Festival presenters, Musagetes, the Eramosa Institute and the University of Guelph are offering the first ArtsEverywhere Festival, Guelph’s festival of ideas.
Over three days, the festival will offer lectures, conversations, music, artistic performances, literary readings, and workshops. Several of the events will be live-streamed on ArtsEverywhere.ca.
On Jan. 19, Suzy Lake, an artist whose identity-based work is foundational to a generation, will open the festival with a “big ideas” talk about her five decades of artistic production.
On Jan. 20, Musagetes will host “What Can I Do?”, a workshop on reconciliation for concerned Canadians led by Chris Creighton-Kelly, an interdisciplinary artist, writer and cultural critic, and Diane Roberts, founder and workshop facilitator at the Arrivals Personal Legacy Process. Later that evening, Okanagan knowledge-keeper and writer, Jeanette Armstrong will deliver the keynote at The Guelph Lecture On Being Canadian, now in its 14th year.
Her research into Indigenous philosophies and Okanagan Syilx thought and environmental ethics has shaped her understanding of how relationships between humans determine their connection to the land.
Ann Hui, the literary guest at The Guelph Lecture, will talk about her recent project, Chop Suey Nation, a social documentary of Canada’s Chinese restaurants and their proprietors.
Rounding out The Guelph Lecture evening, First Nations musicians from Northern Ontario, Midnight Shine brings a sound that seamlessly mixes roots, classic and modern rock.
The third day of the festival will focus on two approaches to considering Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission in the context of marking Canada’s Sesquicentennial.
On Jan. 21 in, a conversation with four West Coast scholars and artists will focus on the complexities of (re)conciliation in unceded territories, where treaties were never signed.
In partnership with the University of Guelph, the festival invites students to join the ArtsEverywhere Emerging Scholars.
This program offers 30 graduate and undergraduate students a complimentary festival pass, a festival mentor, receptions with the speakers, an intimate 2-hour conversation with one of the speakers, and an opportunity to publish some festival insights at ArtsEverywhere.ca.
