Born to Fly

William Ronald Reid was born in January 1920 in Vancouver. He is an internationally recognized HAIDA artist, and is often credited with the revival and innovative resurgence of Northwest Coast Indian arts in the contemporary world. Later in life, while a CBC broadcaster, he studied jewellery and engraving at Ryerson Institute, Toronto, and began investigating the arts of the Haida in 1951. Furthering these studies, he went to the Central School of Art and Design in London, England.

Returning to Vancouver, he became involved with the creation of a sculpture for the University of British Columbia, called Haida Village. Reid eventually became a recognized leading authority on Haida art and life. Reid carved in silver, gold, wood and argillite and cast in bronze. He issued several editions of serigraphs and illustrated and collaborated on many books, including The Raven Steals the Light. Among his major works were the 4.5-ton cedar sculpture Raven and the First Humans in UBC's Museum of Anthropology; a bronze killer whale sculpture, The Chief of the Undersea World, for the Vancouver Aquarium; a canoe commissioned for Expo 86; and Spirit of Haida Gwaii, commissioned for the Canadian embassy in Washington, DC.

Bill Reid was awarded the Molson Prize in 1977 and the Lifetime Achievement Award, National Aboriginal Achievement Awards, sponsored by the Canadian Native Arts Foundation in 1994. He passed away in 1998.

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