Juniper Art Collection
The Juniper Art Collection
Welcome to the Juniper Hotel Art Collection. Our collection focuses on Indigenous art, featuring artists from coast to coast to coast. Indigenous artists fought for many decades for representation in the art world.
Six major Indigenous language groups share living memory of the Bow Valley, home of the Sacred Guardian Buffalo Mountain and the Holy Springs. At the Juniper Hotel, we celebrate Indigenous creativity with our contemporary art collection, showcasing First Nations, Métis and Inuit artists from coast to coast to coast.
The collection holds particular significance for Canadian art history: it includes original work from every one of the seven founding and associated members of the Indigenous Group of Seven, the artists who, beginning in the 1970s, fought for Indigenous art to be recognized on its own terms rather than dismissed as “craft.” Seeing their work gathered together, here, is rare.
But this collection isn’t meant to be viewed quietly from a distance. Many of our staff have their own favourite pieces, and their own reasons for loving them – feeling matters here as much as expertise. We’d encourage you to ask.
Red Bear – Jackson Beardy – Oji-Cree – 1979
We invite you to explore the pieces throughout the hotel at your own pace.
Banff is a place renowned for its beauty. For over a century, artists have sought inspiration here, a cultural legacy that lives on through institutions like the Whyte Museum, the Buffalo Nations Luxton Museum, and the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity.
There is also a much older cultural memory of this valley held by Indigenous peoples. Elders from families who have long memories of this valley have gathered here at The Juniper Hotel frequently over the past twenty years. They come from communities representing six major Indigenous language groups, each as different from one another as, say, English is from Cantonese.
The Elders speak to this valley as home, as home of the Sacred Guardian Buffalo Mountain, guardian of the Holy Springs. Though the Juniper is not an Indigenous-owned business, our art collection is one way we bring their voices back to the valley.
Bison Head – Don Hefner – 1939
Discover First Nations Art
In this short video (1 min 43 sec), Juniper Hotel & Bistro principal Peter Poole and Roy Lewis of Samson Cree Nation, Maskwacis, talk about the collection’s connection to six First Nations language groups, and why it belongs here.
As you explore some of our favourite pieces, we hope you’re inspired by the stories shared here. We are grateful to the Elders, artists and educators who are generous with their knowledge and help us grow our understanding.
If you have any insight into or knowledge of the pieces and artists we feature, please tell us. We want to know more. We are always learning.
