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A cause for Celebration
?Tucked within this week’s Cosmos, most of you will find two brochures: one outlining the program for this year’s Celebration of the Arts, marking a glorious silver anniversary; the second detailing all the stops on the Uxbridge Studio Tour, one of the oldest and loveliest in the province. On page 6 you will find a great article by Lisha Cassibo attempting to lure you to another of our cultural traditions, the Lions’ sylvan adventure, Art in the Park. And scattered throughout the paper are previews of other concerts and festivals upcoming in Udora, Pefferlaw, at the Historical Centre, Trinity United Church and the Music Hall. And oh, on page 11, our weekly feature highlighting this week’s Friday night concert at the Foster Memorial.
It’s appropriate that the star at the Foster this Friday has probably been one of the busiest women in the local performing arts scene since her arrival in Uxbridge five years back. Jane Loewen not only has a beautiful soprano voice, she’s an accomplished pianist and dedicated teacher, and although professional gigs have been few and far between since her northward migration from Toronto, she’s been generous of her time, energy and talent to musical theatre productions, fund-raising concerts and as an organizer with the Music Scholarship Fund.
That kind of community spirit, of course, is typical of the people who 25 years ago dreamt up the annual fall kickoff to our annual arts calendar, the Celebration, and the people whose creative and organizational genius keep making it bigger and better every year. The Studio Tour originally was a totally separate entity, but several years ago came under the Celebration umbrella.
Apart from dance, which really doesn’t have a venue in Uxbridge adequate to its requirements, the Celebration includes every art form within its three-week calendar: theatre, vocal & instrumental music, literature, cinema, painting, sculpture, photography. Take the time to to thoroughly peruse their 24-page brochure; we guarantee you will find something to intrigue and entertain you, no matter your age, budget or artistic inclination. And after you’ve done your perusing, sit back and marvel a little.
Uxbridge is really a very small community; our total population could fit within a tiny corner of Toronto. But we possess a wealth of artistic talent. Many people, artists and arts consumers alike, have been drawn to this place because of that rich atmosphere, the above-mentioned Ms. Loewen among them. And of course, the more artists we attract, the richer we get.
Uxbridge may advertise itself as the Trail Capital of Canada, but we hope the people who promote our town to poential visitors won’t over-emphasize that feature, as wonderful as it is, to the detriment of our cultural attractions. We have unique historical places like the Foster Memorial, Lucy Maud’s Manse and the train station with its Heritage Railway. But for our tourism potential, not to mention the quality of life of our own citizens, our greatest resource is our population of artists. We should never forget that, and bravo to the Celebration for reminding us, each and every year.
