Tomson Highway - to speak in Burlington November 4th at the Performing Arts Centre.

By Staff

October 12th, 2017

BURLINGTON, ON

The Arts and Culture Council of Burlington is excited to announce its first fundraiser, “An Evening with Tomson Highway” on Saturday , November 4 at 7:00 p.m. at the Studio Theatre of the Burlington Performing Arts Centre.

Incorporated in 2016 and officially launched in April, 2017, the Arts and Culture Council of Burlington, or ACCOB, has a mandate to increase public understanding and appreciation of arts and culture in Burlington, and to advocate on behalf of the artistic and cultural community in the city.

ACCOB already has 65 individual and organizational members and is looking to increase its membership to better benefit the local artistic and cultural scene. It is currently participating in the Burlington Performing Arts Centre’s “Festival of Trees”, which will help to provide funds for artists and cultural groups to use the Studio Theatre at BPAC.

ACCOB is also providing the jury process to administer the new grants which the City of Burlington plans to distribute to projects submitted by members of Burlington’s artistic and cultural communities.

Tomson Highway – to speak in Burlington November 4th at the Performing Arts Centre.

The November 4th event is another collaboration with the Burlington Public Library’s One Book One Burlington, which is focusing on Indigenous works this year. Tomson Highway is an award-winning Cree playwright, novelist, writer and musician who will be speaking to us about the importance of arts and culture in a community.

He is the first Indigenous person to be awarded the Order of Canada for his work in the arts and he has devoted his life to the development of a vibrant indigenous culture in Canada.

An accomplished pianist, Highway often performs his own works from his various plays and musicals and he will be using the wonderful grand piano at the Burlington Performing Arts Centre on November 4.

Highway holds honorary doctorates from ten Canadian universities.  He graduated from the University of Western Ontario (now called Western University) with a degree in music and English.

Highway’s latest book, “From Oral to Written: A Celebration of Indigenous Literature in Canada, 1980 to 2010 was published in July.

Highway is an accomplished playwright who was  nominated for a Governor General’s Award and the  Dora Mavor Moore Award. He won the Best New Play Floyd S. Chalmers Award

Anyone who writes a play with the title Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing – which he did in 1989,  has to be listened to –  Tickets are $35 and are available at www.burlingtonpac.ca, 905-681-6000 or in person at the box office.