• A Festival of Ideas
  • January 26 - 29, 2023
  • Guelph

2015 Presenters (Nov)

Adrian Stimson is a member of the Siksika (Blackfoot) Nation in southern Alberta. He is an interdisciplinary artist, curator and educator who has a BFA with distinction from the Alberta College of Art & Design and an MFA from the…

With the release of their latest album project, For the Light, multi‐award and JUNO‐winning alternative roots duo Digging Roots bring their nomadic wanderlust to sonic terrain. With 12 original tracks that reflect a maturing sense of storytelling, For the Light…

As a DJ and producer, Cyclist has brought his indie‐dance brand of boogie funk to the global stage, live and in the studio. His own label, MANI/PEDI Records with RAC’s Karl Kling, launched late 2013 to intercontinental kudos. When not…

Jaron Lanier is a computer scientist, composer, artist and author who writes on numerous topics, including high‐technology business, the impact of technology, the philosophy of consciousness and information, internet politics, and the future of humanism. Lanier’s most recent book is…

A member of the Stó:lō Nation in British Columbia, Lee Maracle is a celebrated author, poet, educator, storyteller and performing artist. She is one of the country’s most prolific writers, and was first published in the early 1970s. Among her…

Lee Smolin is a theoretical physicist who is a founding and senior faculty member at Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics. His main contributions have been to the quantum theory of gravity, to which he has been a co‐inventor and major…

Madhur Anand’s poetry has appeared in literary magazines across North America and in the anthology The Shape of Content: Creative Writing in Mathematics and Science. Her debut collection of poems, A New Index for Predicting Catastrophes, was published by McClelland…

Mustapić and Meštrović collaborate on large‐scale multimedia projects, which have been installed at museums and galleries. Their collaborative work captures social issues and expands categories of documentarism into spatial and poetic immersive sensory experiences. Nadija Mustapić is a Rijeka, Croatia‐based…

Peter Hatch is a composer, music curator and teacher. He has composed works in a large number of genres, from orchestral and chamber music to instrumental theatre, electroacoustics and installations. Known for his interest in revitalizing the listening experience, Hatch’s compositions…

Philip Kevin Paul is a member of the WSÁ,NEC Nation from the Saanich Peninsula on Vancouver Island. His work has been published in BC Studies, Literary Review of Canada, Breathing Fire: Canada’s New Poets, and An Anthology of Canadian Native Literature in…

Shawn Van Sluys is the executive director of Musagetes, a philanthropic arts organization based in Guelph. Musagetes is committed to making the arts more central and meaningful in people’s lives and in our communities and societies. With artists and communities, Musagetes…

The Penderecki String Quartet, approaching the third decade of an extraordinary career, has become one of the most celebrated chamber ensembles of their generation. The four musicians, from Poland, Canada and the United States, create performances that demonstrate their “remarkable…

Tim Lilburn was born in Regina. He has published nine books of poetry, including To the River (1999), Kill-site (2003), Orphic Politics (2008) and Assiniboia (2012). His work has received Canada’s Governor General’s Award (for Kill-site), the Saskatchewan Book of…

Wanda Nanibush is an Anishinaabe‐kwe image and word warrior, curator and community organizer living in her territory of Chimnissing. Currently, Nanibush is a guest curator at the Art Gallery of Ontario and is touring her exhibition, The Fifth World, which…