Distinguished Dinner Guest
Max Wyman
Max Wyman is a Vancouver writer and one
of Canada’s
leading cultural commentators. He has written extensively
for newspapers, magazines, journals and encyclopedias
throughout Europe and North America, and has published
several books on the arts, most recently The
Defiant Imagination: Why Culture Matters, a passionate
manifesto asserting the central importance of the
arts and culture to modern Canada.
He lectures and consults on arts and culture policy
across North America, and is currently drafting
a cultural strategy for British Columbia. A former
member of the board of the Canada Council for the
Arts and of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Bid committee,
he was from 2002–2006 President of the Canadian
Commission for UNESCO. An Officer of the Order
of Canada and holder of an honorary Doctor of Letters
degree from Simon Fraser University, he was elected
Mayor of Lions Bay in December, 2005, and currently
chairs the Greater Vancouver Regional District’s
Cultural Task Force.
He is deeply involved in issues around the integration
of the arts and creative activity into education.
He was a founding member of the multi-agency Canadian
arts and learning action coalition, chaired the
Canadian Commission for UNESCO’s cross-Canada
consultations on the topic and led the Canadian
delegation to the world summit on arts and culture
in Portugal last spring.
Learning Moments
Hackneyed but true: the moment when I came round
from my first heart attack. That much-discussed
tap on the shoulder — that vision of yourself
as a single bubble in the foam on the waters of
life — that moment of recognition that you’d
better get on with things.
Question
1. When will those in charge come to their senses
and see that the curriculum needs a major overhaul
to make it relevant to 21st century needs? When
will those with their hands on the purse-strings
lose their fear and loathing of arts and culture?
Special Guests
These guests joined Max Wyman and the 2006 delegates for dinner on the
evening of Monday, October 16th, 2006.
Richard Smith, Associate Professor, Department of Communications, SFU
Fiona Crofton, Principal, The ORCAD Group
Paula Jardine, Founder of Public Dreams, Artist in Residence,
Mountain View Cemetery
Mark Selman, Executive Director, Learning Strategies
Group, SFU
David Helliwell, Imagine BC Advisory
Committee
Rudy North, President and Founder, North Growth Foundation
Kieran Egan, Professor, Department of
Education, SFU
Kit Krieger, President, West Vancouver Teachers’ Association
Gary Little, Associate Superintendent, Vancouver School
Board
Bruce Sampson, Vice-President, Sustainability, BC Hydro
Emmy Sampson, Cowichan Green Community
Consensus Statement >
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