Patricia Ainslie lived in Africa, Iran, and England before settling in Alberta in 1977 and becoming a curator at the Glenbow Museum in Calgary. After organizing a variety of exhibitions by artists such as Margaret Shelton, Cecil Buller, Laurence Hyde,H.G.Glyde, and Jack Shadbolt, Ainslie became vice-president of collections at the Glenbow in 1993 and continued to write, maintain the Glenbow's collections, and work on innovative museological projects. She retired in 2006 and now lives in Kelowna.