28,000 B.C. The first residents of what is now Canada arrived over the Bering Straight.
Most parts of Southern Canada has been occupied by "Indians." 8000 B.C.
c 5000 B.C. Petroglyphs made in what is now northwestern Ontario.
A human face is carved into the surface of a rock in what is now southwestern Québec, Coteau-du-lac c 3000 B.C.
c 2000 B.C. Pre-Dorset Inuit people migrate through the Bering Strait into what is now the Northwest Territories. They bring carefully crafted artifacts such as harpoon heads and lances.
An inhabitant of what is now the Lower Fraser River carves a sophisticated human figurine out of antler. 2000 B.C.
1000 B.C. Vikings arrived from Europe in and set up temporary settlements in Labrador. At this time, the land which would become Canada supports 300,000 Native people. The Iroquois lived as clans, with a woman "matriarch" being the ruler over the clan households. But the men decided matters of war, peace and trade.
The Marpole, a Northwest Coast Native people, develop totem poles and create a variety of ceremonial craft objects including stone and bone carvings, ceremonial bowls, utensils and effigies. 500 B.C.
100 B.C. Native people in what is now British Columbia create the Sechelt image.
A distinctive visual artistry emerges in Dorset Inuit culture. The Tyara maskette– a well known object characteristic of Dorset art–may be dated before 600 BC. 500 A.D.
900 Ancestors of the Iroquoian people in what is now southern Ontario, produce decorated pottery, pipes, and other artifacts. The pipe bowls and stems were carved or modelled in high relief with human and zoomorphic images.
Thule Inuit culture spreads across the Arctic and produces combs, needle cases "swimming figurines" (birds, spirits, and humans), utensils and female effigies. 1000-1200
European presence
1450 The First Treaty. Near Syracuse, NY, a peace treaty was signed between warring Iroquois nations . European explorers arrive in North America and white settlers will not be long to follow.
The first illustrations of Canada are published in Venice by Giovanni Ramusio. 1556
1557 John White creates paintings of the Inuit encountered on Frobisher's expeditions.
Jacques Cartier has claimed New France for France and Humphrey Gilbert claimed Newfoundland for England. by 1600
1603-35 Champlain makes occasional drawings of his experiences. Some of these illustrations are included as prints for his collected works (published 1922- 36).
Hostilities break out between the Europeans and arrivals and the Indians. Samuel Champlain subduesIroquois attackers with guns. 1609
1611 John Guy, Newfoundland's first English governor, establishes the first law, which attempted to regulate the fishing industry and control the deforestation of the shoreline.
Nova Scotia is granted its first official coat of arms (superseded in 1868 and 1929). 1626
1628 King Louis the 13th of France approved a new company called Company of the Hundred Associates. The Company was given the right to settle all land from Florida to the Arctic and to make all efforts to populate New France.
In Nova Scotia, Sir William Alexander, earl of Stirling, is the first to use the beaver as a visual emblem. 1633
1634 The Company of the Hundred Associates implements a seigniorial system of land ownership in New France. Lords or "seigniors" rent out parts of large land grants to tenants. The seigniorial system will last until 1854.
Newfoundland's coat of arms is officially granted. 1637
c. 1640 The Iroquois are the first Canadian natives using wampum belts for messages. These belts served as a visual record of particular treaties and events. This practice was first observed in 1620 among the Susquehannock in Pennsylvania.

European glass beads appear on Canadian natives’ patterned clothing and replace traditional natural materials such as quills and moosehair.
The Ursuline convent in Québec appears to have initiated an exchange of decorative techniques with Indian craftswomen. 1641
1647 Company of the Hundred Associates creates the first "provincial" government The Council asserts lawmaking power over the entire French colony.
The earliest French-Canadian pottery is built in Québec. 1655
1670-71 French artistic traditions begin to arrive in Canada: Frère Luc brings some aspects of French Baroque to Canada; Jean Talon commissions sculptures for a ship under construction which initiates visits by French sculptors; Jean Guyon (later abbé) begins to paint and is presumed to be Canada’s first native-born painter. La Mère des Anges, who would be a maker of bas-reliefs for altars, arrives in Québec.
Charter of the Hudson's Bay Company is granted to a group of 18 investors which included King Charles II's cousin. The charter provides the Hudson's Bay Trading Company with a fur, fish and mining monopoly. Lawmaking power is to be exercised by the Governor of the Company in conformity with the laws of England. The Hudson's Bay area is rapidly settled by the English and and an extensive system of trading posts are established. 1670
1686 A bust of Louis XIV, appears in Québec and is the first, non-native public art.
The first image of Niagara Falls is published as an illustration in Louis Hennepin’s Nouveau Voyage d'un Pais Plus Grand que l'Europe, illustrating it with the first image of Niagara Falls. 1698
1700 Pierre Le Ber assists in founding an alms-house in Montréal and possibly offers early art instruction.
The Abenaki Indians (along the lower St. Lawrence) begin to practice the Calumet Dance ritual and produce decorated drums and pipes of peace and war. 1720s
1732-7 The creation of Noël Levasseur's altarpiece in Québec's Ursuline Chapel intitiates a lengthy period of family success in sculpture.
Montreal Hangs a Female Slave. Sources suggest that Marie-Joseph-Angelique burnt down her master's house in Montreal as a protest of her slavery and pending sale. The fire spread and destroyed 46 houses and a historic church. Her original sentence was to have her hands cut off and be burnt alive; after her appeal, her sentence was "reduced" to death by hanging. 1734
1740 The Naskapi Indians of northern Labrador produce painted skins. Of particular interest are the caribou hide coats which are incised and painted with linear geometric patterns.
The James Bay Cree’s clothing reflect the European influence when they cut their parkas vertically up the front. 1743
1751 The first locally-manufactured silver liturgical implements are produced by Jean Ferment for an Acadian church.
Thomas Davies becomes one of the earliest topographic artists while posted to the garrison in Halifax. 1757
1758 Nova Scotians establish their own law-making legislature, which meets for the first time on October 2, 1758.
New France falls to England. After the famous Plains of Abraham victory in Quebec (September 13, 1759), the English promise the captive French habitants "mild and just government." Eventually, all residents were required to swear allegiance to the British Crown. 1759
1763 Royal Proclamation of October 7, 1763 guarantees the residents of New France the enjoyment of their property and freedom of worship "so far as the laws of England permit." Habitants were also to have "the enjoyment of the benefit of the laws of our realm of England."

New France is renamed "Quebec" and formally delivered to England by the Treaty of Paris, 1763. Both France and Britain felt the colony was too expensive to maintain. The Treaty of Paris ended French rule in Canada. A Royal Proclamation in the same year stated that North American will have legal title to all lands then occupied by them and which were outside the territory of the colony and the Hudson's Bay Company.
The Quebec Act established. The Quebec Act stated that "property and civil rights were to be resolved by reference to the laws of Canada; i.e. the French law that had been in force. The seigniorial land system is continued and calls for a council of 17 to 23 members to which the French are to enjoy access as members. The Quebec Act also said that for criminal law, the law of England would apply. British merchants are furious as are the Americans, who are rallying for independence from England. The Act also enlarged Quebec to include Labrador and the Roman Catholic population was guaranteed religious freedom." 1774
1777 Although there had been a small printing press in Halifax since 1751, the first Canadian print actually produced for consumption as an image is Anthon Henrich's vista of Halifax, published in the Nova Scotia Calendar.
James Peachey's view of Montmorency Falls is the first print made without plans for publication in newspapers. 1779
1780s The Algonkin and Huron incorporate European textiles into sashes produced by their traditional finger-weaving technique. Eastern native peoples begin to adopt European architectural forms.
François Baillargé returns from studying in France and sets up a studio in Québec. In so doing, he commences a second great family dynasty of French-Canadian carvers. 1781
1784 The Iroquoians, in Canada since at least 1676, now begin to settle in the Six Nations Lands set aside for them along the Grand River. They continue to produce wampum belts and begin to produce their famous False Faces which are ceremonial wooden masks.
The earliest lessons in landscape painting are offered by Louis-Chrétien de Herr in Montréal. The first organization to devote energy to visual arts is formed: The Halifax Chess, Pencil and Brush Club. 1787
1790s Settlers from the United States and Britain begin to make distinctively Canadian quilts.
Constitutional Act of 1791. England separates Quebec into Upper and Lower Canada. Upper Canada (Ontario)’s first statute is to reject French civil law and introduce English common law. Upper Canada gives landowners and those who pay £10 in rent the right to vote. Generally, most women did not vote; nevertheless New Brunswick enacts a law which specifically excludes them from voting. Iroquois law, in contrast, not only allows women the right to vote, but Indian women were alone in selecting their political leaders. British North America is made up of four colonies: Upper and Lower Canada, New Brunswick (since 1784) and Nova Scotia. George Vancouver was charting new land in the west. 1791
1792 The publishers of the Quebec Magazine, Samuel and John Neilson, make the first wholehearted effort to establish an intaglio press in Canada.
English Canada's earliest pottery is established near Markham, Ontario. 1794
1798 In Montréal, Jeanne-Charlotte Allamand is, among other things, one of the first recorded female art teachers
Souvenir exchanges with Europeans gradually erode the ritualistic visual cultures of the Thule Inuit and Northwest Coast Indians. 1800-1900
1807 An art school in Halifax is opened by a M. Smith.
Because of the decimation of caribou and moose herds, the Montagnais natives of Québec begin to use European textiles for clothing instead of animal skins. 1808
1812 Beginning of the War of 1812 between Canada (Britain) & the US. The Treaty of Ghent ends the war in 1814. The Red River settlers establish themselves in Canada’s northwest
Robert Semple, the governor of territories for HBC, is killed by Métis allies of the North West Co., along with other Red River colonists in the Battle of Seven Oaks marking the birth of the Métis Nation 1816
1817 Joseph Légaré buys many of the European works brought to Quebec by the abbé L.-J. Desjardins the previous year. He will exhibit his collection in 1838.
What are thought to be Canada’s first published commentaries on visual art are published in L'Abeille Canadienne, a Montreal newspaper. 1818-19
1818 The 49th parallel becomes accepted as the border between the U.S. & CA from Lake of the Woods to the Rockies
The Red River Métis’ floral decorative style becomes characteristic of them to a degree that western Sioux tribes call them "Flower Beadwork People."

European themes become apparent in Haida argillite carvings.

Mary Love is one of the earliest Canadian-born artists to study abroad.

 1820s
1821-6 Peter Rindisbacher, a Swiss painter, creates watercolours depicting life in the Red River Settlement.
The Society for the Encouragement of Art and Science in Canada is founded. The following year, they will grant the title Canada’s first history painter to Joseph Légaré 1827
1829 The Society for the Encouragement of Art and Science in Canada merges with the Literary and Historical Society of Québec
A garrison in Halifax hosts Canada's first art exhibition. 1830
1833 Maria Morris Miller opens a drawing academy in Halifax.
The Society of Artists and Amateurs of Toronto is founded and holds a single exhibition. 1834
1835 In Saint John, Mary Hall sells her lithographs "Views of British America" by subscription.
Rebellions in Upper & Lower Canada led by Mackenzie & Papineau are unsuccessful 1837
1839 The invention of the daguerrotype in Europe is announced in Canadian newspapers.
Americans open Canada’s first photography studios in Montréal and Québec. 1840
1841 A Mrs. Fletcher opens a portrait studio in Montréal and is likely Canada’s first female photographer.

Upper & Lower Canada are united through the Act of Union
The first Upper Canada Provincial Exhibition.is held in Toronto 1846
1846-48 Paul Kane travels as far west as Fort Vancouver and produces many of the images that will illustrate his Wanderings of an Artist Among the Indians of North America (published in England in 1859). It is suggested that Kane collaborates with his wife, Harriet Clench, who is also an artist.
The Toronto Society of Arts and the Montréal Society of Arts are founded and attempt to generate commissions for artists. 1847
1848 Paul Kane holds one of the first public solo exhibitions.
Cornelius Krieghoff settles in Québec.

Official Canadian policy of bilingualism begins. US-Canada border at the 49th parallel is extended to the Pacific.

 1849
1850s Traditional quillwork is gradually replaced by beadwork and embroidery.among the Métis and Plains Ojibwa.
Underground railroad network in place for enslaved and even freed African-Americans in southwestern Ontario. 1851
1852 The first formal academic museums open at Université Laval in Montréal and the Canadian Institute in Toronto. The Upper Canada Provincial Exhibition establishes a special category for painters.
The Weslayan Academy in Sackville, N.B., introduces its first classes in art and music especially for women. 1854
1855 Canadians T.C. Doane and E.J. Palmer receive honourable mentions for their daguerrotypes at the Paris Exposition.
William Notman opens the first of his many influential photography studios in Montréal. 1856
1857 Ottawa becomes the capital of Canada.

Egerton Ryerson opens his Canadian Educational Museum in the Toronto Normal School. The museum features plaster casts and copies of European works of art.
Photographic Portfolio is published in Québec. 1858
1859 In Toronto, William Scott and Son is founded in Toronto and is one of Canada's earliest galleries.
Cornerstone is laid of the Parliament buildings.

The Montréal Society of Art is reconfigured and becomes the Art Association of Montréal. Most of the early members are not professional artists but collectors.

 1860
1862 In Victoria, Hannah Maynard opens a photography studio in Victoria.
The Canadian Journal of Photography is published in Toronto but is a short-lived publication.

The Charlottetown & Quebec conferences establish the groundwork for Confederation

 1864
1866 Resolutions are passed at the London Conference which become the basis of the British North America Act.

In order to raise money, writer Susanna Moodie sells small paintings of flowers.
Confederation, whereby the colonies become the Dominion of Canada with Sir John A. Macdonald as first prime minister. The original provinces are: Quebec, Ontario, New Brunswick, & Nova Scotia. 1867
1868 The Nova Scotia Museum opens in Halifax.

Agnes Dunbar Chamberlain creates illustrations for Catherine Parr Trail's book Canadian Wildflowers.

Rupert’s Land is purchased by Canada from the HBC
The demand for locally produced items declines with the gradual emergence of mail-order catalogues. The decimation of bison herds forces Natives in the plains to use mass-produced artifacts such as copper kettles and steel utensils. 1870s
1870 The Institut Nationale in Montréal is established to provide classes in arts and crafts. Frances Anne Hopkins shows sixteen of her works at the Art

Association of Montréal; this exhibit is the first large exhibition of one woman's work.
British Columbia joins Confederation 1871
1872 A group of seven Toronto painters form the Ontario Society of Artists. The OSA is markedly more artist-oriented than previous societies of this nature. Women are consciously excluded from this group.
The first exhibition of the Ontario Society of Artists occurs in Toronto. 1873
1875-6 The Ontario Society of Artists offers a few art classes to men and women. In 1911, the Ontario College of Art will emerge.
The Supreme Court of Canada is established 1875
1876 The Indian Act defines the special status & land regulations of aboriginal people who live on reservations; they have no vote in CDN elections are exempt from taxes.

The Canadian Women's Suffrage Movement began in with the founding of the Toronto Women's Literary Club.
The Art Association of Montréal emulated the Parisian salons in the form of annual exhibitions and begins to offer some courses. 1879
1880 The Royal Canadian Academy of Arts in Ottawa is created by Princess Louise and the marquis of Lorne create. As a term of membership, artists donated one work; the National Gallery of Canada emerged from this collection.

Emily Stowe becomes the first woman doctor to receive a licence to practice medicine. Note: She was turned down by the University of Toronto and studied in the U.S.
The Canadian Pacific Railway is incorporated. The last spike is set in 1885. 1881
1883 Robert Harris receives a commissioned to paint "The Fathers of Confederation."
The Québec Amateur Photographers' Association is formed. 1884
1885 With his photographs of the North West Rebellion Captain James Peters begins the era of photojournaliam.

Louis Riel & the Métis clash with the NWMP at Duck Lake & are defeated at Batoche. Riel is executed in Regina.
As president of the Canadian Pacific Railway, William Van Horne provides free passes to artists in exchange for pictures of scenery visible from the trains.

George Eastman starts to market the modern hand camera in the U.S.).

 1888
1889 Women in Canada begin to campaign for the right to vote
Paul Peel's "Venetian Bather" becomes the first publicly exhibited nude in Toronto He wins wins a bronze medal at the Paris Salon for "After the Bath."

The Ontario School of Art becomes the Central Ontario School of Art and Design.

 1890
1891 Watercolourist and photograph retoucher, Marmaduke Matthews founds an artists’ co-op, Wychwood Park, outside of Toronto.
Due to her exhibitions of the Société des artistes français, Impressionist painter Laura Muntz Lyall is thought to be the first Canadian woman artist recognized in France. 1894
1895 The Toronto Camera Club debates the admission of women as members.
The Council of the Guild of Sculptors is formed.

Motion pictures are shown for the first time in Canada in Montréal.

An immigration policy is developed to help bring farmers from Europe to settle on the Prairies.

 1896
1897 Hannah Maynard becomes an official photographer for the Victoria Police Department.

James Freer makes the first Canadian motion pictures. He films of Prairie farmers in a venture intended to promote immigration.

The Klondike Gold Rush begins.

The first woman is admitted to the bar in Ontario: Clara Brett Martin
Portraitist Sophie Pemberto becomes the first Canadian to receive the Prix Julian from Paris's Académie Julian.

Canada sends its first troops to an overseas war (the Boer War)

 1899
1901 Anticipating the Canada Council, Josephine Dandurand's "Two Systems of Art" proposes government funding of the arts but is unsuccessful.
The Winnipeg Art Society is formed. The advent of pictorialism is marked by an exhibition put on by the Toronto Camera Club. 1902
1903 The Vancouver Photographic Society is formed . Canada’s first dramatic short film, "Hiawatha" is produced.
The Ottawa Camera Club is reformed as the Photographic Art Club of Ottawa. 1904
1906 A study of Dutch landscape painting by Montréal collector E.B. Greenshields is the first art book published in Canada. Canadian Guild of Crafts of Québec is formed in Montréal.
Canadian Art Club is formed in Toronto. The Royal Architectural Institute of Canada is founded in Ottawa. The Brandon Art Club is formed in Manitoba.

"Equal pay for equal work" is demanded for women by the National Council for Women

 1907
1908 The Toronto Camera Club begins annual exhibitions at the Toronto Industrial Exhibition.
The British Columbia Society of Artists is formed. Laura Muntz Lyall becomes the first woman asked to exhibit with the Canadian Art Club. 1909
1910 Medalta Pottery is established in Medicine Hat. The National Gallery of Canada pays what is thought to be an astronomical amount ($10,000) for Horatio Walker's "Oxen Drinking."
The core members of what would be the Group of Seven meet at the Arts and Letters Club in Toronto. 1911
1912 In British Columbia, Emily Carr shows her paintings inspired by French expressionism (Fauvism) in British Columbia. The Winnipeg Art Gallery opens.
Rules preventing women members of the Royal Canadian Academy from attending business meetings and serving on the council are relaxed. "Evangeline," Canada’s first feature film is produced in Halifax. 1913
1914 Art Museum of Toronto makes its facilities available to the Toronto Camera Club; this gesture suggests an institutional recognition of photography as an art form. The Edmonton Art Association is founded. The first National

Gallery Travel Grant is awarded to Emily Coonan in order to study in Europe. The onset and aftermath of the war prevents her from going for six years.

War (WWI) is declared on Germany (by Britain, implicating Canada automatically).

The War Measures Act is passed suspending civil rights during crises.

Immigration to Canada is at an all-time high.

The Parliament of Women is staged.
Many significant images are produced by Arthur Keillor for the War Poster Service. 1914-18
1916 The Canadian War Records Office is established by Lord Beaverbrook. One of the mandates of is to collect battle paintings and photographs; this venture employs 80 international artists.

The Art Gallery of Toronto finds its first permanent headquarters.

Women are granted the right to vote & hold public office, thanks to Nellie Mclung & others.

The Parliament buildings are destroyed in a fire.

25,000 Canadians & Newfoundlanders are killed in the Battle of the Somme.
Tom Thomson drowns in Algonquin Park.

A temporary income tax is introduced to help cover wartime expenses.

Women are able to vote for the first time.

Halifax Harbour is wiped out by an explosion in a munitions ship.

The worst battles faced by Canadians in WWI are fought at Vimy Ridge & Passchendaele

 1917
1918 A series of commemorative monuments emerge in response to the end of the war.

Canadians force through German trenches at Amiens, beginning "Canada’s Hundred Days,"which leads to the end of the war on Nov. 11
The expansion of art education is an indirect result of the federal government’s Technical Education Act. 1919
1920 The first exhibition of the Group of Seven opens at the Art Gallery of Toronto.

Canada joins the League of Nations at its inception. The NWMP becomes the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

Women become eligible to sit in the House of Commons
Montréal's Beaver Hall Hill Group pioneers recognition of female artists. 1920-24
1922 Mary Hiester Reid is the first woman to have a solo exhibition at the Art Gallery of Toronto, although the exhibition was posthumous.
The Group of Seven gain international recognition in the Canadian section of the British Empire Exhibition in Wembley, England. 1924
1926 The first monograph on the Group of Seven is published by F. B. Housser.
Emily Carr becomes the first Canadian woman artist to achieve national recognition when her work is included in Marius Barbeau and Eric Brown's exhibition of Canadian West Coast Art, Native and Modern, in the National Gallery.
The National Museum of Canada is founded on the collections of geologist William Logan, a geologist.

With his exhibit at the Arts and Letters Club in Toronto, Bertram Brooker becomes the first acknowledged abstract artist in Canada.

 1927
1928 The Supreme Court rules that women are not persons who can hold office according to the BNA Act—reversed a year later by the Privy Council in Britain
Prudence Heward receives the first Willingdon Prize for painting from the Governor General.

The Great Depression begins

 1929
1930 The Canadian Handicrafts Guild fosters interest in native art with an exhibition of Inuit crafts in Montréal.
The Art Gallery of Toronto holds the last official exhibition of the Group of Seven. 1931
1932 Yousef Karsh opens his popular portrait studio in Ottawa.

The National Gallery's criteria for its exhibitions are protested as being too narrow.
The Canadian Group of Painters is formed and based in Toronto by twenty-eight artists from across Canada to succeed the defunct Group of Seven. Their first show of "art with a national character" is held in New Jersey.

An experimental School of Fine Arts is founded in Banff, Alta; this centre would become the influential Banff Centre.

The Canadian Handicrafts Guild forms an Indian Committee to support traditional Indian crafts.

 1933
1934 The National Gallery arranges the first Canadian International Salon of Photographic Art.
Norman Bethune's social conscience inspires Fritz Brandtner to establish the Children's Art Centre for the underprivileged of Montréal and to hold an exhibition for the benefit of the Canadian League Against War and Fascism. 1936
1938 The Eastern Group of Painters is founded in Montréal in response to the nationalism of the Canadian Group of Painters.

Toronto expatriate Joseph Shuster creates the Superman comic-book character in New York.
Britain declares war (WWII) on Germany. Canada declares war shortly after.

The first Bachelor of Fine Arts degree is awarded at Mount Allison University in Sackville, N.B. John Grierson initiates the National Film Board of Canada.

 1939
1939-45 Harry Mayerovitch produces many posters to promote the National War Financing Board’s.Victory Bonds.
Unemployment insurance becomes available. Thérèse Casgrain helps women win the right to vote & hold office in the provincial legislature (Quebec) 1940
1941 Emily Carr publishes Klee Wyck which wins the Governor General award for literature.

American comic-books are banned for economic reasons thus enabling the development of some short-lived Canadian characters such as Leo Bachle's Johnny Canuck, who is intended to be "typically Canadian."
Many Canadian soldiers die at Dieppe. Japanese-Canadians are moved from coastal BC areas; their property is confiscated 1942
1943 Canadian Art first appears.
Although she has had at least four solo exhibitions in public institutions, now Emily Carr has her first solo commercial show at the Dominion Gallery in Montréal.

Alex Colville is appointed an official War Artist; this experience will have an indelible impression the character of his work.

 1944
1945 WWII ends. Of the one million Canadian soldiers who fought, 42,000 were killed.

Family Allowance payments are introduced. Population is 14,009,429.

Immigration after the war is more than 100,000 per year. A report finds that Canada’s culture is dominated by American influences.

The Indian Act is revised to limit coverage of Native people, excluding Native women who married non-Native men (rescinded in 1985)
Wartime restrictions on imported comic-books are eased, effectively killing uniquely Canadian comic--books. 1946
1947 Les Automatistes, a group of artists gathered around Borduas, becomes famous.

Hundreds of women artists submit their work for an exhibition of Canadian Women Artists at the Riverside Museum in New York. The federal government's modest support of the show is effectively the first example of governmental patronage in Canada.
The Income Tax War Act of 1917, originally intended to foster private donations to institutions like hospitals and universities, is revamped as the Income Tax Act. This act will create conditions that gradually enrich public collections of art.

The Canadian Handicrafts Guild designates James Houston their Arctic Representative and he brings soapstone carvings from the Hudson Bay region to Montréal, greatly stimulating renewed interest.

 1948
1949 Max Stern of Montréal's Dominion Gallery offers Goodridge Roberts a contract instead of percentage and consignment sales and is the first Canadian dealer to do so.

The Royal Commission on National Development in the Arts, Letters and Sciences, known as the Massey Commission, begins its deliberations. Saskatchewan establishes the first public arts foundation in North America.
In Montréal, Agnes Lefort opens the first gallery devoted to printmaking. Yorkton, Saskatchewan introduces the first Canadian film festival, dedicated at first to documentary films. 1950
1951 The Massey Commission delivers a report which results in the establishment of governmental programs such as the National Library(1953) and the Canada Council (1957).
Alexandra Luke organizes a touring exhibition of Canadian Abstract Art. 1952
1953 William Ronald organizes the "Abstracts at Home" show at the Robert Simpson Co., gathering around him the nucleus of Painters Eleven.
Painters Eleven open up unprecedented possibilities for abstract artists in a series of exhibitions. 1954-59
1955 Kenneth Lochhead and Arthur McKay add professional artists' workshops to the program of the Emma Lake school; these will initiate an influential series of international exchanges.
Painters Eleven participate in the 20th annual exhibition of American Abstract Artists in New York and generate considerable national attention.

The National Film Board's move from Ottawa to Montréal boosts production of French language films.

 1956
1957 The Canadian Conference on the Arts addresses but does not resolve issues of importance to visual artists, ranging from tax reform to copyright.

In order to stimulate cultural production, The Canada Council for the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences is established.

Houston begins teaching print-making techniques to native artists in the Cape Dorset area, taking them into unexplored, but immensely successful territory. Krieghoff's 1860 painting "Merrymaking" gains attention when sold to Lord Beaverbrook for a $25,000.
Bill Reid and Douglas Cranme spark a Northwest Coast cultural revival when the at the University of British Columbia’s Museum of Anthropology asks them to make copies of totem poles and other artifacts. 1958
1960s Due to the expansion of community colleges, crafts and traditional handiwork enjoy a resurgence of popularity.
Ronald Bloore arranges a show of five Regina painters affected by international encounters at the Emma Lake summer school. These artists exhibit across Canada together and are known as the Regina Five. 1961
1962 Ojibwa artist Norval Morrisseau has a solo exhibition in Toronto which opens more perspectives to contemporary native artists. Michael Snow and Joyce Wieland begin to attract attention in New York.
David Mirvish opens his influential modernist gallery in Toronto.

The Ontario Arts Council is established and is the largest provincial arts funding organization.

 1963
1964 Yves Robillard, Richard Lacroix and others form Fusion des arts which is French Canada's first alternative (artist-run) exhibition centre.
The Department of Public Works establishes a policy that 1% of the budget for all government buildings must be spent on art. 1964-78
1965-76 Rankin Inlet Pottery is one of the few successful native ceramic studios.
The Professional Art Dealers Association is formed.

The Art Gallery of Toronto is renamed the Art Gallery of Ontario. The Société des artistes professionels du Québec is formed.

Christie Harris's Raven's Cry, with designs by Bill Reid, is the first book illustrated by a native artist.

 1966
1967 The Baxters and others form Intermedia in Vancouver which opens up the new fields of performance, installation and video art.

The Society of Co-Operative Artists reforms as the Society of Canadian Artists.

James Borcoman begins the National Gallery of Canada’s collection of contemporary international photography.

The Department of National Defence initiates a Canadian Armed Forces Civilian Artist Program, with over twenty participants eventually travelling to Vietnam and the Middle East.

The Vancouver Art Gallery's exhibit "Arts of the Raven" celebrates Northwest Coast Indian art not as ethnography but as high art.
The Professional Artists of Canada is founded to unite seven pre-existing associations. 1969
1970 Parks Canada initiates the Canadian Inventory of Historic Building.
Bill Vazan's World Line conceptually links twenty five locations on the face of the earth.

Wieland's exhibit at the National Gallery, "True Patriot Love," attracts attention for its nationalism, its technical innovations and its feminist reclamation of traditional techniques like quilting.

 1971
1972 The Canada Council establishes its Art Bank programme.

Video Inn is formed in Vancouver to promote video art.

The influential vehicle of General Idea, File, first appears in Toronto.
Heritage Canada is established.

Western Front, the alternative gallery in Vancouver is formed and helps organize the Matrix International Video Conference.

 1973
1974 The Council for Business and the Arts is established in order to encourage corporate sponsorship of museums, galleries, and other arts institutions.

The Association for Native Development in the Performing and Visual Arts is formed.

The Society for the Study of Architecture in Canada and the Canadian Crafts Council are formed in Ottawa.
Canada's first graphic art and design conference takes place at the University of Alberta.

The Canadian contribution to the Prague Quadrennial of theatrical design wins the first of several honourable mentions.

The National Gallery of Canada holds a major exhibition of seven contemporary women artists.

 1975
1976 Michael Snow is the first Canadian to have a major exhibition of avant-garde artist's film at New York’s Museum of Modern Art.
Co Hoedeman wins an Oscar for The Sand Castle, an animated film featuring creatures made of sand.

The Canadian Art Therapy Association is formed in Toronto.

 1977
1978 The Canada Council splits into two sections, one is responsible for artistic production while the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council supports academic research.
Brian Dyson founds Syntax (the Calgary International Artists' Contact Centre).

Ottawa's Department of Communications takes responsibility for federal arts funding from the Department of the Secretary of State.

Jeanne Sauvé becomes first woman Speaker of the House of Commons.

 1980
1981 The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts mounts a provocative exhibition on art and feminism.

The International Phototherapy Association is founded in Vancouver and the Canadian Society of Decorative Arts is formed in Toronto.
The Canadian Film Development Corporation changes its name to Telefilm Canada.

The National Art Therapy Council of Canada is founded in Ottawa.

 1983
1984 A new version of Canadian Art and C (a.k.a. C Magazine) begin publication. Canadian Art is directed at while C is is specifically aimed at the intellectual art community.
The National Gallery of Canada is affiliated with a new Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography.

Major amendments made to Indian Act grants Band Councils jurisdiction over reserve lands, restores rights

 1985
1986 Auction prices for Canadian art works reach an all-time high with a Lawren Harris reaching nearly half a million dollars.

A governmental committee reviews federal arts funding, recommending annual increases to the year 2000.
The funding programmes of the National Museums Corporation cease and are replaced by those of the Department of Communications.

Provincial premiers agree to the Meech Lake Accord (though it does not pass in 1990). Pay Equity legislation is passed in Ontario.

 1987
1989 A degree of controversy arises surrounding Moshe Safdie's new National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa and Douglas Cardinal's new Canadian Museum of Civilization in Hull.
The National Gallery comes under prolonged attack for spending 1.76 million dollars on a painting by American Barnett Newman. Rick Gibson provokes the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals by proposing to crush Sniffy the Rat as part of a Vancouver performance

The Royal Ontario Museum is attacked as being racist for their exhibition of African artifacts collected by colonial interests.

The Income Tax Act is ameded so that the Cultural Property Review Board has the power to set the value of donations to museums and galleries and thus to control the tax benefits of such gifts.

 1990
1991 Jana Sterbak's exhibition of a dress of raw meat at the National Gallery draws media attention and is accused of wastefulness in an era of food banks.

Canada Council releases a report entitled "The Politics of Inclusion/Exclusion: Contemporary Native Art and Museums."

The local vice squad closes an exhibition of posters about AIDS prevention at the University of Western Ontario.

A statue of Louis Riel in front of the Winnipeg Legislature is defaced as an insult to Metis dignity.

A sculpture of 1919, depicting the unconfirmed crucifixion of a Canadian soldier in World War I, is put on display for the first time in over seventy years at the Canadian War Museum.

The Canadian Art Foundation is formed in Toronto.
The Assembly of First Nations and the Canadian Museums Association produce a joint Task Force Report on Museums and First Nations Peoples.

The already notorious Pisschrist (1989) of American Andreas Serrano sparks controversy at the Vancouver Art Gallery.

Gerald R. McMaster's and Lee-Ann Martin's long-awaited "Indigena," a major traveling exhibition of contemporary Native Canadian art commenting on the

Columbian Quincentenary, opens at the Canadian Museum of Civilization. "Nuances," a collaboration between Quebec and Newfoundland photographers, attempts to contribute to Canadian unity by showing how much people are alike.

 1992
1993 Kim Campbell becomes first female Prime Minister, but her party (Conservative) is defeated & nearly eradicated in an election.

Douglas Cardinal is awarded the Molson Lifetime Achievement Award by the Canada Council.

The Canada Council announces serious funding cutbacks.

The Art Gallery of Ontario sues the Cultural Property Review Board over the valuation of donated works of art.

In the federal election campaign, the Reform Party’s leader, Preston Manning, targets recent, controversial acquisitions by the National Gallery as examples of government waste and deficit building.

The Art Gallery of Windsor moves into a local shopping mall and, counter to expectations, attendance figures go up.
The deputy prime minister of Alberta questions the Alberta Foundation for the Arts' support of an Edmonton forum on gender roles which included demonstrations of body-piercing, cross- dressing, and tattooing.

Metro Toronto Council refuses to grant cultural funding for a gay and lesbian video and film festival.

 1994
1995 A touring exhibition of works by women artists on the theme of breast cancer opens at the Royal Ontario Museum.

Native groups pressure Robert Crosby to return aboriginal artifacts and sacred objects to the Tsimshian, Haida, Coast Salish and others. These objects were collected by his grandfather, legendary Christian missionary Thomas Crosby.

A David Blackwood etching sells for a record price of $20,900 in an auction at Ritchie's in Toronto.
Art Business, an eight-page newsletter founded in 1995, is transformed into Canada's first on-line Art Business Magazine. It soon changes its name to The Arts Business Exchange. 1996
1997 Sherbrooke painter Eric Waugh begins what he hopes will be, at about 7200 square metres, the world's largest painting in order to raise money for AIDS research.

The Canadian Conference of the Arts establishes a Working Group on Cultural Policy for the 21st Century.

Edmontonian Barbara Paterson is chosen to make a public monument to honour women's rights pioneers (Oct.).
Atom Egoyan is nominated for a 1997 American Academy award for his film The Sweet Hereafter. 1998
1999 Protests abound: Haligonians protest a risqué billboard advertising a love goddess.

Another Prairie politician complains about art, this time about a "musical silo" project underwritten by the Millennium Arts Fund.

Some Londoners find it offensive that artist Jamelie Hassan displays in a gallery animal artifacts like elephant's-foot umbrella stands which are ostensibly inoffensive in their "proper" home, historic Eldon House.

An animal rights activist protests the use of rabbit skins in a Diana Thorneycroft installation in St. Norbert, Manitoba (Sep).

Some Torontonians find the works of American Cindy Sherman objectionable in the Art Gallery of Ontario.
Foreign Minister Lloyd Axworthy defends Nadine Norman's "Call Girl," a self explanatory, performance-based exhibit at the Canadian Cultural Centre in Paris, from charges of indecency and mismanagement of funds. 2000
Timeline adapted from Robert J. Belton’s "IMPORTANT MOMENTS IN CANADIAN ART HISTORY" available at http://www.ouc.bc.ca/fiar/timeline.html