Name Maria Tippett | ||
 | ||
Awards Governor General's Award for English-language non-fiction Books Portrait in light and shadow, Emily Carr, Bill Reid: The Making of, Art at the service of war, Stormy Weather: FH Varle | ||
Maria W. Tippett (born 9 December 1944) is a Canadian historian. Specializing in Canadian art history, she has written biographies of Emily Carr, Frederick Varley, Bill Reid, and Yousuf Karsh. For her 1979 biography of Carr she won the Governor General's Award for English-language non-fiction. Tippett has also written, among others, books on the photography of Charles Gimpel, the parents of David Ho, Canadian war art from World War I, as well as landscape paintings of British Columbia. In addition to her writing, Tippett has held teaching positions at multiple universities.
Contents
Biography
Raised in Victoria, Tippett travelled through Europe and the Middle East for three years following high school before attending Simon Fraser University. She received a Master's degree from Cambridge University and a doctorate in history from the University of London. Tippett resides on Pender Island BC Canada and is married to Peter Clarke, formerly Professor of Modern British history and Master of Trinity Hall at Cambridge University.
Before moving to Cambridge in 1990, Tippett taught at Simon Fraser University, the University of British Columbia, Emily Carr College of Art and Design and was Roberts Professor of Canadian Studies at York University.
Once at Cambridge University she was a visiting fellow at Clare Hall (1991-1992), then a research associate at the Scott Polar Research Institute (1993–95). In 1995 she was appointed a Senior Research Fellow and tutor at Churchill College (1995-2004). Tippett was a member of the Faculty of History from 1992-2004 and was chair of the Churchill College Art Gallery from 1997-2001
After her return to Canada, Tippett was an associate research professor at Simon Fraser University (2006–10).
Tippett was a member of the editorial board of The Canadian Historical Review, Canadian Art, Art Focus and an Arts Journalist Fellow at The Banff Centre in 1988. In 1989, Tippett was a guest curator at the London Regional Art Gallery in London Ontario, and in 1992 she was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. She has received honorary doctorates from Windsor University in 1994, and from the University of Victoria and Simon Fraser University in 2006.
In the course of her career, Tippett has curated art exhibitions at Simon Fraser University Art Gallery (BC Canada), the London Region Art Gallery (Ontario, Canada), the National Library (Luxembourg), as well as both the Clare Hall Art Gallery and the Churchill College Art Gallery (Cambridge University). She has judged the Governor General's non-fiction Book Award and the BC Book Prize. She has lectured in South America, Europe, Japan, New Zealand, Australia in addition to Canada and the United States. Tippett has also been a consultant and television presenter for TV Ontario, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and the British Broadcasting Corporation. In 1998 Tippett was appointed to The Canadian Memorial Foundation, Canada House where she was a member of the board until 2005. In 2010 she was a fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton. From 2012 to 2015, she was a member of the Craigdarroch Research Awards Committee at the University of Victoria.
In 1971 Tippett married Douglas Lowell Cole, a history professor at Simon Fraser University. Together they wrote the 1977 book From Desolation to Splendour, and co-edited an edition of writings by Walter J. Phillips entitled Phillips in Print: The Selected Writings of Walter J. Phillips on Canadian Nature and Art. They divorced in 1978. In 1991 Tippett married the English historian Peter Frederick Clarke. The couple now live on Pender Island.