATE EXHIBITION ARTWORK
1930 Nov. 27 - Dec. 7 PASOVAS   Art Club Exhibition Mural, "Clam Diggers"
Bridge River poster
Monkeys, Stanley Park
Birds and Animals, Stanley Park
Printing review
Ice Carnival poster
Spencer's Beauty Salon

References

Sepass Tales - Songs of Y-Ail-Mihth recorded by Eloise Street
      First Edition 1963, Second Edition 1974, 110 pages, illustrated
      Includes work by Ada Currie and George Clutesi
      Full page photo of Currie p. 80.

VANCOUVER ARTIST: Ada Currie
      1998 September; by Michael Clark, Emily Carr Institute of Art + Design.
      Visions newsletter, Volume 5 Issue 1, page 6.
      One page biography with 3 illustrations of her work.

VANCOUVER ARTIST: Ada Currie
      2000 January; by Michael Clark, Emily Carr Institute of Art + Design.
      Visions newsletter, Volume 6 Issue 2, page 6.
      One page biography with 3 illustrations of her work.

Clippings

"Signalizing the close of a most successful year, scholarships and prizes were awarded this afternoon at closing exercises of the Vancouver School of Decorative and Applied Arts. Winners of scholarships for general proficiency were: ... B.C. Society of Fine Arts, $25, Miss Ada Currie; ... "
      From "Art School to Stage Exhibit"
      Vancouver Province, June 14 1926

"Winners of scholarships were: Second year students - B.C. Institute of Architects, $50, Miss Ada Currie; J. Fyfe Smith, $50, Miss Sybil Hall (sic); Vancouver Exhibition Association, $25, Fred Amess. "
      From "Prizes Presented to Art Students"
      unknown newspaper, June 1927

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