(supplied)

Coalition   for Algoma Passenger Trains Media Release   

 2015   Group of Seven and Glenn Gould Train Event Postponed until 2016

 

The   Coalition for Algoma Passenger Trains (CAPT) and the Group of Seven/Glenn   Gould Train Event Committee deeply regret to announce that the September 2015   Group of Seven/ Glenn Gould Train Event will be postponed until 2016.    This would have been the 7th year of the event which sells out   every year.  Frank Johnston was to have been this year’s featured   artist.  The postponement is due to the cancellation of the passenger   train service.While   the ACR Stakeholders Working Group (of which CAPT is a member) is working   furiously under the direction of Chair, Tom Dodds, SSMEDC, to find an   effective  third party operator to run the passenger train, we do not   know whether it will be in operation by Sept 18.   This is only a   postponement, not a cancellation.  In fact, we plan to double the number   of times we offer this event in 2016.  For the first time we will be   having it in both May and September, 2016.  Some of the Group of Seven   paintings were done in the spring when the painters rode the passenger train   to various locations along the line.

The   need to postpone this year’s event underlines the importance of the Algoma   Central passenger service for travellers who will be increasingly coming to   this area to see some of the newly discovered painting sites.  The   research done by art historian Michael Burtch and adventurers Joanie and Gary   McGuffin on their trips by rail to bush-wack into the sites is being   recognized by important art institutions throughout Canada and other   countries as being ground breaking.  Working from the ACR passenger   train was extremely significant for the actual formation and development of   the Group of Seven as a group.  The importance of the Burtch-McGuffin   research will be shown in the documentary film Painted Land: In Search   of the Group of Seven, by White Pine Pictures, to be aired on TVO   this fall.  The film will help demonstrate the absolute importance of   the ACR rail line as a cultural heritage corridor for which the passenger   train is essential as the only way for people to travel into and explore the   many areas in which the Group of Seven painters produced hundreds of their   most important paintings.  Cultural heritage buffs are already planning   to come to Algoma from far and wide to join in organized groups who will   participate in trips and courses such as the 2013 Algoma University course   led by Michael Burtch that included several days camping along the line.

Those   who are interested in the “Following in the footsteps of Glenn   Gould” aspect of these events will be happy to know that musicologist   Dale Innes (event presenter) will soon be announcing the publication of her   upcoming book about Gould.

For   more information about the 2016 Group of Seven and Glenn Gould Train Events,   please contact Heather Bot at Algoma Kinnawabi 705.253.4293 or Linda Savory   Gordon at NORDIK Institute 705.949.2301 ex 4320.

—