Major Bequest of Inuit Art from Margaret Hess

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Margaret (Marmie) Hess at her Spencer Creek Ranch near Cochrane, Alta. (photo courtesy of the Alberta Order of Excellence)

The Canadian Museum of History has received a gift of almost 1,000 works of Inuit art from the estate of  Margaret (Marmie) Perkins Hess.

Hess, a well-known art lover from Alberta, travelled across Canada’s North, assembling this historically important collection of sculptures, prints and more.

Hess was an internationally recognized art historian, business person, rancher and philanthropist. Born in Calgary in 1916, she studied in Toronto in the mid-1930s. There, she befriended members of the Group of Seven, who spurred her lifelong passion for art and the Canadian wilderness.

Her interest in Indigenous peoples and her pioneering spirit led her to the North, where she developed close relationships with Inuit artists and often bought works directly from them. In 1970, she opened Calgary Galleries Ltd., an early venue to promote Indigenous art.

The gift includes more than 750 contemporary sculptures and 120 works on paper from some 30 communities. 

Other institutions have received major gifts from the Hess estate, including the University of Lethbridge Art Gallery and the Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia.

Source: Canadian Museum of History