Marilyn Jones | Emily Carr Chronicler

Emily Carr, Her Young Friends & The “Modern Room”

Published: 5 March, 2026
Written by Marilyn Jones

The Island Arts and Crafts Society in Victoria, BC, formed in 1909, played a pivotal role in shaping the region’s cultural landscape, particularly with its groundbreaking 1932 exhibition. One of the most memorable aspects of this event was the inclusion of the “Modern Room,” a space dedicated to showcasing for the first time ‘modern art’ in Victoria, a radical departure from the more traditional works that dominated at the time. Read…

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Emily Carr, “Klee Wyck”, Sophie Frank and Indigenous Voices

Published: 9 February, 2026
Written by Marilyn Jones

Emily Carr occupies a complicated, enduring place in Canadian cultural history. Celebrated as a visionary modernist painter and a fiercely original writer, she is also a figure whose life’s work is inseparable from her encounters with Indigenous peoples and cultures of the Northwest Coast. Her relationship to Indigenous communities was shaped by deep admiration, personal intimacy, colonial assumptions, and the constraints of her era. Nowhere are these tensions more visible than in Klee Wyck,…

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Kerry Mason: Emily Carr Teacher, Author & Curator

Published: 22 January, 2026
Written by Marilyn Jones

Art lovers of every generation eventually fall under the spell of Emily Carr. “Every generation discovers her anew,” said Kerry Mason—an art historian, curator, and educator who devoted 45 years to studying, teaching, and interpreting Carr’s life and work. Mason, who passed away in Victoria in 2023, was among the most influential figures in shaping public understanding of Emily Carr in British Columbia and beyond. Her legacy continues to resonate. Read…

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