The Permeable Border

When most of us think about America’s contribution to Canadian culture during the years before World War II, we think of church organs and public libraries. Yet in Rockefeller, Carnegie and Canada: American Philanthropy and the Arts and Letters in Canada, Jeffrey Brison shows us that American philanthropy functioned on a much broader scale. During the first half of the 20th century, U.S. dollars built the infrastructure for such institutions as the Canada Council, the Federation of Canadian Artists and the Humanities Research Council of Canada, along with many other public and private organizations. American money also founded and expanded departments of fine arts and music and schools of medicine. It enabled work by Canadian artists through shows such as the Exhibition of Contemporary Canadian Painting to be seen during the late 1930s in South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. It sent some of our most gifted art historians and artists on speaking tours in Canada...