My City's Still Laughing

My City's Still Breathing, a symposium exploring the arts, artists and the city kicked off on Thursday and runs until Sunday afternoon.   This symposium is part of the celebration of Winnipeg as the Cultural Capital of Canada 2010.  The goal of the four day event is to "gather international experts to deliberate and debate the current and future relationships of art and design to city-making."  Yesterdays events included three keynote speakers: author Jon Hawkes, one of Australia's leading commentators on cultural policy; creative economy expert Simon Evans; and writer and hollywood director John Waters.
 
I did not see Hawkes lecture although I would have liked to.  Evans lecture on creative economy was depressing and encouraging at the same time.  And John Waters basically did an hour of stand-up.  I am not sure what Waters' hour or so on stage did to discuss "relationships of art and design to city-making” but his anecdotes about growing up gay in Baltimore, making movies like Pink Flamingoes and Hair Spray, and teaching at federal prisons, had the audience howling and cringing, sometimes in the same breath.

My City’s Still Breathing runs all weekend and has more interesting speakers including internationally acclaimed painter and sculptor Eric Fischl.  Check out times and locations at their website.  I expect speakers like Fischl will actually discuss some of the topics of the symposium.  And he may have fewer dirty jokes than Waters.  None the less, it’s good to see our city can still laugh.

Soupy out