Ex-McGill Professor Norman Cornett is not a person to stand still. The man behind the Creative Boost concept, which encompasses a whole range of exhibitions, artists’ residencies, and arts and language courses, has put in motion his most ambitious project yet: the “Streams of Consciousness” literature, music and visual arts series designed to help stimulate creativity.
With the likes of writers Rawi Hage, Erín Moure, George Elliott Clarke, and Pierre Nepveu, and musicians Hans Tutschku and Charles Ellison onboard, creativity seems set to get a significant boost.
In keeping with the stream of consciousness idea in literature, featuring open dialogue and unbridled explorations of the creative process, the new series promises workshops, field trips and one-on-one sitdowns with guest artists. If the series mission is to be believed, participants will not only benefit from the knowledge and experience from well-known, contemporary writers, visual artists and musicians but will also have the opportunity to talk about their own creative concerns and development.
Scheduled to run twice a week from September 8 to December 12th, Streams of Consciousness will feature guest artists at scheduled intervals throughout the series. For example, International Impac Dublin Literary Award Winner Rawi Hage will offer his insights during the class of Sept. 22nd while Governor-General winning poet George Elliott Clarke makes his appearance on Nov. 7th and jazz musician Charles Ellison the following week.
Streams of Consciousness, coming on the heels of the Body & Soul music and visual arts program that ran from June 30th to July 12th, builds on a series of other initiatives started by Dr. Cornett at Creative Boost. The art school, for instance, provides courses in everything from photography and painting to ceramics and video, while intensive language training programs reach levels of 100 hours in a four-week period. The school even has a series of corporate workshops designed to bring out the imaginative and creative qualities in employees by bringing them in contact with artists.
However, Dr. Cornett’s methods of teaching are not without controversy. In fact, his unorthodox approach led in 2007 to a well-publicized dismissal as a religious studies professor at McGill, much to the dismay of students and members of the arts community. This has become the subject of a National Film Board documentary by Alanis Obomsawin, which premiered at the recent Hot Docs Festival in Toronto. But, despite being devastated after his dismissal following 15 years at McGill, Dr. Cornett decided to keep on teaching. His way.
“Nothing is cut and dried,” he said at the time, continuing to defend his teaching methods. “We don’t learn from exams. We learn from life.”
In fact, what Dr. Cornett has done is simply take the teaching methods he was using at McGill and adapt them for the Creative Boost project in general and the Streams of Consciousness series in particular. This includes the use of journals to record reactions to art, literature and music; trips to museums, art galleries and other cultural hotbeds; one-on-one sessions; and the bringing in a special guests such as filmmakers, musicians, writers and even politicians. And he can do it now without worrying about exams and term papers.
It is all very impressive, including the physical space occupied by the Creative Boost studios: an open loft; artists’ workspaces; an art gallery available for students to exhibit their works; and state-of-the-art equipment. Naturally, there is a cost for all this but, at $195 plus tax for the Streams of Consciousness series, it is not prohibitive.
For further information on Creative Boost and the Streams of Consciousness series, including application forms and specific dates, visit www.creativeboost.ca.
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Like the article on Dr. Norman Cornett, whom I have often talked with about art exhibits.
And a hello to Marianne Ackerman. I’m still writing poetry and doing a fresh series of paintings after the retrospective earlier this year, mostly in Georgeville, though I expect to be back in Montreal for long periods of time this winter. Hope to get to Creative Boost. And to stay connected with Rover.
Best wishes to all,
Catherine