There are, however, limits. Participants are treated like children (mountain discovery trips and school
auditorium chats), art is censored in public places in order to placate high-paying conference guests, and the organization is as rigid and difficult to change as any North American educational institution.

Need I say that there are noticeable inequities for women? In upper management, women are insignificant in number (about 15% of the total) and influence. Brenda Wallace, Head of Art Studio, and Isobel Ralston, Associate Director for the Music Program (winter), are two of the few fortunate. About five in twelve on the Board of Directors and a reasonable proportion of middle-management are women, but, on the whole, the structure is dominated by men who decide on and defend Banff Centre policies.

In response to these problems, a group of women visual artists, musicians, writers and staff members from the Banff Centre joined with women from the Bow Valley community last fall to form the Banff Centre Women's Group. The founding members included people like writers Gay Allison, Tillie Olsen and Myrna Kostash. We wanted to challenge the Center's mandate which we felt was not being upheld for women. The “artist” who is to be given freedom of artistic expression in a no-hassle environment with technical staff and faculty support must also include the "woman artist". Because of the inherent conservatism and sexism in the institution, women were not being given that chance. Still, we felt it important to keep ourselves open and approachable, but even such openness did not put the opposition at ease. At best we were considered unnecessary; at worst an insurrection.

Our process was specific. It had to be collective; we did not want to fragment or have to resort to a hierarchical structure. That would mean certain defeat. We had to be frank, but since some people were understandably nervous about their positions at the Centre, it was agreed that anything aired in meetings would not go beyond the group. Our initial get-together dealt with defining our group, sharing readings and having open discussion of personal concerns.

Reactions to the group were also discussed, the same comments emerging again and again. “The male artists are giving us a hard time about this women's group. They seem to feel threatened. They think we sit around and talk about how much we hate men. Don't they understand that we have more important things to do...?” A specific problem: “One male director of a program thinks we can't do this. He seems frustrated because we won't follow the accepted channels. But we can't. It would defeat our whole purpose.” Again: “The younger women don't want to join. They think we are just going to make a situation worse and that we must all be rabid man-hating feminists.”

We were a varied lot. Some had had experience with feminist organizations; others had never had the opportunity to work in a women-only, supportive, collective situation. We didn't want to threaten and we didn't see ourselves defined along feminist doctrinaire lines, so our statement of identity took shape as a festival. We saw ourselves as inclusive and empowering, as women proud of our work and our place in the community, open to dialogue with men and other women in the spirit of celebration.