Alina Dabrowska
1932 - 2012
Born in Warsaw, Alina Dabrowska (nee Gac) earned her Master’s Degree in Architecture and Town Planning at the Warsaw Technical Institute (1959) where she lectured (1963 – 1972). She was a member of the Polish team that submitted an archaeological preservation plan to UNESCO for the relocation and reconstruction of the Temple of Ramesses at Abu Simbel in Egypt, and as such she co-authored the paper “Project for the Protection of Abu Simbel Temples” (University of Warsaw, Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archeology).
After leaving her architectural career in Poland, Dabrowska continued her profession in England at a private firm and later at British Rail as a Senior Officer and Job Captain. Upon moving to Calgary (1979), she worked as an instructor of design and project representation in the Department of Design at Mount Royal College for more than twenty-five years. During this tenure she undertook a six-week study-and-sketching tour of France and Spain (1984).
Dabrowska was committed to recording Calgary’s and Alberta’s older architectural landscape to paper, using her preferred media of pencil and watercolour. She mounted solo exhibitions at the Faculty of Architecture in Warsaw and the Centennial Gallery in Calgary, and participated in numerous group exhibitions including at Mulberry House in London, England and the Heritage Society of Edmonton. Various private collectors and the Alberta Vocational Centre commissioned her to create works; her art dwells in the permanent collections of the Pan-Canadian Petroleum Company, British Railways Board, and homes in Canada, the United States, Poland, Great Britain, Switzerland, and Italy.
Dabrowska received a Distinguished Faculty Teaching Award from Mount Royal University in Calgary, and the Distinction, Arts, and Cultural Award from the Calgary Immigrant Aid Society. She died in 2012.
After leaving her architectural career in Poland, Dabrowska continued her profession in England at a private firm and later at British Rail as a Senior Officer and Job Captain. Upon moving to Calgary (1979), she worked as an instructor of design and project representation in the Department of Design at Mount Royal College for more than twenty-five years. During this tenure she undertook a six-week study-and-sketching tour of France and Spain (1984).
Dabrowska was committed to recording Calgary’s and Alberta’s older architectural landscape to paper, using her preferred media of pencil and watercolour. She mounted solo exhibitions at the Faculty of Architecture in Warsaw and the Centennial Gallery in Calgary, and participated in numerous group exhibitions including at Mulberry House in London, England and the Heritage Society of Edmonton. Various private collectors and the Alberta Vocational Centre commissioned her to create works; her art dwells in the permanent collections of the Pan-Canadian Petroleum Company, British Railways Board, and homes in Canada, the United States, Poland, Great Britain, Switzerland, and Italy.
Dabrowska received a Distinguished Faculty Teaching Award from Mount Royal University in Calgary, and the Distinction, Arts, and Cultural Award from the Calgary Immigrant Aid Society. She died in 2012.