Hull, Quebec, May 20, 1999 — The Canadian Museum of Civilization becomes paradise on earth tomorrow when it opens the exhibition This Other Eden: Canadian Folk Art Outdoors. The exhibition brings together 150 pieces of outdoor folk art, dating primarily from 1960 to 1990 and drawn from the Museum's collections, and showcases them in a series of natural and fantasy settings that are sure to delight the artist in everyone. The Canadian Museum of Civilization opening marks the launch of a national seven-city tour. The exhibition and tour of This Other Eden are presented with the generous assistance of Investors Group.

This Other Eden displays outdoor folk art in its natural element, using evocative environmental backdrops to take visitors on a tour of folk art as it was meant to be seen: in the barnyard, on the front lawn, in the backyard garden and nestled beside a pond. The atmosphere is enhanced by a water, birdsong and animal soundscape and by physical structures such as a porch, a gazebo and a barn façade. This Other Eden includes fantasy creatures like a spotted tiger and blue-tongued bug, whirligigs of men milking cows or catching fish, as well as a variety of weathervanes, bird decoys, bird houses and life-size wooden figures — one of former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau and another of his opponent, Robert Stanfield. For visitors with a taste for the more risqué, there's even a "Venus Corner" with a whirligig of an amorous couple hidden inside a box — a box carefully located out of reach of younger visitors.

"We are pleased to bring to our visitors this selection of wonderful pieces from our extensive folk art collection," says Joe Geurts, Acting President and CEO of the Canadian Museum of Civilization Corporation. "Once dismissed as primitive or naïve, Canadian folk art has long since come into its own, and we are proud to showcase the whimsy, humour and creativity of ordinary Canadians from coast to coast."

As guest curator Phil Tilney, well-known ethnographer and broadcaster, has observed: "Outdoor folk art was largely created for the backyard, the garden, the stretches between house and road — in short, to adorn the creator's own personal Eden. The pieces in this exhibition reflect the blending of cultural traditions and regional characteristics, as much as they represent the whims, fantasies and humour of their creators. Always eccentric and very much part of the Canadian consciousness, they are nostalgic reminders of the symbols and passions that have influenced people's lives. They are a 'people's art'; they are memorable because they come from and belong to all of us."

The CMC's outdoor Plaza will soon also be in full bloom, with spectacular gardens and programmes echoing the themes of This Other Eden. The Museum's "funtastic" landscape will include whimsical outdoor folk art such as a flock of large sheep, pink flamingos and whirligigs, as well as traditional Canadian garden plants, including sunflowers, daisies and hollyhocks. Tours of the Museum's gardens will be offered in July, and special programming throughout the summer and fall will include demonstrations on crafting unusual folk art, performances and a series of lectures by the curator and Museum specialists.

Accompanying the exhibition is a lavishly illustrated 130-page coffee-table book entitled This Other Eden: Canadian Folk Art Outdoors by Phil Tilney, published by Douglas & McIntyre and the Canadian Museum of Civilization, available at the CMC's Boutiques and at all fine book stores.

"We are proud to be associated with this unique celebration of how Canadians express everyday life through traditional folk art," says H. Sanford Riley, President and CEO of Investors Group. "Investors Group is pleased to support the Canadian Museum of Civilization and the tour's presenting institutions in sharing this part of our heritage with people across the country."

This Other Eden: Canadian Folk Art Outdoors will be featured at the Canadian Museum of Civilization from May 21, 1999 until January 9, 2000. Following its presentation at the CMC, the exhibition embarks on a three-year cross-Canada tour, including venues in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, London, Winnipeg, Halifax and Montreal.

Folk Art: Curatorial Overview

Folk art is the effort of ordinary people to express their artistic impulses in myriad ways, using common, often recycled materials to create works of enduring beauty. Folk art has always been with us, both indoors and out. Cave dwellers decorated their walls with the fruits of their own experience and their observation of the world. Generations of their descendants made decorative clothing, painted storage trunks and furnishings, and carved evocative representations of the creatures which filled their lives. They idealized, miniaturized and let their imaginations flow.

In Canada, ethnologist Marius Barbeau (1883-1969) was among the first to recognize that folk art was a worthwhile cultural pursuit. His efforts established what is still a growing national collection at the Canadian Museum of Civilization. Chronological, regional and ethnic differences in folk art soon came to be recognized and catalogued, as Barbeau and others began comparative studies of such disparate objects as a nineteenth-century Quebec weathervane, a humorous carving of former Canadian Prime Minister John Diefenbaker and a hand-painted Easter egg.

Outdoor folk art — the focus of the exhibition This Other Eden: Canadian Folk Art Outdoors — enjoyed an explosion in creative expression in the three decades between 1960 and 1990. Lawn statuary, hilarious whirligigs and stately bird houses were found, created, decorated and sold — sometimes for enormous prices. Then, suddenly, the frenzy ceased. Folk artists turned their hands to other pursuits, and yards came to be decorated, instead, with commercial statuary. Folk art had evolved yet again: from simple expressions of a vital decorative impulse to a range of dignified and valuable antiques.

Phil Tilney
Guest Curator

Biographical Note: Guest Curator Phil Tilney

Phil Tilney is a noted curator and scholar who has originated and curated nine exhibitions on folk culture, as well as consulting on numerous others. Educated at Indiana University and Harvard, he has received fellowships from Fulbright, Ford and the National Museums of Canada and has worked as a journalist, teacher and Head of the East European Studies Programme for the Centre for Folk Culture Studies at the National Museum of Man (now the Canadian Museum of Civilization).

He specializes in folk culture and its artifacts, having written works on Canadian folk art, ethnic weddings, toys and family treasures. He has authored a number of films and ethnographic video documentaries for both the National Film Board and the Canadian Museum of Civilization (CMC) and has written several research documents for the CMC.
Phil Tilney is also a freelance writer-broadcaster whose work appears in various publications, as well as on CBC Television, national and international CBC Radio, and National Public Radio in the United States. He is heard regularly on CBO Morning and In Town and Out on CBC Ottawa and is heard weekly in syndication across the CBC's national radio network.

Mr. Tilney has received a number of awards for his work as an ethnographer and broadcaster, including several ACTRA awards for Best Commentary and a CBC Television Drama Award for the programme The Free Enterprise.

Mr. Tilney's hobbies include boating, restoring antique automobiles and working as a community volunteer for causes which range from arts and culture to crisis intervention. Currently a resident of Kennebunkport, Maine, Mr.Tilney is married and has two adult children.

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