Helen Goodwin (July 14, 1927 – December 18, 1985) was an English-born,

British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...

-based artist, dancer, teacher, and organizer who specialized in dance and

choreography Choreography is the art of designing sequences of movements of physical bodies (or their depictions) in which Motion (physics), motion or Visual appearance, form or both are specified. ''Choreography'' may also refer to the design itself. A chor ...

. Goodwin was an active member of

Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

experimental art community in the 1960s and 1970s, organizing and performing at festivals, exhibitions and

artist-run centres Canadian artist-run centres (ARC or ARCs) are galleries and art spaces developed by artists in Canada since the 1960s. The artist-run centre is the common term of use for artist-initiated and managed organizations in Canada. Most centres follow the ...

. She is best known for co-founding

Intermedia Intermedia is an art theory term coined in the mid-1960s by Fluxus artist Dick Higgins to describe the strategies of interdisciplinarity that occur within artworks existing between artistic genres. It was also used by John Brockman to refer to ...

and for forming TheCo, a dance troupe.

Biography

Goodwin was born on July 14, 1927, in

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

, where she was trained in

Laban Lakas ng Bayan ( or People Power), abbreviated as Laban, was an electoral alliance, later a political party, in the Philippines formed by Senator Ninoy Aquino for the 1978 Interim Batasang Pambansa regional elections. The party had 21 candidat ...

movement analysis. She moved to Vancouver in 1955. That year, she became a faculty member at the

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a Public university, public research university with campuses near University of British Columbia Vancouver, Vancouver and University of British Columbia Okanagan, Kelowna, in British Columbia, Canada ...

(UBC) in the Physical Education Department, and taught stage movement with the Theatre Department. She taught at

The University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a public research university with campuses near Vancouver and Kelowna, in British Columbia, Canada. With an annual research budget of $893million, UBC funds 9,992 projects annually in various fields o ...

for almost 20 years. In 1970, Goodwin moved to New York City where she was asked to chair the Dance Department of

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...

Tisch School of the Arts The New York University Tisch School of the Arts (commonly referred to as Tisch) is the performing, cinematic, and media arts school of New York University. Founded on August 17, 1965, as the School of the Arts at New York University, Tisch ...

Projects

Goodwin was involved in the organization of the Festival of Contemporary Arts at UBC, in February 1965. The festival was nicknamed ''The Medium is the Message'' (after

Marshall McLuhan Herbert Marshall McLuhan (, ; July 21, 1911 – December 31, 1980) was a Canadian philosopher whose work is among the cornerstones of the study of media studies, media theory. Raised in Winnipeg, McLuhan studied at the University of Manitoba a ...

's work). In 1965, Goodwin along with Al Neil and Sam Perry founded the Sound Gallery and Goodwin founded her dance troupe, TheCo. Perry committed suicide at the end of 1966 and Sound Gallery dissolved. In 1967,

was incorporated as a non-profit society under the BC Societies Act, which was the first artist-run centre in Canada to receive funding from the

Canada Council for the Arts The Canada Council for the Arts (), commonly called the Canada Council, is a Crown corporation established in 1957 as an arts council of the Government of Canada. It is Canada's public arts funder, with a mandate to foster and promote the study a ...

. Goodwin was a founder and member of the Board of Directors. Goodwin was known for collaborating with other artists to create “environments” with which her dance troupe, TheCo, would interact. In 1968, the

Vancouver Art Gallery The Vancouver Art Gallery (VAG) is an art museum in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The museum occupies a adjacent to Robson Square in downtown Vancouver, making it the largest art museum in Western Canada by building size. Designed by Fr ...

hosted ''Intermedia Nights,'' where TheCo (including Evelyn Roth) performed ''Plus Minus 216'' and ''A Space''. ''The Intermedia Spring Show'' - ''Dome Show'' was exhibited between May 19-31, 1970, and included Goodwin's work, ''City Feast'', which involved participants from around the city to engage in communal dining, conceptualized as "an experiment in large-group choreography". In 1971, Goodwin created and directed ''Environmental Opera'', a performance by TheCo and other artists at Spanish Banks on June 21.

Death and legacy

On December 18, 1985, Goodwin drowned herself near

Spanish Banks Spanish Banks are a series of beaches in the city of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, located along the shores of English Bay in the West Point Grey neighbourhood. Spanish Banks is located between Locarno Beach to the east and the ground ...

in Vancouver. On December 21, 1987, at 3:45pm, ''Winter Solstice'' was performed in her memory at the

Museum of Anthropology at UBC The Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia (UBC) campus in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada displays world arts and cultures, in particular works by First Nations in Canada, First Nations of the Pacific Northwest. As well ...

. She was described in ''

The Province ''The Province'' is a daily newspaper published in Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid format in British Columbia by Pacific Newspaper Group, a division of Postmedia Network, alongside the ''Vancouver Sun'' broadsheet newspaper. Together, they ...

'' as "one of the prime forces in new and experimental art in Vancouver in the 1960s and 1970s." In 2018, Goodwin was a subject for the exhibition, ''Beginning with the Seventies: Radial Change'', curated by Lorna Brown at the

Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery The Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery is a contemporary art gallery in Vancouver, British Columbia, on the campus of the University of British Columbia. The gallery is housed in a building designed by architect Peter Cardew which opened in 1995 ...

at UBC. The exhibition featured a work by artist

Evann Siebens Evann Siebens is a Canadian multi-disciplinary artist based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada while her lens-based practice negotiates the human body as an archival site and the politics of the female gaze. Her practice cross-references fil ...

, titled ''Plus TheCo, Minus Helen Goodwin''.

Notable works

*''Plus Minus 216'' (1968) at the

*''Pas de Deux'' (1968) *''A Space'' (1968) at the Douglas Gallery and Vancouver Art Gallery *''City Feast'' (1970) *''Environmental Opera'' (1971) at

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Goodwin, Helen 1927 births 1985 deaths Artists from British Columbia British emigrants to Canada Academic staff of the University of British Columbia British expatriate academics in Canada Tisch School of the Arts faculty 20th-century Canadian women artists 20th-century English women artists Suicides by drowning in Canada