Art, Education, and a "new world society": Joseph McCulley's Pickering College and Canadian Muralism, 1934-1950

Journal of Canadian Studies, Winter 2007 by Niergarth, Kirk

In Depression-era Pickering College, a Quaker-founded private school in Newmarket, Ontario, headmaster Joseph McCulley guided what he called "a great experiment" in democratic education. McCulley's educational philosophy was influenced by progressivism, social Christianity, and democratic socialism. These ideological influences are also evident in a 1934 mural executed by Pickering College's artist-in-residence, Harold Haydon. Not only is the subject matter of this particular mural consistent with McCulley's ideals, but the mural form in general was a component of McCulley's conception of the place of art in a coming "new world society": in this future society, McCulley wrote, "art in all its forms shall no longer be the prized possession of a favoured few but its enrichment of life shall be the heritage of all." This article explains the connection between McCulley's educational philosophy and the contemporary meaning of Haydon's mural. It then compares Haydon's mural to other Canadian murals of the 1930s and 1940s.

Dans le collège Pickering-une école privée quaker fondée à Newmarket (Ontario)-le directeur d'école Joseph McCulley a dirigé, pendant la Dépression, ce qu'il a appelé « une grande expérience » en matière d'éducation démocratique. La philosophie d'enseignement de M. McCulley a été influencée par la progressivité, le christianisme social et le socialisme démocratique. Ces influences idéologiques sont également évidentes dans une murale de 1934 réalisée par l'artiste résident du collège Pickering-Harold Haydon. Le sujet de cette murale est non seulement conforme aux idéaux de M. McCulley mais représente globalement une composante de la conception de M. McCulley de la place de l'art dans la nouvelle « société du nouveau monde ». Dans cette société future, M. McCulley a écrit que « l'art sous toutes ses formes ne doit plus être la possession précieuse de quelques personnes choisies mais un enrichissement de la vie de chacun ». Le présent article explique les liens entre la philosophie de l'enseignement de M. McCulley et la signification contemporaine de la murale de M. Haydon. L'article compare ensuite cette murale avec d'autres murales canadiennes des années 1930 et 1940.

"The future of painting in Canada?" asked critic Walter Abell in 1942 before speculating: "World trends imply a growing interest in murals and a consequent re-integration of painting with architecture to a larger degree than has existed since the Renaissance.... The conception of a work of art as an object for 'collecting' or 'exhibiting' will no doubt give way increasingly to a recognition that art is to be used and enjoyed as a normal part of daily life" (181). Though Abell was enthusiastic about both Mexican and American government-sponsored mural projects, his anticipated future was not only based on "world trends" external to Canada; he was also aware of recent and contemporary efforts to promote public forms of art in Canada. In fact, Abell's prophecy was almost a perfect echo of one put forth in 1931 by Joseph McCulley, headmaster of Pickering College in Newmarket, Ontario:

Except in the days of the individual craftsman, art has tended to be remote and detached from the life of the average man and has become the prerogative of a leisure class. In the new world society there must be a sufficient emphasis on the quality of life and the rich experiences that are possible to all members of the human family. Art in all its forms shall no longer be the prized possession of a favoured few but its enrichment of life shall be the heritage of all.

It was in keeping with this philosophy of art that, in 1934, McCulley commissioned one of his school's art instructors, Harold Haydon, to execute an enormous mural painting on the wall of the Pickering College gymnasium.

McCulley and Abell's shared passion for murals was only part of a much broader ideological alignment. While their public writing and speeches were differently focussed-on education and art respectively-they similarly combined radical Christianity, progressivism, and democratic socialism.1 Though neither McCulley nor Abell were ever openly attached to a political party, both were part of the left-wing formation Ian McKay has called "radical planners and state builders" (2005). Historians have long studied the political and intellectual components of this formation and, recently, have begun to examine its cultural manifestations.2 These histories combine in Joseph McCulley's Pickering College. In its gymnasium, Haydon's mural reveals an intersection of art, politics, education, and theology that can help to both broaden our understanding of the era's key radical formation and to incorporate this understanding into the history of Canadian art.

The Pickering College mural has been visibly damaged and neglected in the years since critic Donald Buchanan dubbed it "Embryology on a Wall" in the January 1935 issue of Canadian Forum (154) (see figs. 1 and 2). It has also been neglected by historians of Canadian art. Marylin J. McKay devotes only one paragraph to Haydon's work in her recent history of murals in Canada. Its political themes, she writes, "were frequently used in modern mural paintings outside Canada" (M. McKay 2002, 203). The word "outside" in this sentence is a crucial one. McKay must make Haydon's mural an "outsider" to support her contention that what she calls "modern rnuralism" lacked popular support in Canada: