ArtsWatch

ArtsWatch: Old art, modern dilemma

Last week my wife and I spent a few days in Quebec City—one of Canada’s and North America’s oldest cities. We explored Old Quebecy, exploring the upper and lower city, as part of our 25th anniversary celebrations.
 
You can’t visit Quebec City without stepping inside at least one of the dozens of churches—mostly Roman Catholic—which have a history as old as the city. We visited four—including the magnificent basilica of Ste. Anne de Beaupre, a pilgrimage shrine located about a half hour east of the city itself.

ArtsWatch - sorry, not this week folks

Sorry folks, I'm in Quebec City celebrating the 25th anniversary of my wedding to a wonderful woman who has been a support in my work in the arts.
 
Look for comments next Tuesday.

Quick read explores church's attitude towards art

I finished reading Historical Attitudes that Shaped the Church's Use of the Arts by Matthew R. S. Todd (Word Alive Press 2010 www.wordalivepress.ca). It's a short gem (about 170 pages, but only 107 are text, the rest are footnotes and references) I discovered at the recent Write! Canada Writers' Conference, which now has passaged marked and underlined for further reference.
 

Sacred, secular meet at Art on the Street

If you happen to be in Guelph this weekend, check out the annual Art on the Street festival.
 
The annual event takes place Saturday, July 16 and is sponsored by the Downtown Guelph Business Association and the Guelph Arts Council. The event closes down Quebec Street, a key downtown thoroughfare, as 60-plus artist display works featuring everything from photography to sculpture to blacksmithing to painting and everything in between.
 

"A Matter of Faith" for Saturday, July 9, 2011

Here's a link to the "A Matter of Faith" column for the Saturday, July 9 edition of  The Guelph Mercury: http://tinyurl.com/3uk8jan

Does our craft and life inspire others?

Gordon Tootoosis died Tuesday (July 5). He was probably most familiar to Canadians in the role of Albert Golo on North of 60. He was also one of those character actors who, when you saw him on the large or small screen, you'd go "I know that guy" and fail to remember his name. His most common roles, of late, was that of the gentle Native American sage such as the grandfather telling the story of the Peacmaker in the Historica minute (http://www.histori.ca/minutes/minute.do?id=10120).
 

The other side of the mic

As a veteran journalist I'm used to asking the questions. Recently I had the chance to be on the receiving end.
 

Imago, Write! Canada and attitudes toward art

I had the privilege of attending two arts-related programs last week and thoroughly enjoyed both.
 
On Wednesday, Imago presented Art in the City—a showcase of local and regional performers and artists. Dale Nikkel, Kevin Ramessar and Mike Janzen wowed us with their music; the cast of Lost & Found Theatre tantalized us with an excerpt from a new play—which I may just have to go and see to find out how it ends—and visual artist Heidi Brannan had us looking at stone and glass in a whole new way.
 

Where faith, art and Canadian culture intersect

I've been avoiding the blogosphere for two key reasons: lack of time and lack of opinion.

The second reason will probably surprise many of those who know me, but I didn't want to be another voice, pontificating on everything and anything. Instead I wanted to fo focuse on a single area and hadn't decided what that was.

Two recent events changed my mind.

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