Culture of Alberta
The vastness of the land and variation of geography – which includes mountains, foothills, grassland, parkland, forest, and rockland – have served as important sources of creative inspiration across all art forms.
During the province's early years, many significant projects were designed by eastern firms including those of Ross and MacDonald, E. and W. S. Maxwell, Edward Colonna, John M. Lyle, Brown and Vallance, Burke Horwood and White, and Percy Erskine Nobbs.
Elevators, which had painted on their sides the names of towns, served as landmarks for rail and car travelers, as well as for BCATP pilots during World War II.
In his 1923 book Vers une architecture, French architect Le Corbusier featured a photograph of the concrete Dominion Government Elevator in Calgary, which was demolished in 2011.
Several, such as those at Andrew, Castor, Leduc, Meeting Creek, Paradise Valley, Radway, Rowley, Scandia and St. Albert have been designated historical sites.
Alberta was also home to one of only two buildings in Canada designed by Frank Lloyd Wright: the Banff National Park Pavilion (built 1913-14).
In the late 1960s a new generation emerged and sought to develop a uniquely Albertan style of architecture that responded to the province's landscape and culture.
These individuals included Douglas Cardinal (1934-), Peter Hemingway (1929-1995), Gordon Atkins (1937-), Jack Long (1925-2001), Donald G. Bittorf (1926-2008), and William E. Boucock.
Since Carse's retirement in 1975, subsequent directors have included Jeremy Leslie-Spinks, Brydon Paige, Ali Pourfarrokh, Mikko Nissinen, and Jean Grand-Maître.
These include: Days of Heaven (1978), Unforgiven (1992), Legends of the Fall (1994), Open Range (2003), Brokeback Mountain (2005), and The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007).
From 1957 to 1985 the orchestra's home was the Southern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium, after which time it moved to the new Jack Singer Concert Hall, where it remains today.
Blackfoot pictographic art was made on media such as tipis, rock, and robes, and recurring subjects include spiritualism and inter-tribal war.
Other European artists, such as James Alden and William Hind, journeyed to Alberta in the mid-19th century and produced romantic depictions of the land, similar to those of Kane.
Following the completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1885, the company's president William Van Horne began giving free passes to artists.
In the 1940s and 50s, a new generation of Aboriginal artists – including Gerald Tailfeathers and Percy Two Gun – began depicting their communities using European techniques and tools.
These included Bates, Stevenson, and Nicoll, as well as Stanford Perrott, Jock Macdonald, Helen Stadelbauer, Ron Spickett, and Roy Kiyooka.
In 1975 a large collection of Alberta art was showcased at Canada House in London, and was introduced by Premier Peter Lougheed's wife Jeanne.
Important post-1960 artists include Robert Scott, Graham Peacock, Douglas Haynes, John Brocke, and Takao Tanabe.
Following World War II, the Calgary Stampeders and Edmonton Eskimos formed, in 1948 and 1949 respectively, both of whom played in the Western Interprovincial Football Union, the precursor to the modern CFL West Division.
The ritual of riding a horse into a hotel in the host city is a tradition Calgarians continue today when the Stampeders play in the Grey Cup.
Major ski hills include Sunshine Village, Lake Louise, Nakiska, Mount Norquay, Castle Mountain, and Marmot Basin.
Historically, most small towns in the province had a Chinese Café on their main streets, and Canadian-Chinese cuisine remains an important food.
Signature ingredients of Alberta include honey, canola, Red Fife wheat, Saskatoon berries, and root vegetables.
Alberta is the fifth-largest honey-producing region in the world, producing 40 million pounds of honey a year, which is half the total production of Canada.
Saskatoon berries are indigenous to Alberta, are typically used in jams, jellies, pies, and butter tarts, and have historically been used for tea and to make pemmican.
Its iconic "buffalo head and horseshoe" logo was for decades a prominent emblem of the city and appeared on the jerseys of many sports teams.
The B-52, invented at the Banff Springs Hotels, is a layered shot composed of coffee liqueur, Irish cream, and Grand Marnier (substitutes include triple sec or Cointreau).
[15] Smithbilt was founded in 1919 by Morris Schumiatcher, who had immigrated to Canada from Russia in 1910, and for 100 years has been the city's preeminent manufacturer of cowboy hats.
At the top of the escutcheon is a Saint George's Cross, which alludes to the arms of the Hudson's Bay Company, which formerly controlled the territory that is now Alberta.
The regular tartan was adopted in 1961, and its colour scheme represents the green of forests, the gold of wheat fields, the blue of skies and lakes, the pink of wild rose, and the black of coal and petroleum.
