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Victor Cicansky (Czekanski) was born and raised in Regina, Saskatchewan. He completed a Bachelor of Education degree at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon in 1964, and a Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of Saskatchewan, Regina Campus in 1967. In 1970 Cicansky received a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of California at Davis. Cicansky also studied at Haystack Mountain School of Art at Deere Isle, Maine.

In addition to teaching at the University of Regina for over 20 years, Cicansky has taught courses at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, the University of California at Davis and the Banff Centre of Fine Arts. He has also presented various workshops, lectures and slide presentations across Canada.

Cicansky’s sculptures and wall murals have been shown in numerous solo and group exhibitions in public and commercial galleries across Canada, the United States, England, France and China. He has been a member of several Canada Council and other art competition juries and has also served on the Saskatchewan Arts Board, the Norman Mackenzie Art Gallery Board, the Wascana Centre Arts Advisory Committee, and the Applied Arts Advisory Committee of the Saskatchewan Institute of Applied Science and Technology, Woodland Campus in Prince Albert.

Vic Cicansky retired as Professor Emeritus from the University of Regina Department of Visual Arts in 1994 and in 2007 received an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Regina.

Victor Cicansky’s work has been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions across Canada, the United States, Japan, and Europe.

His clay and bronze sculptures, often describing cultural, agricultural and historical circumstances of the Canadian prairies, are represented in collections at the Mackenzie Art Gallery, the National Gallery of Canada, the Museum of Fine Art, and the Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo — just to name a few.

Some of his commissioned works have include pieces created for the City of Regina, Government of Saskatchewan, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the 1976 Olympic Games and in 1989 for the provincial visit of their Royal Highnesses the Duke and Duchess of York.

Victor is the recipient of many Canada Council grants and has won awards such as the Victoria and Albert Award for Ceramic Sculpture, the California Kingsley Annual Award for Sculpture and the Saskatchewan Order of Merit.

In 2009 his many contributions to the arts, as a sculptor, an educator and mentor were recognized as he was named a member of the Order of Canada. Victor Cicansky passed away on March 3, 2025 .

Roy Kenzie Kiyooka was an influential Canadian photographer, poet and artist of national and international acclaim. He was a second generation Japanese Canadian, born in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan and raised in Calgary.

Kiyooka studied at the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology and Art, Alberta College of Art from 1946 to 1949, and in 1955 to 1956 he studied at the Instituto San Miguel de Allende in Mexico.

Following Kenneth Lochhead and Arthur McKay to the Regina College School of Art, he was the third instructor to be appointed. Along with Kenneth Lochhead and Arthur McKay, Doug Morton, Ted Godwin, Ron Bloore and Clifford Wiens were other artists heavily engaged in the Regina art scene. These young artists led the expansion of the Emma Lake Workshops by inviting major artists (or critics) as instructors. Kiyooka was one of the leading figures of this workshop and had great influence over decision making. The very successful 1959 workshop, which introduced abstract expressionist painting to Saskatchewan, was a crucial decision made by Kiyooka and his colleagues.

In 1960, Kiyooka’s new position at the Vancouver School of Art (Emily Carr College of Art and Design) required him to leave Regina, he became involved in poetry, photography, video, film, and music.

His book, Pear Tree Pomes, was nominated for the 1987 Governor General’s Award and in 1978, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada

Margaret Messer was born in Qu'Appelle, Saskatchewan and moved with her family to Saskatoon where she attended public and high school. She graduated from Nutana Collegiate and the University of Saskatchewan receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1939 and a Bachelor of Education degree in 1942.

She did graduate work throughout Canada, the United States and Europe and obtained a Masters of Arts degree in Fine Art Education from Columbia University in New York 1958.

For 23 years Margaret was involved in many of the dramatic and musical productions put on at Balfour Technical School in Regina where she taught commercial art and played a major role in the organization and opening of its present art department.

In 1966 she was appointed Assistant Professor of art education at the University of Saskatchewan, Regina Campus. Margaret remained with the Faculty of Education until 1973.

Messer was actively involved in several organizations. She was a chartered member of the Canadian College of Teachers, an honorary member of the Saskatchewan Technical Teachers Association and the Saskatchewan Teachers Federation, a member of the Canadian Society for Education through Art, the University's Women's Club and the National Art Education Association (USA). She was also past president and secretary for the Regina Local of the Saskatchewan Society for Education through Art and the first woman president of the Saskatchewan Historical Society.

In 1986 Margaret Messer designed many of the stained glass windows for St. Matthew's Anglican Church located in Regina and while she was interested in history and of Saskatchewan artists as well as the settlement of the province she wrote several articles which were published in the Regina Leader Post, she also illustrated many books and journals including historical books, instructional books on sewing, children's colouring books and also science workbooks.

Douglas Morton is one of the senior academic art administrators in Canada. Born in 1926 in Winnipeg, he studied art at the Winnipeg School of Art (1946-47), the University of Southern California, Los Angeles (1947-48), the Academie Jullan, L'Ecole des Beaux Arts and the Studio of Andre L'Hote in Paris, France (1949), and the Camberwell School of Art and the studio of Martin Bloch in London, England (1950-51). His professional artistic career continued in 1951-53 as curator for the Calgary Allied Arts Centre. Although involved in the business world as vice-president and manager of MacKay-Morton Ltd in Regina from 1954 to 1967, Morton took an active interest in art.

In 1961 Morton exhibited with Ken Lochhead, Art McKay, Ron Bloore, and Ted Godwin at the National Gallery of Canada in the show "Five Painters from Regina". He joined the University of Saskatchewan, Regina Campus in 1967 as Director of Visual Arts and Associate Professor of Art. He left Regina few years later to take up a position at York University in Toronto. From 1969 to 1980, he held a variety of posts, including Associate Dean and Director of the Graduate M.F.A. Programme (1973-76), Acting Chairperson, Department of Visual Arts (1978), and Vice-chairperson of Senate (1979). Morton was also Dean of the Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Victoria 1980-85, and President, Alberta College of Art, 1985-87.

Throughout his academic administrative career, Morton developed a reputation for effective management and the formulation of innovative and creative fine arts programs.

Natalie received a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Fine Arts majoring in Art History from the University of Regina in 1993. She was awarded a Master of Arts (Canadian History) in 1998. The Honour’s paper she wrote was about the art work of ten Saskatchewan women of Ukrainian descent and the Master’s thesis explored the involvement of Savella Stechishin and the first Ukrainian-Canadian women’s movement.

In the fall of 1998, Natalie presented a paper at a conference at the University of Toronto comparing Ukrainian Canadian women’s experiences in Canada and the United States with emphasis on Savella and in 1999 the Saskatchewan History journal published her paper on Savella Stechishin and the Ukrainian-Canadian women movement.

Natalie has authored two books: 75 Years of Service, Friendship and Commitment published by the Ukrainian Women’s Association of Canada (2002), and Blossoming of a Ukrainian Canadian: Savella Stechishin was published in 2009.

Natalie is an active community volunteer. In 1993 she received a Canada 125 Medal and the City of Regina Volunteer Vital Link, Citizen of the Week in both 1990 and 2002.

Winnipeg artist, Don Proch was born in Manitoba in 1944 and received a Bachelor of Fine Arts and a Bachelor of Education from the University of Manitoba in 1966. He taught from 1967 to 1970 and then won a purchase award for his submission "Asessippi Tread" and formed the Opthalmia Company of Inglis, a collective setting that was inspirational to Proch as well as to other artists.

Don Proch has been recognized for his substantial contribution to multi-media art in Canada and has won awards including those from the Canada Council and the Manitoba Arts Council.

Proch’s work can be found in major collections throughout North America including the Richardson Foundation-Greenshields Collection in Winnipeg, Manitoba; the Mancy Collection in New York; the Bronfman Collection; Crown Life Insurance Company; the Winnipeg Art Gallery; the Art Gallery of Ontario; the National Gallery of Canada; the Canada Council Art Bank; the Glenbow Museum; the Province of Manitoba Art Collection as well the Musee d’art moderne de la ville de Paris in Paris, France as well as many others.

Born in Kerrobert, Saskatchewan November 19, 1935, Otto Donald Rogers attended the Saskatchewan Teachers College during 1952-53 and was a student of Wynona Mulcaster. He received a Bachelor’s degree in Art Education in 1958 from the University of Wisconsin and in 1959 completed work for a Master's degree, majoring in painting and sculpture. Returning to Saskatchewan in 1959, he taught at the University of Saskatchewan and in 1975 became a full professor serving as head of the Art department from 1973 to 1978 and helped develop the “Open Studio” method of instruction.

Otto Rogers has had one-man shows at the Canadian Cultural Centre in Paris, the Galleria Del Millione in Milan, Espace 5 in Montreal and the Mira Godard Gallery in Toronto and well as many others. His work is represented in several notable public and corporate collections: the National Museum of Art in Iceland; Toronto-Dominion Bank; the Shell Oil Collection and the Imperial Oil Limited Collection.

He is an appointed member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Artists, and has received various Canada Council Awards.

Otto Rogers is a member of the Baha’i faith and has served on the Local Spiritual Assembly of Saskatoon as well as regional and national committees. He was a delegate to several national and intercontinental conferences and in 1988, following several years of service he departed for Haifa, Israel to assume an appointment on the faith's International Teaching Committee.

Rogers passed away in April 2019.

Jack Sures was born in Brandon, Manitoba in 1934. He attended the University of Manitoba (BFA 1957) and Michigan State University (MA 1959, Painting and Printmaking).

Returning to Manitoba Sures taught Junior High School in Winnipeg for one year. In 1960 he left Canada again, this time taking up residence in London, England, where he worked part-time at the Chelsea Pottery, part-time making ceramic cats, studied classical guitar under Len Williams and pursued his own painting in a one room apartment/studio. In 1961-62 he travelled extensively throughout Europe and the Middle East; visiting galleries and museums and working for a time in Cyprus and Israel.

In 1962 Sures returned to Canada and began, what he refers to as his "true ceramic education". He established a ceramic studio on Winnipeg's Portage Avenue where he became inventor, teacher and artist. He built Manitoba's first gas kiln with the help of colleague Ron Burke; built several wheels including one from a milk separator; taught classes; rented space to other ceramic artists; and worked intensely in his own studio.

In 1965 he was offered an opportunity to establish a ceramics program at the University of Saskatchewan, Regina Campus (precursor to the University of Regina). The same year he was the recipient of a Canada Council Award enabling him to work in Japan from March to September 1966. From 1969 to 1971 he served as Chairman of the Department of Visual.

Another Canada Council Grant took Sures to France to work in 1972. He then accepted a fifteen month appointment to work for the United Nations Handcraft Development Program in Granada, West Indies before returning to Regina in 1974.

Throughout his career, Sures has travelled extensively in Canada, the United States and abroad, conducting lectures, demonstrations and workshops at universities, colleges, high schools, art galleries and museums. Over the years he has offered his expertise as consultant to a variety of organizations including the Canada Council, in ceramics; the Banff Centre, in facilities and program development; the Regina Wascana Centre Authority, Fine Arts Committee; and the Board of the Canadian Conference of the Arts.

Work by Sures has been shown in numerous solo and group exhibitions nationally and internationally and is included in the collections of the Saskatchewan Arts Board; External Affairs Canada; Province of Saskatchewan; University of Saskatchewan, Pecs National Museum, Hungary; and the University of Regina. His major commissions include ceramic pieces for Secretary of State Canada; a ceramic mural for the Provincial Office Building, Saskatoon; a terrazzo floor for the Wascana Rehabilitation Centre, Regina; and a mural for the Museum of Civilization, Ottawa. In 1989 he was awarded the Grande Priz in "Mino'89", the foremost international ceramic competition held in Japan every three years.

Recognizing his outstanding contributions to undergraduate teaching at the University of Regina, Jack Sures was awarded the Alumni Association Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching at Fall Convocation on October 19, 1991. Further recognizing his achievements, on October 30, 1991, he received the Badge of the Order of Canada, from the Governor General of Canada at an investiture ceremony at Government House, Ottawa. In 1992 he received the Alumni Association Award for Excellence in Research. He was elected to the International Academy of Ceramics and he also received the Commemorative Medal of the 125th Anniversary of The Confederation of Canada in Recognition of Significant Contribution to Compatriots and to Canada.

In 1998 Jack Sures retired from the University of Regina and continues to work in his Regina studio.

In 2003 Sures received the Saskatchewan Order of Merit.

Clifford Donald Wiens was born into a Mennonite family in April 1926 on their farm near Glen Kerr, Saskatchewan where self-reliance was largely encouraged and growing up he became skillful in general construction principles metalwork and mechanics.

Interested in art and design, Wiens studied painting at the Banff Centre for Continuing Education with A.Y. Jackson; he studied agriculture at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon under a Wheat Pool Sponsorship Program for young farmers and machine tooling at the Moose Jaw Technical School. In 1949 Wiens was accepted into the Rhode Island School of Design on a full scholarship, graduating in 1954 and in 1957 started his own architectural firm in Regina. In 1958, he began work on his first important project, namely St. Joseph’s Church at Whitewood, Saskatchewan. In 1965 Wiens started what was to be a major project, the renovation and restoration of the Saskatchewan Legislative Building, taking some fourteen years to complete.

With a career spanning over 40 years, Wiens is considered one of Canada’s best architects. His diverse body of architectural work can be found throughout Saskatchewan and includes designs for the construction of schools and hospitals, chapels and churches, motel and apartment buildings, private residences, buildings for corporations and health spas, dairy creameries in Regina and Saskatoon, a Trans-Canada Highway campground near Maple Creek, an artist’s studio in Lumsden, and on the campus of the University of Regina, the award winning heating and cooling plant which, in 2011, also won the Prix du XXe siècle from the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada.

Wiens belonged to several professional organizations,including: the Saskatchewan Association of Architects, serving as president in 1970; the Regina Chapter of Architects from 1960 to 1969; the Canadian Department of Public Works' Advisory Committee on Art for Public Buildings from 1974 to 1981. Wiens was an associate member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts and a Fellow of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada.

In 2005, Wiens was celebrated with a 40 year retrospective of his work ranging in date from 1955 to 1995. The Mendel Art Gallery in Saskatoon organized and circulated this exhibition that travelled nation-wide. Entitled “Telling Details: The Architecture of Clifford Wiens” was curated by Trevor Boddy. The exhibition included more than 170 examples of Wiens’ work including architectural models, drawings and photographs. Exhibition events also included a one-day symposium entitled “Homemade Modernism: Prairie Architecture Since 1955,” and a performance piece by Wiens’ daughter Robin Poitras of New Dance Horizons (Regina).

The Saskatchewan Communication Network (SCN) also highlighted the architects' creative problem-solving skills articulated in and by his clever building designs in a television documentary series called “Edifice and Us”, Wiens' portion included background for the University of Regina Heating and Cooling Plant, the Silton Valley Chapel and a personal residence located in Regina.

Buildings designed by Clifford Wiens include John Nugent’s Studio (St. Mark’s Shop) in Lumsden (1960); the University of Regina's Heating and Cooling Plant (1968), the Qu’Appelle Silton Summer Chapel (1967); the Regina CBC Broadcast Centre (1983); the Prince Albert City Hall (1984) and many, many others.

Wiens was a visiting professor or lecturer at several post secondary schools in both Canada and the United States, including: the University of Arizona and the Arizona State University; the University of Manitoba; the University of Calgary; the University of British Columbia; the University of Saskatchewan; and, the North Dakota State University.

Wiens closed his practice in Regina in 1994 and moved to Vancouver where he continued to practice, completing an important project for family in Denver, Colorado.

Wiens has written several books regarding growing up in Saskatchewan, his work and his family. Of this Clifford penned:
"When I started writing needs clarification, as the record can be misleading. In my Architectural Memoirs I quote Abe Rogatnick, where he defines me as Canada’s Poet Architect. I took this as a complement, understanding that Abe meant that my architectural work was poetic. Indeed I was most pleased that he should think so. It is true that very early in my life I was given to writing limericks but I did not start writing more seriously until the end of my architectural career. My career as an Architect required clarity in communication. A long life communicating with clients, authorities and contractors developed skill and ease in saying what I meant. It was the cancer that assailed me that put an end to an active practice that moved me to write my memoirs that in the end turned my focus to philosophy and poetry. Patricia, with her dementia, slowly left me leaving me alone with my writing"

Mary Filer was born in Edmonton, Alberta on New Year’s Eve in 1920 to Anne Charlotte (Grace) McLeod and Earle Leon Filer of New York City. Her brother, Roderick George McLeod Filer was born in 1931. Before Mary’s family moved from Edmonton to Regina, she attend Oliver and Glenora Schools and in Regina she attended Lakeview School for her 7th grade year. She was a gifted student and awarded ribbons at agricultural fairs and art shows, she played piano and sang soprano, designed costumes for school plays as well as acted. Mary attended high school at Central Collegiate where she contributed drawings of students and teachers to the school yearbook, Ye Flame, and to the school’s newspaper, Perroquet, Mary graduated in 1939 and went on to study commercial and fine art locally at Balfour Technical School in Regina under W. Garnet Hazard. In early 1940, Mary returned to Edmonton to help care for her grandparents and joined the Edmonton Art Club and while there mounted a solo exhibition at the University of Saskatchewan. Later that same year she returned to Regina and in September 1941 began studies in nursing at the Regina General Hospital, graduating in May 1944 and receiving her certificate in 1945.

Mary was engaged to David Hugh Plunkett Brown for two years, but broke off her engagement in 1944 and moved to Montreal where she began post graduate studies at the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital (MNI) with Dr. Wilder Graves Penfield and others working on a treatment for epilepsy. Mary later had her own medical illustrations published and painted the windows of the hospital for the holiday season.

In April 1945, Filer won a museum and book illustration scholarship and exhibited with the Canadian Society of Painters in Watercolor and the Canadian Society of Graphic Artists in Toronto. In 1946, she became a member of the Federation of Canadian Artists (FCA) and made trips to St. Anne’s Military Hospital to sketch and to provide art therapy to the patients there.

In 1946 Filer won another scholarship, the Robert Redford Scholarship for Drawing from Life. She began showing more art with the membership of the Canadian Society of Painters in Watercolour in Toronto, the Canadian Society of Graphic Artist, and the Students Art Association of Montreal. Mary also started teaching at St. Helen’s School in Dunham, Quebec. In 1947, at an exhibition for the Canadian Society of Painters in Watercolor in Toronto, her work titled Gloxinia sold for $60.00 and in an exhibition by Canadian Women Painters, Mary’s Still Life was said to be controversial “with Picasso’s ‘foreign’ influence.” In the same year, with the help of her mentor, Arthur Lismer, Mary became an assistant instructor for the Art Association of the Montreal School of Art and Design where she taught children and adults. In 1948, the Department of Education hired Mary to instruct a group of over sixty teachers during the summer. That fall, Mary was teacher-in-charge of over forty students, aged 6 to 8, at the Town of Mount Royal Community Recreation Association Children’s Art Centre using techniques influenced by Victor Lowenfeld, with whom she would later study at Pennsylvania State College. Also in 1948, Mary took courses and exhibited at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, an exhibition with all medium of her work including monotypes, wood blocks, lithographs and drawings. In 1949 she exhibited in Vancouver. In 1950, Mary was awarded McGill University’s first Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. Following that, she travelled to England for an intense six week program at the Department of Extra-Mural Studies at the University of London which included field-trips, lectures, and all manner of discipline including drama, literature, architecture, visual arts, and music.

Returning to Montreal, Mary started teaching at McGill and continued to show her work in exhibitions. In September 1952 she began negotiations with Dr. Penfield to paint a mural on the board room wall at the Montreal Neurological Institute. This tempura and plaster mural, The Advance of Neurology, is an allegorical history of neurology. Over the summer, Mary painted over 40 life size personalities in a style of figurative post-impressionism while travelling back and forth between Pennsylvania State College (where she had undertaken a Master’s program in 1952) and Montreal. The mural was unveiled in September 1954. Meanwhile, as Mary continued to use all medium in her own work, she continued to teach children and create lino-cuts and prints, etchings, pen and ink drawings, monotypes, portraits and landscapes and prepared for her fourth solo exhibition in November 1953. The National Gallery purchased a lino-cut from this time and another of her pieces, Virgin and Child, was printed in Time Magazine.

In 1955 Mary became an Assistant Professor of Art Education at New York University School of Education but after an unsatisfactory personal relationship ended in 1956, Mary moved to Europe with most of her possessions. Around this time, she began to enjoy the company of the much loved ‘Natasha of Toy Time’ or ‘Tasha’, an Apricot French Miniature Poodle of Russian origins. This dog, and those who followed it, and her cats, were often subjects in her paintings. Mary had a deep affection for animals, sketching them many times over before reproducing them for murals relating to animals and their well-being.

Mary’s pen and ink drawings and lino-cuts were popular for Christmas cards. She was hired by banks and large companies to create for them. In 1957, Filer held a solo exhibit at the Red Lion Pub, and in December had a second solo show at Kinnerton Gallery. In 1958, she was commissioned to design a commemorative scarf for Queen Elizabeth’s trip across Canada.

Mary went to France in October and November 1959 to learn a new process called Crystopal, which was still a ‘secret process’ then that used fiber-glass, resins and plastics with colour. The technique was taught by Jean Pierre Fisholle’s company. While in France, Mary drew Notre Dame Cathedral and visited the Palace at Versailles where she used coloured pens to depict what she saw.

In 1959 Mary was awarded other commissions. One, to create a mural for the new Blue Cross Animal Hospital in Grimsby, she created ‘The History of Our Dumb Friends,’ measuring 7’ x 15’. In that same year she was commissioned by St. Luke’s Anglican Church in Southend-on-Sea, Essex for six windows and a painting for their ceiling. The subject was be to the life of St. Luke done in traditional fresco methods. Two of the nave windows, and the ceiling painting, were dedicated to St. Luke’s Church in October 1960.

From April to May 1961, Filer exhibited at the Montreal Museum of Fine Art. In England she painted many large wet-on-wet watercolours in the parks and gardens of New Forest, Kew, Richmond Park and other locations. In 1961, Filer bought ‘Goldenhurst Manor’ located near Ashford, Kent, England and once owned by Noel Coward. She had a studio there and her brother, ‘Roddy’ and his family lived there too.

In 1962 Mary had an exhibition in London at Heal's Gallery. Her drawings, prints, and watercolors sold well. Towner Art Gallery in Sussex purchased her Oriental Poppy and Gallery Oldham in Manchester purchased a watercolour, Tiger Lily.

Not only was Mary inspired by animals, she was deeply inspired by the marsh near her property. The wetlands near Goldenhurst are the subject of many of her paintings. In August 1964, Mary opened the Romney Marsh Art Society’s 6th annual exhibition. Mary also painted personalities she was acquainted with: early in her studies, Mr. Detwiler, the principal at Wetmore School in Regina; in England, Gromille Robinson, (a journalist) visited Goldenhurst; and in London, Hon. Zamira Menhuin and Bobo were her subjects. By the mid 60’s Mary was becoming heavily involved with her work in glass and church commissions.

In 1966, St. David's Church, South-End-On-Sea, commissioned her for a work depicting St. David with a dove and staff, in the new glass art. In 1967, St. Michael's and All Angels Church in Westcliff-On-Sea commissioned her for the entire interior decoration.

Mary traveled frequently between Montreal and Victoria between 1967 and 1977. She gave talks about her work on the Neurological mural to nurses and the Montreal Museum of Fine Art bought Filer’s Storm, which she painted while in Hythe, Kent, for $200.00. She married architect and urban planner, Harold Spence-Sales, whom she had known for more than 20 years and in 1968 they teamed up to create a calendar of drawings of the buildings located on the McGill campus, a project commissioned by the Graduate’s Student Society at McGill.

In January 1969 Mary set up a space in Harold’s office on Sherbrooke Street, in Montreal to show clients her work. In October 1969, Mary taught for two months at Acadia Handicraft Guild on Prince Edward Island and in the early 1970s, Harold and Mary moved to Victoria, B.C.

In August 1970, a married couple who attended Christ Church Cathedral in Victoria commissioned Mary to commemorate the Lunar Landing of July 20, 1969. Her two windows over the doorway in the South Tower, The Moon Window ($500.00) and The Sun (donated), were soon completed. These windows were the first stained glass windows made without the use of lead but with glue and silicon. The windows were dedicated in April 1971.

While living in Victoria in the early 1970s, Mary continued to exhibit in England and paint in her Victoria studio. She had incorporated gold leaf foil with acrylic paint and worked with coloured glass designing small and large scale sculpture for exhibit for the foyers of large buildings. Cosmos, designed for Roberts House Apartments in Victoria, weighs 300 pounds and is a free standing work in an iron frame 5 feet in diameter. In the fall of 1973, Mary showed her first glass exhibition at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria which was based on a sun and lunar light theme. The gallery bought Filer’s Sunburst and she donated Counterthrust. Later, Sun Dazzle III and Clean Cold II were donated to the Gallery for auction.

In winter 1974, Mary and Harold visited England, France and Italy. The next year, Mary had a solo show of various types of glass including laminated glass, float, recycled, stained and plate glass and was also featured on the CBC program Take 30.

St. Phillip’s Anglican Church in Oak Bay, BC was one of Mary’s most extensive commissions. She worked to fill the north and south nave windows and other spaces with work representing a spiritual life; God, balanced with a temporal life; man, and the land. For St. Mark’s Anglican Church at Qualicum Beach on Vancouver Island, Mary was hired to make a large floral rose window. She meanwhile continued to accept commissions for decorative windows and sculptural pieces from private citizens and building owners and architects. In 1976, Mary and Harold moved to English Bay and then to an eastside warehouse / factory building on Beatty Street in Vancouver. Mary remained focused with speaking engagements, exhibiting and completing her many commissions -- so committed to her work she even sketched during a stay in hospital in 1980.

Mary was commissioned to create thirty-six memorial windows for Christ Church at Milles Isles, Quebec while both she and Harold continued to work on impressive projects as a duo. Mary also participated in several exhibitions featuring her glass work during this time and was selected to contribute her work, along with other well-respected Canadian artists, at Expo ’86. That same year she was made an honorary member of the British Columbia Landscape Architects Society and succeeded with more church commissions.

Mary, as always, continued to cultivate her relationships with societies and local art galleries; as patron, board member or simply interested party. The B.C. Glass Artists Association, Simon Fraser University, the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, the Back Room Gallery in Oak Bay, and many others benefited from her numerous contributions. By 1990, the Mary Filer Fund was established at the Centre for Contemporary Arts and she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Laws from Simon Fraser University. In 1992 Mary was recognized as an Honourary Life Member of the BCGAA and recognized by the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada for her outstanding achievement in arts with architecture.

Mary created another set of windows in a geometric pattern for St. Mary’s Church in Nanoose Bay in 1999. Years later she was invited back to create another work for them. Mary’s popularity, even in advanced age and sometimes ill health, was unwavering. She was invited back to the Montreal Neurological Hospital in Montreal and commissioned co-create The Neuroessence, for the Helen Penfield Atrium in the new building, which was installed in 2002. After Harold passed away in 2004, Mary continued make art, to exhibit and to contribute. Over the span of her career, she participated in more than 150 exhibitions and contributed to a myriad of institutions, societies and associations. Mary passed away in 2016.