ROYAL ACADEMY
OF THE ARTS

By: Chris Bradshaw

Friday, November 6 saw the ar-
rival of several ‘‘dignitary-like’’ in-
dividuals at Emily Carr, amidst the
puzzled glances of the student body.
Being possessed of sufficient curiosi-
ty and prompted by my recognition
of Laurier LaPierre, I decided to
look into the matter. I found that we
were the ‘privileged’ and uninform-
ed hosts of a conference of members
of the ‘“‘Royal Canadian Academy of
the Arts’’, gathering for the first
time in Western Canada.

It seems that these people were
holding an open forum on art,
hosted by Monsieur LaPierre and
that someone forgot to inform the
students of this event; hence the
relatively poor representation and
degree of preparedness of those of
us who attended. Not that it would
have made any great modicum of

difference, however, for LaPierre
dominated the entire discussion
with his talk-show rhetoric, in-

timidating participant and spectator
alike, pressing from topic to topic
without ever allowing sufficient
time for any degree of involved
discussion on any specific issue.

But now for the $64.00 question;
Who are the Royal Academy of the
Arts? Are they an exclusive art col-
lege? A federal agency of the
Canada Council? perhaps even, a
distinguished promotional agency
for artists? Wrong on all counts;

PHOTO: Rosanna Lee

from my short conversation with
Roger Kemble, a Vancouver ar-
chitect -who arranged this year’s
conference, I learned that the
Academy is a group of “‘senior ar-

Rosanna lee

‘“‘THE PAPER”? IS AN EMILY CARR COLLEGE OF ART AND DESIGN

tists’? who have achieved notoriety
in their field. Every year a group of
these artists meet to honor each
other and nominate new artists into
their society. This year is quite a
milestone, says Roger, as it is the
first time that attention has been
focused on the West. He also went
on to say that they are currently
engaged in fund raising for a
scholarship program for art students
like ourselves.

In my opinion, any attempt to aid
students in furthering their educa-
tion deserves our applause and
gratitude, but this cannot hide the
fact that the Royal Academy pro-
motes a particular philosophy of art
elitism and as such would benefit us
‘Westerners’ in a much more pro-
ductive sense if they were to restrict
their activities to the east where they
seem to be so well represented.

In retrospect, perhaps this was,
indeed, the reason for such a low
profile insofar as the publicity of the
event in the college. How would it
look, after all, if the students were
actually given a real opportunity to
express their views on the issue?
Food for thought... .

*

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PUBLICATION, FUNDED BY THE STUDENT SOCIETY.

STAFF:

Chris Bradshaw, Laiwan Chung, Pieter Kos, Ar-
ni Haraldsson, Sean Drysdale, P. McCrum, Cyn-

thia Lyman, C.J. Calendino.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATIONCONTACT:
‘THE PAPER’, C/O EMILY CARR COLLEGE OF ART AND DESIGN

1399 JOHNSON STREET,
GRANVILLE ISLAND,
VANCOUVER, B.C.

NEXT DEADLING FOR ALL ART WORK, ARTICLES, ETC .. . IS:

January 15th