Tracy, Bill and Michelle

• Tracy, William

Bill Tracy served as a planning officer for the Historic Sites Service of Alberta Culture for 28 years (from December 1980 to February 2009). During that time he had the opportunity to serve as the planner or advisor for a number of Provincial Historic sites and private developments including but not limited to the Frank Slide Interpretive Centre, Leitch Collieries Historic Sites, the Oil Sands Discovery Centre, Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump World Heritage Site, Fort George/Buckingham House Historic Site, Fort Dunvegan, Fort Victoria, Fort Chipewyan, and Notre Dame des Victoires (Lac la Biche Mission). Bill served as the project control officer for the development of Kalyna Country Ecomuseum, the world’s largest ecomuseum. Bill also previously worked as a student archaeologist on a second World Heritage Site, Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site.

Michelle Tracy began her professional teaching career in Brochet, Manitoba, a fly-in Indigenous community where she taught grades 3 & 4 and 8 & 9 for two years. Beyond her initial assignment she also taught Grade 6 & 7 Native Art as well as a Work Experience Program which included a trapping program for the grade 8 & 9 boys. She concluded her teaching experience with 27 years as an instructor at Alberta Vocational College (later NorQuest College) in Edmonton, Alberta. While at NorQuest she developed a program to introduce the culture of Indigenous students enrolled in the Ben Calf Robe Program to immigrant students, including a visit to the Royal Alberta Museum.

Bill and Michelle have a passionate interest in Indigenous art and have focused their collecting and related activities there. However, they have also a keen interest in Ukrainian material culture driven by Michelle’s Ukrainian heritage. They have assembled a secondary collection of Ukrainian material with an emphasis on textiles and pottery.

The Tracys were featured in an article entitled “The Bill & Michelle Tracy Indigenous Art Collection” by Myrna Kostash in ACUA Vita, Alberta’s Ukrainian Arts and Culture Magazine (winter 2018-2019, Volume 24, Issue 2).

The Tracy collection of Indigenous art along with their supporting library and archives will be gifted to the Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology at Brown University. Portions of the collection have already been transferred.

JOINTLY CURATED EXHIBITIONS:

• “In Their Footsteps; A Century of Aboriginal Footwear in the Canadian West”, Musée Héritage Museum, St. Albert; August 21 to October 21, 2018.
• “Celebrating Connections, Weddings in Multicultural Alberta”, University of Alberta, Enterprise Square Galleries, Edmonton, Alberta; May 28 to August 1, 2015.
• “Wus’kwīy / Waskway: From Berry Baskets to Souvenirs”. Musée Héritage Museum, St. Albert; January 27 to April 12, 2015.
• “Angakkuq: Between Two Worlds, Spiritual and Mythological Figures in Inuit and Inuvialuit Art”, Art Gallery of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta; October 25, 2013 to February 16, 2014.
• “Innujaq, Dolls of the Canadian Arctic”; Royal Alberta Museum, Edmonton, Alberta; November 27, 2012 to April 28, 2013.
• “Inuit Dolls of the Canadian Arctic”; Folklore Studies Association of Canada annual conference, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta; May 14, 2011.

EXHIBITIONS TO WHICH OBJECTS FROM THE TRACY COLLECTION HAVE BEEN LOANED:

• “Ceramic Multicultural Exhibition”, Alberta Council for the Ukrainian Arts, Edmonton, Alberta; scheduled for 2022.
• “Beautiful Beadwork”, Alberta Council for the Ukrainian Arts, Edmonton, Alberta; September 6 to September 28, 2019.
• “Patterns in Glass, Métis Designs in Beads”, Musée Héritage Museum, St. Albert; September 28, 2010 to June 1, 2011.
• Arctic Birds: Real and Unreal”, Royal Alberta Museum, Edmonton, Alberta; February 2, to May 20, 2009.
• “From Our Past to Our Present; Ukrainian Collections from Edmonton Museums”. Ukrainian National Federation Hall, Edmonton, Alberta; November 7-9, 2008.
• “Portraits of the North”, Musée Héritage Museum, St. Albert; February 26 to April 13, 2008.
• “Inuit Art: A Moving Experience; Travel and Transportation in the Arctic”, Edmonton Art Gallery, Edmonton Alberta; December 10, 2005 to February 26, 2006.
• “Make History”. Provincial Archives of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta; October 13, 2005 to February 26, 2006.
• “Sixties”. Provincial Museum of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta; November 17, 2001 to January 13, 2002.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS by WILLIAM TRACY:

• 2005 In Time and Place: Master Plan for the Protection, Preservation, and Presentation of Alberta’s Past. Edmonton, Alberta: Alberta Community Development.
• 1991 Collecting Contemporary Native Arts in the Boreal Forest of Western Canada. Arctic Anthropology 28(1): 101-109.
• 1989 Native Craft Production in Brochet, Manitoba, 1978-80. in Out of the
  North: The Subarctic Collection of the Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology, Brown University. 109-119. Bristol, Rhode Island: Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology.
• 1979 A Reconsideration of the Archaeological Significance of the Role of the Middleman in the Fur Trade. American Antiquity 44: 594-595.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS by MICHELLE TRACY:

• 1994 Photographic credit in Kalyna Country Ecomuseum. Alberta Museum Review 20(2): 25-27.
• 1992 Photographic credit in Hiking the Historic Crowsnest Pass. Calgary: Rocky Mountain Books.
• 1983 Book Review of Teaching Adults to Think (TAAT) by Irene D’Aoust, in Literacy 8(2).
• 1980 Photographic credits in Hau, Kola! The Plains Indian Collection of the Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology by Barbara Hail, Bristol, Rhode Island: Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology.

SELECTED PAPERS JOINTLY PRESENTED:

• Robertson Trading Company, Exploring a Private Collection. Native American Art Studies Association. Norman, Oklahoma 2009
• The Curio Trade on the Northern Plains. Native American Art Studies Association. Scottsdale, Arizona, 2005

SELECTED PAPERS by WILLIAM TRACY:

• Chair, Mission Architecture Symposium. Society for the Study of Architecture in Canada. Yellowknife, N.W.T., 1992
• Collecting Contemporary Native Art in the Boreal Forest of Western Canada. Out of the North: The Native Art and Material Culture of the Canadian and Alaskan North – Symposium and Exhibition. Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology, Brown University. Providence, Rhode Island, 1989
• Fort Chipewyan: An Ethno-historical Consideration. American Anthropological Association. Cincinnati, Ohio, 1979
• Subsistence Strategies of Contemporary Inuit Artisans. Northeastern Anthropological Association. Middleton, Connecticut, 1976

SELECTED PAPERS by MICHELLE TRACY:

• 2000 Department of Human Ecology Research Seminars, University of Alberta, Edmonton. “Continuing Traditions of White Caribou Hide Clothing as Practiced by Philomene Umpherville”.
• 1992 Society for the Study of Architecture in Canada (SSAC) – Annual Conference, Yellowknife, N.W.T. Invited to read paper “Decorative Arts in Mission Architecture: A Case Study of Our Lady of Seven Sorrows, Hobbema, Alberta”
• 1984 Alberta Association for Adult Literacy – Alberta Teachers of English as a Second Language (AAAL – ATESL) Conference, Edmonton. “Thinking Training Workshop”.
• 1984 Learning Assistance (LAC) Conference, Edmonton. “Teaching Adults Thinking Training”.

PUBLIC LECTURES JOINTLY PRESENTED:

• “Collecting Indigenous Art in the Southwest” Strathcona Public Library Lecture, Sherwood Park, Alberta: September 2020 postponed due to Covid 19.
• “Collecting Native American Art”, Lecturer for Material Culture Studies, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta; November 2014.
• “Collecting Navajo Folk Art”, Alberta Culture, Old St. Stephen’s College, Edmonton, Alberta; April 24, 2014.
• “Speaking with Dolls”; Royal Alberta Museum, Edmonton, Alberta; April 10, 2013.
• “Collecting Native American Art”, Lecturer for Material Culture Studies, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta; March 23, 2012.
• “Collecting Native American Art: A Personal Journey Through Native America”, Folklore Luncheon Series, Peter & Doris Kule Centre for Ukrainian & Canadian Folklore. University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta; January 13. 2012.
• “Turquoise Jewelry from the American Southwest”, The Questors (University of Alberta Faculty Wives Group), Edmonton, Alberta; winter 2012.
• “Collecting Native American Art”, Lecturer for Material Culture Studies, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta; March 23, 2011.

SELECTED PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS:

• Heritage Interpretation International (William Tracy)
  Founding Member (Charter Member # 166), 1987
  (Member of the Executive Board, 1995-1998)
  (By-Law Committee, 1997-1998)

• Inuit Art Enthusiasts (William & Michelle Tracy)
  Founding Member (William Tracy)

• Native American Arts Studies Association (William & Michelle Tracy)
  (2001 to present)

• Society for the Study of Architecture in Canada (William Tracy)
  (Editorial Committee, 1990 – 1999)
  (Nominating Committee, 1995-1996)

• Ukrainian Canadian Archives and Museum of Alberta
  William (Member of the Board of Directors, 2005 - 2021)
  Michelle (Member of the Board of Directors, 1999 - 2004)
  (Vice President, 2004 - 2008)
  (President, 2008 - 2009)

Biographical information provided by Bill and Michelle Tracy.