A VISIONARY TRADITION Celebrating Culture in Guelph

 

Billed as a history-making community celebration of and conference on Canadian literature and culture, A Visionary Tradition: Canadian Literature and Culture at the Turn of the Millennium comes to Guelph November 10 to 14, 1999. The event will attract an impressive array of Canadian writers, artists, musicians, as well as many notable Canadian scholars whose expertise is Canadian literature, fine art, performing arts, history or criticism.

Conference Director, J.R. (Tim) Struthers of the College of Arts at the University of Guelph, notes that “the idea of holding a nation-wide interdisciplinary conference dedicated to a broad-based review of Canadian cultural achievements” was inspired in part by the success of Frank R. Scott’s national literary conference held at Queen’s University in 1955. This earlier conference served to promote mutual understanding among authors, publishers, critics and readers.

Now, in 1999, A Visionary Tradition aims to identify and reflect upon how various artistic disciplines and methods intersect. This conference, unlike many scholarly-type conferences, will also invite community involvement and participation at both daytime and evening sessions.

Each day throughout the conference, interviews, panel discussions, public lectures, critical papers and creative performances will be offered on the University of Guelph campus. Beginning at 9:30 a.m. at Macdonald Stewart Art Centre, these events are open
to the public and are free of charge.

On all five evenings, beginning at 7:15 p.m., the action will move to downtown Guelph where there will be book fairs and signings, readings and musical performances at Chalmers Church. The preliminary line-up for the evening events includes:

 

November 10

duo pianists Anagnoson and Kinton, along with writers Penn Kemp, Joy Kogawa, Marianne Micros, Daniel David Moses, P.K. Page, James Reaney

 

November 11

writers John B. Lee, Terry Griggs, Daphne Marlatt, P.K. Page, James Reaney

November 12

Celtic harpist Mary Anderson-Buchanan, along with writers K.D. Miller, Gloria Alvernaz Mulcahy, Ray Smith, “the immortal” Oscar Wilde

 

November 13

writers bill bissett, Barry Callaghan, George Elliott Clarke, Marianne Micros, Leon Rooke, Diane Schoemperlen

 

November 14

writers bill bissett and the Four Women (Penn Kemp, Colleen Thibaudeau, Gloria Alvernaz Mulcahy, Marianne Micros), Thomas King, Imogen Knister Givens, John B. Lee, Marilyn Gear Pilling, John Terpstra, J.R. (Tim) Struthers.

Admission for each evening event is $15, or $10 for students, teachers and seniors. A $50 five-evening transferable pass is also available.

For more information/tickets, contact Guelph Arts Council at (519) 836-3280.

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