With the opening of its Murray Point Summer School of Art at Emma Lake in 1936, the University of Saskatchewan became the first Canadian University to establish an outdoor art school. The classes were designed to be equivalent to winter session courses with an emphasis on the needs of students from small towns, the majority of whom were teachers. In 1955 the Regina Campus Art Department decided to establish a two-week professional artists' workshop. Many acclaimed painters, sculptors, and art critics, especially from New York, made the trip north to Emma Lake. With the creation of the University of Regina in 1974, the University of Saskatchewan took sole administrative responsibility for the Murray Point School. In 1989 the Emma Lake Art School was renamed the Kenderdine Campus. A. "Gus" Kenderdine was director of the school from 1936 to 1947.