1

''Pitcher with Grape decoration'' 1918
1918

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Conclusion

By the time of her death in 1972, many collectors, casual and otherwise, knew Alice Hagen's china painting, pottery, and, to a lesser extent, her paintings. During the course of the research for this Community Memories exhibition of her work it quickly became apparent that a great many people still enjoy and admire her work. Several exhibitions of her work have been held since her death, and her work attracts high prices at auctions. Her contribution to the development of ceramics is widely acknowledged and her approach to teaching pottery is still widely used. Throughout her long life, even well into her nineties, she continued to experiment boldly. As Hagen told journalist Kay Hill in 1959:

"When you have no written guide or teacher, you just go to work and try one thing after another until you find out for yourself. After all, what would our world have today if we never tried anything new?" (1)

Hagen's lack of formal training as a potter suggests that she is within the Nova Scotia tradition of "folk" or self-taught artists. However, her association with this tradition is offset by the fact that she was a trained artist and continued to read avidly the new technical literature in the field of ceramics.

At a 1992 panel discussion of her work, her former student, noted Nova Scotian ceramicist Homer Lord paid tribute to her importance:

"I always said she was the Johnny Appleseed of kilns in the province of Nova Scotia because there are four muffle kilns in the province -- one at the school [NSCAD], hers at Mahone Bay, one at the Indian School, and one here at the Mount...so that's why I call her the Johnny Appleseed, cause she spread the germ all over the place whenever she could..." (2)
(1) Hill, "Pioneer Studio Potter."
(2) Marie Elwood, The Alice Hagen Collection (exhibition catalogue (Halifax: MSVU Art Gallery), 1994.

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Further reading

Bonellie, Janet. "Mrs. Dignam's Pursuit." The Beaver, March 2000, pp. 35-38.

Buckley, Cheryl. Potters and Paintresses: Women Designers in the Pottery Industry 1870-1955. London: The Women's Press Limited, 1990.

Collard, Elizabeth. Nineteenth-Century Pottery and Porcelain in Canada. 2nd ed. Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queens Press, 1984.

Egan, Thomas J. History of the Halifax Volunteer Battalion and Volunteer Companies 1859-1887. Halifax: 1888.

Elwood, Marie. Alice Hagen (exhibition catalogue) Halifax: MSVU Art Gallery, 1976.

Elwood, Marie. Alice Hagen Exhibition (exhibition catalogue) Halifax: Anna Leonowens Gallery I, Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, 1984.

Elwood, Marie. "Alice Hagen," Women's Work (exhibition catalogue) Halifax: MSVU Art Gallery, 1981.

Elwood, Marie. "The State Dinner Service of Canada, 1898," Material History Bulletin, Spring 1977, pp. 41-49.

Finkel, Alvin, and Conrad, Margaret. History of the Canadian Peoples: 1867 to the Present. Vol. 2, 3rd ed. Toronto: Addison Wesley Longman, 2002.

Griffiths, N.E.S. The Splendid Vision: Centennial History of the National Council of Women of Canada 1893-1993. Ottawa: Carleton University Press, 1993.

Hagen, J.C. "Art in the Lower Grades." Journal of Education (1936): 906-909.

Hill, Kay. "Nova Scotia's Pioneer Potter: Alice Mary Hagen of Mahone Bay." Atlantic Advocate, August 1959, pp. 43-47.

Home, Ruth M. "Pottery in Canada." Canadian Geographical Journal, February 1944, p. 75.

Lotz, Jim. Head, Heart and Hands: Craftspeople in Nova Scotia. Halifax: Braemar Publishing, 1986.

McCormick, Heather Jane. The Alice Hagen Collection (exhibition catalogue) Halifax: MSVU Art Gallery, 1994.

McKay, Ian. The Quest of the Folk: Antimodernism and Cultural Selection in Twentieth-Century Nova Scotia. Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queens University Press, 1994.

Prentice, Alison; Bourne, Paula; Brandt, Gail Cuthbert; Light, Beth; Mitchinson, Wendy; and Black, Naomi. Canadian Women: A History. 2nd ed. Toronto: Harcourt Brace Canada, 1996.

Tyler, Chris. "Alice Hagen: Pioneer Potter." Artisan, Winter 1982, pp. 8-9.

Weiss, Peg, ed. Adelaide Alsop Robineau: Glory in Porcelain. Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse Press, 1981.

Whitehead, Ruth Holmes. "Christina Morris: Micmac Artist and Artist's Model." Material History Bulletin, Spring 1977: pp.1-14.