Bucking Broadway black and white film still

5 Things You'll Learn at the 2017 Western Symposium

Each year the DAM's Petrie Institute of Western American Art hosts a symposium that explores themes about the West. This year, the symposium, Set in the West: Telling Tales in Art and Film, focuses on the Western and explores the dialogue between film and fine art, fact and fiction.

Art and film scholars will discuss interesting facts about the genre, including:

  1. How Buffalo Bill introduced the Wild West across the pond.
  2. The turn-of-the-century western artists that inspired John Ford.
  3. The difference between a classic Western and a spaghetti Western. Hint: it’s not meatballs.
  4. The diverse talents of Ennio Morricone. Was he a painter, an actor, or a composer?
  5. Some of the optical toys early artists used to create cinema.


You'll also learn more aboutThe Western: An Epic in Art and Film, co-developed with the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, which opens in May.

Whether you're a western art lover, film buff, or simply enjoy learning new things, Set in the West is sure to engage.

Reserve your ticket to Set in the West: Telling Tales in Art and Film.

Image credit: Bucking Broadway (film still), 1917. Directed by John Ford, with Harry Carey, Molly Malone and L.M. Wells. © Collection Centre National du Cinéma et de l’image animée (France).