UNIVERSITY OF LETHBRIDGE RELEASE
Jim Coutts, a southern Albertabased art collector, political adviser and philanthropist, has formally turned over his homestead property and a significant portion of his art collection to the University of Lethbridge.
The U of L will formally recognize Coutts for his gift, and launch the Coutts Centre for Western Canadian Heritage, located on the more than 100-year-old property that once belonged to Coutts’s grandfather.
The gift, valued at more than $2 million, is comprised of a quarter section of land, the original homestead, extensive gardens and restored outbuildings, as well as more than 200 items from his personal art collection.
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Coutts, purchased the homestead property in 1988 and has since rebuilt it with extensive gardens, restored farm buildings and plots of native grasses and other plants as a tribute to his family and their struggles as pioneers in a harsh Prairie environment.
“When you look at the place now with the gardens, grasses and trees and the beauty depicted in the photographs and paintings, that’s one thing,” says Coutts. “But for many years, for those who came first, it was a very difficult and painful place to live.”
Coutts was born in nearby High River, but grew up in Nanton. “When you grow up someplace, part of you stays there and part of that place goes with you wherever you are,” says Coutts. “Wherever I travelled I always thought of Nanton because it was where I was raised, and I always thought of the land, the Prairies, the foothills and so I wanted to have some connection with it and that’s why I came back.”
The university has asked Coutts to stay involved and to help in the future development of the property. “The idea is it would be a centre for the visual arts, a centre for horticulture, a centre for Prairie restoration and a centre for rural community development,” says Coutts.
“The people from the University of Lethbridge were prepared to do exactly what I wanted,” says Coutts. “They were prepared to keep it going. It was a continuum of what I started, what I was doing and what I wanted to see in the future.”
The property enables the U of L to enhance the student experience in ways relevant to the goals and values described within the framework of a liberal education. “Treating the Coutts Centre as a living classroom, students, faculty and visitors will make use of the natural setting to study the history, artwork, ecosystems and geography associated with the area,” says U of L president Mike Mahon.
