In an unusual open letter, the National Gallery says its bid to purchase the Jacques-Louis David painting Saint Jerome Hearing the Trumpet of the Last Judgment is in no way intended "to pre-empt efforts by museums in Quebec to purchase the work." This appears to be another
When Omar El Akkad was writing his bestselling book about a fictional civil war in a future America, he didn't have an agent or a publisher. "I didn't have any expectations that it would see the light of day." Well, that's sure changed. American War was the
John Ralston Saul was 27, he says, when his eyes were opened to the issues confronting the Indigenous peoples of this land. "I was typical of my generation," he said in an interview in advance of the spring edition of the Ottawa International Writers Festival which
To those of us on the outside, life in a polygamous community – notorious Bountiful, B.C., for instance - is an aberration. But if you’ve grown up in such a bell-jar setting, you’d view the community as entirely normal. Understanding that process of normalization is important
Wednesday’s NACO concert had all the makings of a jaded yawnfest: a tame, old-fashioned program featuring a Rossini overture, a Mozart piano concerto, and a later Beethoven symphony. But with the explosively energetic Xian Zhang’s at the helm, this performance was more like a jolt
Typically, I write about art in Ottawa, but a person has to hit the road once in a while, which I did recently, and rode the railway to Montreal, New York and Philadelphia. Here are three special exhibitions to consider for your spring/early-summer travels. Napoleon: Art
Who would have thought that the National Gallery of Canada would now be at the centre over a tug of war with the Quebec government? But that's what appears to be happening. As reported in Le Devoir, Quebec's minister of culture, Marie Montpetit, has asked her department
The new NAC director of communications is moving out of Rideau Hall to an office by the Rideau Canal. Annabelle Cloutier, who is the director of communications and public affairs with the Office of the Secretary to the Governor General, will take up her new post
A long list of 25 artists from five regions of Canada will be considered for the 2018 Sobey Art Award. The winner of the award, which goes to an emerging Canadian artist, will receive $100,000 from the Sobey Art Foundation. Four other shortlisted artists will get $25,000 each.
As a child, Xian Zhang started studying piano with her mother on an instrument built by her father. By age 11, she was in the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing. At age 16, she switched to conducting. "The real starting point (of her conducting career)
