Posts in Category: Biography

Dr. Duff Crerar, Grande Prairie Regional College

Duff Crerar was born in 1955 in the Ottawa Valley, and began his education in a one-room brick schoolhouse down the road from his parent’s apiary. His post-secondary education began at University of Waterloo and University of Western Ontario, concluding with his B.Ed. and Ph.D. at Queen’s University in 1990. The same year he moved with his family to GPRC, and has been teaching History and Native Studies, and occasionally introductory Philosophy ever since. He has travelled in France and Scotland, as well as various historic sites in the United States and Canada, and was visiting Fellow in the Canadian Studies Centre at the University of Edinburgh in 1998. Along with several articles on Canadian military chaplains and the historic role of the elder in Canadian Presbyterianism, he published in 1995 the book Padres in No Man’s Land, and in 1999 co-edited the GPRC Lobstick volume of essays on the centennial of Treaty 8, Treaty 8 Revisited. Current research includes the transfer of piety and faith of Scots from their homeland to Canada in the 1800s, the role of military chaplains since the Gulf War, and the history of Grande Prairie 577 Squadron, Air Cadets.

Allan Harding MacKay, Curatorial Consultant, Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery

Since graduating from the Nova Scotia College of Art (1967), Allan has had a long award-wininng career in the visual arts both as a practicing artist and as director of Galleries across Canada including Halifax (Anna Leonowen Gallery), Lethbridge (Southern Alberta Art Gallery), Saskatoon (Mendel Art Gallery) and Toronto (Art Metropole and Power Plant).
He has exhibited across Canada and Europe and is the subject of a 25 year survey at Confederation Centre Art Gallery and Museum in 2008.
In 1993, Allan travelled to Somalia to document the role of Canadian soldiers as part of a humanitarian aid mission. His work from that six-day visit became the bases of Somalia Yellow, a 19 minute documentary. This visit coincided with the torture and death of Shidane Arone, a Somali teenager, and the attempted suicide of master Corporal Clayton Matchee. Profoundly effected by his experience as a war artist, Allan again joined the Canadian Forces Artist Program in 2002 and gathered material in Kandahar, Afghanaston which became the basis of Double Bind.

Professor Pierre du Prey, FRSC, Queen’s Research Chair, Department of Art

Widely renowned as a dynamic and inspired historian of architecture in the classical tradition, Professor du Prey is highly commended by top colleagues from around the world for a scholarly approach which is both intellectually rigorous and socially embedded. He is currently preparing an interactive electronic publication titled Architecture in the Classical Tradition, in which he demonstrates his innovative use of recent and emerging technologies in the service of history.
Professor du Prey is the author of five important books, several chapters and encyclopedia entries, as well as notable articles in some of the most distinguished refereed journals in the discipline. John Soane: the Making of an Architect (1982) is widely regarded as a seminal work in Soane studies. The Villas of Pliny from Antiquity to Posterity (1994), which covers architecture from antiquity to the present day, has been called “one of the most brilliant and stimulating architectural studies of recent years.” It was singled out in 1996 with an Honorable Mention by the Association of American Publishers. Professor du Prey’s most recent book, Hawksmoor’s London Churches: Architecture and Theology (2000), has likewise established a reputation as a seminal work on the subject. In recognition of his outstanding scholarly contributions, Professor du Prey was elected to the Royal Society of Canada in 2003.
Professor du Prey’s distinguished record of publication is coupled with an international reputation as an outstanding presenter, reflected in his record of over 90 invited papers delivered across Europe and the Americas. His passion and flair has also contributed to his reputation as an excellent teacher and supervisor, for which he was recognized with the ASUS Teaching Excellence Award in 1989.

Edward Bader, Grande Prairie Regional College

Ed was born in Lethbridge, Alberta and raised on a small mixed irrigation farm near the city and has always had a passion for visual culture whether in the form of comic books, illustration to traditional fine art. He attended the University of Lethbridge (1974-1979) where he received a Bachelor of Fine Arts working primarily in the area of drawing and printmaking.
He holds a Masters of Fine Arts, Drawing/Painting, from the University of Calgary (1993). Ed has taught at the University of Calgary, The University of Lethbridge and The Alberta College of Art and Design. In 2007 he completed a Masters in Poplar Culture with distinction at Brock University, St. Catharines, Ontario. His thesis examined the role of graphic novels in cross-cultural exchange.
Presently, Ed is a tenured instructor at Grande Prairie Regional College and teaches introductory to senior level drawing, painting, contemporary art and New Media courses.

Ed has exhibited his drawings, paintings and new media projects widely throughout the Province of Alberta and has work represented in the Alberta Foundation for the Arts Collection, the Canada Council Art Bank and numerous private collections.