Among the earliest recorded pioneer artists in Saskatchewan were two Englishmen, Inglis Sheldon-Williams (1870-1940) and Augustus Kenderdine (1870-1947). European trained and favouring the 19th century landscape tradition, the two Englishmen became the earliest art instructors in the province.

In 1921, President W.C. Murray of the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, appointed Kenderdine as the first artist-in-residence at a Canadian University. Kenderdine began teaching full-credit courses in Saskatoon in 1933. When Regina became a Junior College of the University of Saskatchewan in 1936, Murray hired Kenderdine as the first director of the newly established School of Fine Art at Regina College and the first curator of the Norman Mackenzie Art Collection.

It was not until 1950, when Eli Bornstein was appointed to head the newly developed Department of Fine Arts, that the University of Saskatchewan revived its Arts program. Widely known for his structurist reliefs and the art annual he started and published entitled The Structurist, Bornstein remained Director until 1971.