Search for ""

Bing Wing Thom, CM, architect (born 8 December 1940 in Hong Kong; died 4 October 2016 in Hong Kong). A Member of the Order of Canada and a winner of the Governor General’s Award, Bing Thom’s strong design values and holistic approach in practice made him one of Canada’s top architects.

In 1886 he was appointed director of art classes at the Art Association of Montreal. The same year he became a full RCA member. He painted the human figure and interiors in a representational style; he also did watercolours on silk, and murals, as found in the old Porteous house on Île d'Orléans.

He began his writing career by contributing short stories and essays to Esquire and Saturday Night. His major achievement, however, The Mountain and the Valley (1952), is a novel about a gifted, ambitious boy who remains so deeply attached to life in rural NS that his creativity becomes stifled.

Arthur Buies, baptized Joseph-Marie-Arthur, journalist, chronicler, essayist (b at Montréal 24 Jan 1840; d at Québec City 29 Jan 1901). A lucid witness to and passionate participant in the late 19th-century ideological battles, Buies left behind a body of exceptional works which are not well known.

Drawings and paintings of birds, some of which survive from his fifth year, form his greatest legacy; he was illustrator of A.P. Taverner's books on Canadian birds and of several American ornithological and popular works.

George Browne Jr, architect (b at Montréal, Canada East 1852 or 1853; d at South Nyack, NY 12 Mar 1919). After study with his father, a prominent Montréal architect, Browne travelled in Europe and went to South Kensington School of Art, London.

Sometime in the late 1830s, members of the Union typographique de Québec founded a theatre company called Les Amateurs Typographes. Under the direction of Aimé-Nicolas dit Napoléon Aubin, the company remained in existence until 1876.

Peter Robinson, novelist (born 17 March 1950 in Castleford, Yorkshire, England).

Edith Butler, singer-songwriter (b at Paquetville, near Caraquet, NB 27 July 1942). Through her stormy songs and her expressive warmth, Edith Butler helps spread Acadian culture. She has a master's degree in literature and in traditional ethnography from Laval University (1966-69).

John Herbert Caddy, painter and teacher (b at Québec C 28 June 1801; d at Hamilton, Ont 19 March 1887). In 1816 he began military training at Royal Military College, Woolwich, England, and was commissioned 2nd lieutenant in the Royal Artillery in 1825.

Lorna Crozier's first 2 books, Inside Is the Sky (1976) and Crow's Black Joy (1978), investigate conditions of the divided self and explore the power politics of male-female relations.

In 1985 Fafard's work The Pasture, comprising 7 bronze cows with varying patinas, was completed for an area outside the IBM tower of the Toronto Dominion Centre, Toronto.

Thomas Wharton, writer (born 25 February 1963 in Grande Prairie, AB).

Sir John George Bourinot, writer, historian (b at Sydney, NS 24 Oct 1837; d at Ottawa 13 Oct 1902). Bourinot graduated from Toronto's Trinity University in 1857 and then settled in Halifax, where he founded the Herald and became its editor.

Cédia Brault, mezzo-soprano (b at Ste-Martine, Qué 4 Jan 1894; d at Montréal 27 June 1972). She studied voice with Céline Marier and Salvator Issaurel and harmony with Rodolphe MATHIEU. She made her debut as Carmen with tenor Victor Desautels in 1918 and, in 1920, married him.

She has a rare ability to play both the Segovia and Lagoya methods of fingering and is noted for the clarity of her guitar interpretations. She began to write her own compositions in 1986 and wrote the music for the film version of Margaret Laurence's The Olden Days Coat.

George Bowering is one of Canada’s most broadly influential writers. He has published over 100 books and chapbooks and, from 2002 to 2004, was Canada's inaugural Parliamentary Poet Laureate. He was the first English language writer to win the Governor General’s Literary Award in both Poetry and Fiction; the only two other writers to have done so are Margaret Atwood and Michael Ondaatje.

Louison Danis, actor, director, translator (b at Ottawa 9 Dec 1951). Louison Danis's role as Maman Bougon in the successful Radio-Canada TV series les Bougon... c'est aussi ça la vie thrust her into media stardom.

Laurin began her own choreographic career in 1979 with Sept fois passera. In 1984 she founded her own company, O Vertigo Danse, creating works exemplifying humour, physicality and risk-taking, such as Olé and Crash Landing. Almost immediately the company began touring Europe.

Spring Hurlbut, artist (b at Toronto, Ont 11 April 1952) studied art at the ONTARIO COLLEGE OF ART AND DESIGN from 1971 to 1973 and at the NOVA SCOTIA COLLEGE OF ART AND DESIGN from 1973 to 1975. For many years, Hurlbut was concerned with exploring conjunctions between art and architecture.