The people who inhabited and developed this semi-arid region of North America brought with them diverse elements of their own cultural heritage from elsewhere: the Aboriginal peoples of First Nations; the early French and Scots settlers who initiated the massive migration of European land-seekers; and finally the international refugees of the latter 20th century who came as "displaced persons," political refugees, boat people, and economic migrants seeking a better life in the Canadian heartland. This hodge-podge of various cultural roots can become dissonant and conflict-ridden, or it can be hybridized, with new and marvelous patterns of rich variety: this happy process has been true of Canada generally, but becomes even more specific in Saskatchewan.

Because this portion of the original North-West Territories was largely an agricultural preserve, whose initial appeal was mainly to those who herded animals or tilled the soil, it should not be surprising that the land itself, and human relationship with that land, would become one of the strongest themes in the mosaic pattern of beliefs. Of course, in most Canadian literature the landscape plays a dominant role, and reference to that landscape-whether in the oil paintings of the Group of Seven, the balladeers of Newfoundland, or the totem poles of the West Coast Aboriginals-is what defines and illustrates a great deal of Canadian art. But there are many other themes and motifs which appear in a study of a national culture.

Entertainment in most communities was self-generated, rather than imported, so there was relatively little instruction or encouragement from the top down, or from external institutions and teachers. In an agricultural economy, there was little support for academies, art schools, or professional theatre companies. Yet many of these burgeoning prairie towns competed to plan and erect their own "opera house," determined as they were to take part in the development of high culture. These old heritage buildings remain in use in towns like Wolseley, Biggar and Hanley. They and dozens of others were home to a wide variety of touring musicians and theatre groups who enlivened the early years of Saskatchewan, bringing culture from the centres of civilization beyond the borders. The Chautauqua movement-a traveling "tent show" of arts and entertainment-introduced live music and recitation to hundreds of towns and villages, often incorporating local artists into the program. This was the most popular form of access to the performing arts in early Saskatchewan; it generated many talented artists who developed in later years.

The first historically significant arts group was probably the Regina Literary and Musical Society, initiated in the capital in 1885 by the peripatetic Kate Simpson Hayes. Only a year before, the village of tents and shacks was known as Pile of Bones Creek. Mrs. Simpson Hayes recruited troops from the North-West Mounted Police headquarters to perform as choristers in the operettas and musical concerts she produced. This fledgling group anticipated the formation of the Regina Orchestral Society, which presented its first concert in the city in 1908. The Regina Symphony Orchestra now makes the proud claim of being the oldest continually operating symphony orchestra in Canada.

James Sinclair Ross (1908-96) was the first native-born writer whose work reached an international audience. He is now best known for the short stories he wrote during the 1930s and 1940s, later gathered in the collection The Lamp at Noon and Other Stories (1968). These stories are dramatic tales which portray the brutalization and occasional human triumph of rural people beset by the hostile Saskatchewan landscape: in "The Painted Door" a young farmer dies in a blizzard; in "The Lamp at Noon" a young housewife goes mad in a dust-storm; in "A Field of Wheat" a family survives a violent hail-storm. Ross's influence on Canadian writing has been deep and pervasive, especially through his early novel As For Me and My House (1941), now recognized as a masterpiece of Canadian literature. The novel is a first-person diary account of a year in the life of Mrs. Bentley, a church minister's wife, who with her husband Philip, a failed artist, experiences deep intellectual isolation in the fictional Saskatchewan village of Horizon during the drought of the 1930s. Among the many features of the book is the impact of the surrounding landscape on the lives of its people. For all its brilliant insights and critical acclaim, Ross's work is little known to most Saskatchewan people. Although his short stories appear in international literary anthologies, there are no copies of his books on the library shelves of the town of Shellbrook, where he was born. After his death, however, the town of Indian Head, where he lived and attended school in the 1920s, commissioned a bronze statue by sculptor Joe Fafard and dedicated it to Ross. It stands in front of the Indian Head library.

William Ormond Mitchell, born in Weyburn in 1914, was a more popular literary figure than Ross, and for the last half of the 20th century was the voice of Saskatchewan. His reputation came about largely through his series of farm-life stories Jake and the Kid, first written for CBC Radio, later published and then adapted as a popular television series. Mitchell had a gift for reconstructing Saskatchewan dialect in comic modes, and became perhaps better known as a public storyteller than as a writer. Nevertheless, his first novel, Who Has Seen the Wind (1947), was a literary gem, extensively reprinted in many editions and widely taught in the educational system. It is a beautifully written account of a boy growing up in a small town and coming to grips with the mysteries of life and death. Like Ross, Mitchell made poetic use of the prairie environment, and in the opening words of the novel wrote, "Here was the least common denominator of nature, the skeleton requirements simply, of land and sky-Saskatchewan prairie."

Visual art began making its impact with the emergence of a number of landscape artists who had emigrated from Europe, most with some degree of classical training. These included Augustus Kenderdine, Inglis Sheldon-Williams, Illingworth Kerr, James Henderson, and the Austrian-born Ernest Lindner. Also working in Saskatchewan in the early years was the "primitive" folk artist Jan Wyers, from his home in Windthorst. These early painters were patronized to a great extent by the wealthy collector Norman MacKenzie, a Regina lawyer whose legacy to the city and the province led to the first public art gallery, established in 1953 at Regina College. This important institution was matched in Saskatoon by the (equally wealthy) philanthropist and art collector Fred Mendel in 1964, when he helped the Saskatoon Arts Centre build the Mendel Art Gallery. MacKenzie mostly collected landscape painting, a genre that dominated his legacy.

Following the decline of touring repertory companies and traveling shows, the amateur "little theatre" movement began developing in the major cities and towns of Saskatchewan. They were probably influenced and encouraged by the Chautauqua community tent shows that were popular in the 1920s. The Saskatoon Little Theatre was established in 1922, and Regina Little Theatre in 1926; the latter still produces full seasons of drama, making it the oldest continuously operating amateur theatre in Canada. The University of Saskatchewan, located in Saskatoon, created the first drama department at a Canadian university in 1946.

Before 1960, there was no professional theatre production in the province, although there were many touring performances from eastern Canada and abroad. In 1966, Ken and Sue Kramer established the Globe, primarily for school performances; but in 1969 their first season of professional theatre was under way in Regina. 25th Street Theatre began operations in 1972, and Persephone Theatre in 1974, under the guidance of Brian Richmond and members of Saskatoon's theatrical Wright family (actors Janet, Susan, John and Anne Wright). A few years later, Shakespeare on the Saskatchewan began producing summer tent shows of Shakespearean plays under the direction of Henry Woolf.

With these developments in art, music, theatre and literature, it was clear that the fine arts were setting down roots in Saskatchewan. In 1948, a key event occurred that was to have long-ranging implications. During its first term in office, T.C. Douglas' CCF government created the Saskatchewan Arts Board through an Order-in-Council. The arts board was said to be modeled after the British Arts Council, and broke ground in Canada as the first formal government program in support of the arts. It preceded the creation of the Canada Council of the Arts by thirteen years, and was in many respects its prototype.

Nineteen sixty-seven was a milestone year, not only in the Saskatchewan arts, but across Canada as well. It was Canada's Centennial, and in the general festivities and celebrations it was clear that a new generation of artists was appearing throughout the country. The provincial government initiated the funding for two huge Centennial auditoriums in Regina and Saskatoon, a long-awaited development to put major performing arts centres in the province's principal cities. These became the Centennial Auditorium in Saskatoon, and the Saskatchewan Centre of the Arts in Regina. Not only in Saskatchewan, but also across the land, a new spirit began to rise in the arts communities, as Canada advanced into its second century.

Similar development occurred in music and the visual arts, with the continuing support of the Saskatchewan Arts Board. In addition to the symphonies, bands and choral groups, popular musical groups like Humphrey and the Dumptrucks of Saskatoon were performing and recording their music around the province, and singer/songwriters like Joni Mitchell, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Connie Kaldor and Don Freed were making waves internationally. They were followed quickly by blues musicians such as Colin James and Jack Semple. The francophone group Hart Rouge enjoyed a national following. Recent successes have included singer Brad Johner and the band of Jason Plumb and the Willing.

An important later development has been the establishment of film production and film-making in Saskatchewan, which until the 1970s had only been a consumer of film entertainment. The only bright spot in this landscape was the long-running Yorkton Short Film and Video Festival, first presented in 1947. In 1976, a cinematic adaptation of Who Has Seen the Wind was shot by Alan King in and around Arcola; and three years later appeared the Genie-winning feature, The Hounds of Notre Dame, about Père Athol Murray and the founding of Notre Dame College at Wilcox.

These major film productions helped develop a professional complement of film technicians, producers, directors and actors which led to an outburst of cinematic enterprise in the 1980s and 1990s. In short order, the Saskatchewan Film Development Corporation and a production unit of the National Film Board were established in Regina. Kevin DeWalt's Mind's Eye Pictures began a long and impressive production of feature films, television series, and commercial film-making. In recent years, the Canada Saskatchewan Production Studios, with a complete sound stage, was established in Regina. There a hit television series, Corner Gas, featuring Saskatchewan actors like Brent Butt, Janet Wright and Eric Peterson, has been produced to record the foibles of small-town community life. Saskatchewan culture and artists suddenly seem to have reached a new level of international recognition.