Letter from Wendy Crewson

Hey Julie,

Many, many apologies for such a late reply. The fact that culture has suddenly become such a hot button issue has caught us by surprise and all of us at ACTRA have been scrambling. Because, despite of all the years of lobbying, it’s truly remarkable when the forces that be start to shift. Although we must give credit where credit’s due. It is Harper himself we have to thank for igniting our community and the community at large with his careless remarks. And now he has dropped Bill C10 ! A terrific victory! If we all keep pushing hard enough, who knows? He may even have to reinstate the funding cuts. We certainly have them on the run.

Your idea of taking the arts to the streets is exactly what we need to do. Art IS your story…culture is the choice we make every day in what we read, listen to,and watch. I’m thrilled that your students have responded so enthusiastically to the call. Keep the issue in the public eye this weekend! Queen’s has always produced some of the most effective and powerful voices of our cultural sector and it’s inspiring to see the tradition continue. WE NEED STRONG VOICES.

Yes, please post this. Together we make a difference!

Wendy Crewson

Actor, Queen’s Drama Alumni

Letter from Albert Schultz

Dear Queen’s Drama Students,

I have just heard about your project “Art is Your Story”! What a beautiful and fitting way to use your individual and collective voices to celebrate your citizenship and that of us all.  I congratulate you all for your vision, your creativity and your civic pride!

May you all touch many.

Yours,

Albert Schultz, Artist

Honorary Doctor of Laws, Queen’s University

art on your twenty dollar bill

Julie,
Got your e-mail and have started circulating it—here’s something else ( see below ) for your students. Comes from an old friend from the racetrack–there’s art and culture there too! ( as you already know )…but it might be news to harper:

“Could we ever know each other in the slightest without the arts?”
Ever seen this quote? I wonder if Stephen Harper has. One would hope so, since it’s printed on the Canadian $20 bill.

I wonder if somebody should tell him…
Bill Heffernan, Teacher, Toronto

From the Bank of Canada website:
http://www.bankofcanada.ca/en/banknotes/general/character/background_20_quotation.html

“This excerpt reminds us that arts and culture define who we are, as
well as the system of beliefs, values, and customs we share as
Canadians.”

——————–

$20 Note, Background Information

Gabrielle Roy, Canadian author of the quotation on the back of the new $20 note.

Gabrielle Roy was born in St. Boniface, Manitoba, and educated at
Saint Joseph’s Academy and the Winnipeg Normal School. Following her formal training, Ms. Roy devoted a number of years to teaching in
elementary schools. She then spent two years in Europe before
returning to Canada at the outbreak of World War II in 1939.

Gabrielle Roy settled in Montreal, where she worked as a journalist
for various newspapers and magazines. After her first novel, The Tin
Flute, appeared in 1945, she returned to the West for a short stay
and, in August 1947, married Marcel Carbotte, a Saint Boniface doctor.
After their wedding, the couple went to Europe where Carbotte studied gynaecology and Roy spent her time writing.

During this period, she wrote Where Nests the Waterhen and The
Cashier, both of which were published on her return to Canada. Other
books followed, including: Street of Riches, The Road Past Altamont,
Windflower, Enchanted Summer, Garden in the Wind, Children of My Heart and The Hidden Mountain, an excerpt from which is featured on the back of the new $20 note.

“Could we ever know each other in the slightest without the arts?”
« Nous connaîtrions-nous seulement un peu nous-mêmes, sans les arts? »

This excerpt reminds us that arts and culture define who we are, as
well as the system of beliefs, values, and customs we share as
Canadians. It is taken from Roy’s novel La montagne secrète, published in 1961. The English translation by Harry L. Binsse, The Hidden
Mountain, was published in 1962.

Gabrielle Roy was the recipient of many literary awards, including
France’s Prix Femina, an award from the Literary Guild of America, and
three Governor General’s Awards. Her works have been translated into more than fourteen languages.

The Manitoba writer, who was the first woman elected to the French
section of the Royal Society of Canada (1947), also won the Society’s
Lorne Pierce Medal. In 1967, she was made a Companion of the Order of Canada.

She died in Quebec City in 1983, and her autobiography, La Détresse et l’Enchantement (Enchantment and Sorrow), was published the following year.

Support Letters

friday september 26, from Montreal:

Dear Julie, Jenn, et tout le gang,

What an inspiring project: speaking truth to power, articulating the ‘voices from below.’

Good luck with it.

Denis.

Denis Salter
McGill
______

Hello Jenn.

I am a Reg. Nurse working with “street people” at Street Health Centre in Kingston. I’m also a poet. Each year SHC  hosts a 5 day ”Art in the Street’ show for our clients’ work.  I’m responsible for the Poetry Evening (Oct.24) and this year we are launching our first antholgy of poems by our staff, clients and volunteers. (venue to be announced soon…let me know if you want info.)

It is our belief, confirmed through daily experience, that art and literature form an essential part of our humanity and wellbeing.

Bravo to you and your dept. for’ taking it to the streets’!

We will probably bump into your students next week as I’m performing poetry in downtown Kingston as part of the “Random Acts of Poetry event across Canada. (We approach people in the street and ‘poem’ them!)

Very best regards,

R.D. Roy

(Doug)

http://rdroy.name