Derek Michael Besant (Born 1950 in Alberta) is a Canadian artist living in Calgary, Alberta. Calgary (ˈkælgəriː is the largest city in the Province of Alberta, Canada
Besant Studied at University of Calgary, where he received a BFA Honours in 1973 and continued with Graduate Studies in 1974. The University of Calgary is a research-intensive Public university in Calgary Alberta, Canada. He was Exhibitions Designer for The Glenbow Museum between 1973 -1977. The Glenbow Museum in Calgary is Western Canada 's largest Museum, with over 93000 square feet (8600 m² of exhibition space in more than 20 galleries He designed exhibitions throughout the art gallery and museum spaces, along with catalogues and travelling exhibitions. The Alberta College of Art and Design invited him to teach in the Drawing / Fine Arts Department in 1977. The Alberta College of Art and Design ( ACAD) is located in Calgary on the North Hill overlooking the Bow River and the downtown skyline in a He has taught there ever since for the past thirty years. He was the Head of the Drawing Department between 1979 – 1991.
He won the Alberta Governor General Award in Art 1980, the World Culture Prize in Research Arts & Letters from Milan Italy in 1983, a Distinguished Alumni Award in 1999 from University of Calgary and The Smithsonian Museum of the Americas Portfolio Award in Boston in 2005.
Some of his public commissions include: Toronto’s landmark Flatiron Mural in 1980 on Front Street, Waterfall at 15 storeys high at Bay & King Scotiaplaza in 1989, two murals for Worldwide Centre at 58th and 8th Manhattan Cineplex New York City in 1989.
Besant's exhibitions have included: Representing Canada in the Sharjah Art Museum Biennial in 2003, United Arab Emirates, University of London Goldsmiths College, Tokyo Media-Art Festival, Metropolitan Museum of Photography in Japan, the 2004 Siggraph International Conference on Computer Imaging + Interactive Technologies, Los Angeles in 2004. For the Memphis department store see Goldsmith's. For other uses of the term "Goldsmiths" see Goldsmith (disambiguation. SIGGRAPH (short for S pecial I nterest G roup on GRAPH ics and Interactive Techniques is the name of the annual conference on Computer graphics
External links
- Harbourfront Centre, Toronto
- Curtain Wall Mural in Toronto
- University of Alberta
- University of Manitoba
- Alberta Foundation for the Arts