Musings from Musagetes

Originally published November 2006

• 2006

At many times in history, those capable of observing trends have, perhaps, looked around and bemoaned the fast pace of change. It is often possible to feel a sense of loss, even as our civilization develops. In The Malaise of Modernity, Charles Taylor proposes that the source of our malaise can be largely summed up…

Commentary on Arctic Sovereignty

Originally published November 2007

by Ken Coates, Ph.D

• 2007

The global debate about Arctic sovereignty has rekindled Canadian interest in the far North. A curious conjunction of northern issues—the melting of Arctic ice, rival claims to the Arctic seabed, and a race for oil and gas—has challenged Canadians to rethink their approach to the Arctic. These issues are important, but the public debate has…

Dominion City

Originally published November, 2008

by Andrew Hunter

• 2008

Dominion City is the elaborate, ever expanding, work-in-progress of the renowned Guelph-based, Canadian cartoonist Seth. An imagined place combining elements of numerous early modern Canadian cities, Dominion captures the spirit of the booming small metropolis at a time of community boosterism and growth that, to the contemporary eye, can seem at times quaint and alien.…

DodoLab

Originally published December 2009

by Lisa Hirmer & Andrew Hunter

• 2009

The fundamental focus of DodoLab is simple: What are the barriers to adaptation and change? In order to address this, we work to uncover underlying—and often unperceived—ideas, beliefs and assumptions that affect (or even govern) what we do or don’t do. We want to reveal these ideas so that we can examine and discuss them…

Art is Empathy

Originally published November 2010

by Shawn Van Sluys

• 2010

During a recent trip to Nairobi, I participated in a conference on the development of the arts and the creative economy in the African Community. Not having defined the conceptual differences between the expressive arts and “lucrative” arts, the mixed group of creative industry leaders, fine artists, community leaders and academics was soon mired in…

Exploration—of Ideas—in the North

Originally published November 2011

by Dr. Thomas S. Axworthy

• 2011

To improve public policy in the Circumpolar Arctic, the Canada Centre for Global Security Studies at the Munk School of Global Affairs (UofT) and the Walter & Duncan Gordon Foundation have partnered on a four-year multi-dimensional international Arctic Security program. A goal of this Program is not only to carry out original research on Arctic…

A Decade of Ideas

Originally published November 2012

by Joy Roberts

• 2012

As I was writing this column, a month before tonight’s 10th Guelph Lecture—On Being Canadian, a message popped up on my screen from Eramosa Institute President Valerie Hall, telling me that The National was on, featuring one of the Lecture’s previous guests. Well, two really, since Peter Mansbridge made a cameo appearance onstage in 2006.…

Carbon 14: Climate is Culture Exhibition + Festival

Originally published November 2013

by Joy Roberts with David Buckland

• 2013

Since giving the Guelph Lecture—On Being Canadian in 2007, David Buckland of Cape Farewell in the UK has started the Cape Farewell Foundation in Canada. An artist himself (photographer, designer and filmmaker), with photos collected by the Metropolitan Museum in New Georges Pompidou in Paris and the National Portrait Gallery in London, England, Buckland is…

The Alchemy of Canada

Originally published January 2015

by Haroon Siddiqui

• 2015

There are good reasons beyond simple patriotism to assert that Canada is the best nation in the world. As the only constitutionally multicultural state, Canada – unlike, say, the United States – recognizes group rights, dating back to the 1867 British North America Act, which codified three collectivities – the aboriginal peoples and the French…

Reflections from Emerging Scholars

• 2018

Peter M. Flannery Groundedness Throughout my experience of the 2018 ArtsEverywhere Festival, a thread of groundedness, the importance of space and place, wove its way through each event. Various speakers, artists, and presenters emphasized that by consciously recognising where we live and where we come from, we are free to manifest more fulfilled versions of…