Published by Communications and Public Affairs (519) 824-4120, Ext. 56982 or 53338
News Release
November 04, 1999
Conference to celebrate Canadian culture
The public is invited to attend the University of Guelph's "A Visionary Tradition: Canadian Literature and Culture at the Turn of the Millennium," a nationwide, interdisciplinary conference dedicated to a broadly based review of Canadian cultural achievements, Nov. 10 to 15.
Seven Governor General's Award winners will speak at the conference. Keynote speakers include retired U of G history professor Gil Stelter discussing "The Universal in the Local"; Dalhousie University critic Andy Wainwright on "Bob Dylan, Canada and the '60s"; three-time Governor General's Award-winning poet and playwright James Reaney on his favourite Canadian visionaries; University of Toronto critic W.J. Keith on "Hugh Hood and the New Age"; and Simon Fraser University biographer Sandra Djwa, discussing F.R. Scott and Pierre Elliott Trudeau.
Organized by Prof. J.R. (Tim) Struthers, Department of Literatures and Performance Studies in English, the conference will feature three research panels:
"Representations of Canada in the Teaching of Canadian Literature", moderated by Prof. Donna Palmateer Pennee, Literatures and Performance Studies in English
"The Regional and the Trans-Regional: A Panel Discussion on the Visual Arts in Canada," moderated by Ron Shuebrook, vice-president (academic) of the Ontario College of Art and Design
"Looking Back, Leaping Forward: A Panel Discussion on Opera in Canada," moderated by Michael and Linda Hutcheon of the University of Toronto.
Other participants include children's author Jean Little; poet and visual artist P.K. Page; U of G Prof. François Paré; fiction writers Leon Rooke and Diane Schoemperlen; playwright and U of G Prof. Judith Thompson; historian Michael Bliss; and poets Barry Callaghan and Joy Kogawa.
The conference also features five evenings of performance, beginning Nov. 10 with duo pianists Anagnoson and Kinton and writers Page, Reaney, Kogawa, Penn Kemp, Marianne Micros and Daniel David Moses.
Daytime events begin at 9:30 a.m. each day, at the Macdonald Stewart Art Centre, and are free.
Evening events will take place at Chalmers Street United Church. Tickets are $15 for adults, $10 for students, teachers and seniors. Tickets are available at The Bookshelf, Sunrise Books, the Guelph Arts Council and the UC Box Office.
"A Visionary Tradition" is presented by the University of Guelph's College of Arts in partnership with the Macdonald Stewart Art Centre and the Guelph Arts Council.
For media questions, contact Communications and Public Affairs, (519) 824-4120, Ext. 3338
