Culture and art shaped by geography At the time of its creation
in 1905, the province of Saskatchewan was considered as alien to
the development of arts as the surface of the moon. With a
provincial economy based on agricultural production and resource
extractions such as petroleum, forestry and minerals, the
“square” province seemed a very unlikely base for the
development of artistic sensibility or belles-lettres. But
geography, as well as history, is an eccentric determinant of
culture, and it appears that this most inhospitable of climates
and most challenging of landscapes have produced an artistic
harvest that in a scant hundred years has made Saskatchewan home
to a most original and lively regional culture. For the rest of
this article, visit the Encyclopedia of Saskatchewan.