The Moose Jaw Museum and Art Gallery (MJMAG) has been shortlisted by the Saskatchewan Book Awards (SBA) for its publication,Hansen-Ross Pottery: Pioneering Fine Craft on the Canadian Prairies.
The 20th anniversary awards shortlist of nominees celebrates excellence in books ranging of genres and diverse cultural heritage, including poetry, scholarly works, fiction, non-fiction, publishing in education, children's literature and First Nations books.
The coffee table book is a focus on the lives and ceramic pottery art created by Danish born Folmer Hansen and Winnipeg born David Ross; who had their studio located in Fort Qu'Appelle.
The book accompanies and coincides with the travelling exhibit of the two artists' work, which made its debut last fall in Japan at the Prince Takamado Gallery located in the Canadian embassy.
The book was created by Alan C. Elder, curator of Canadian Crafts and Design at the Canadian Museum of Civilization; Julia Krueger, a PhD candidate at the University of Western Ontario and Heather Smith, curatorial director of the MJMAG.
“We’ve published other books and material in the past. If we have a grant as we did for this project, we can prepare something bigger,” Smith said about the nearly four years of work that went into creating the book.
Smith said the exhibit will be visiting galleries in Prince Albert, North Battleford, Swift Current and Yorkton in 2013.
“People expect coffee table books on artists such as Monet or Picasso, but not on this scale of Saskatchewan artists,” Smith said on the quality of the project and book.
“This anniversary year’s list of nominees showcases the richness of the Saskatchewan literary community,” SBA program director, Carol Todd said.
For more on this article see the next issue of the Times-Herald.
