Morden’s “Chautauqua Spirit”: Then & Now with Larry Danielson
“Chautauqua Spirit—In your mind, in your heart, in Morden”
“Chautauqua Spirit” was a year-long celebration of arts and culture that took place in Morden in 2008. Canadian Heritage designated Morden as a “Cultural Capital of Canada” in that year and provided substantive funding for a long list of pre-approved projects. While those projects took place a number of years ago, they still may be of relevance today as we reflect on our ongoing arts and culture activities here in Morden and in other locales.
When Cheryl Link invited me to speak to the Morden Historical Society about the Chautauqua celebration we held here in 2008, I said I’d need considerable time to prepare—not because I needed time to find information, but rather because it would be a challenge to condense the wealth we still have on hand.
My involvement with the Chautauqua came in three ways:
1) I served as the lead grant writer;
2) Once the award was won, I served as Chairperson of the Executive oversight committee; and
3) [on the creative side], I wrote The Long Journey Home, a 90-minute, one-man play which starred Nick Pharaoh and chronicled the history of the Corvette ship HMCS Morden during World War II.
We can focus our consideration of that special time of arts-and-cultural celebration in three areas:
· The VISION
· The CELEBRATION
· The LEGACY
I) THE VISION for “Chautauqua Spirit” has a backstory and a particular context.
The backstory starts with our Mayor of the day—John Wiens—and his wife Sharron, who in 2005 attended the Federation of Canadian Municipalities meetings in Newfoundland. While John participated in various municipal meetings, Sharron toured the exhibits and learned of a program offered by Canadian Heritage, called “Cultural Capitals of Canada.”
That program provided financial awards to communities that demonstrated an ongoing commitment to arts and culture. It recognized that arts and culture contribute to our quality of life and “play important roles in building innovative, attractive, and healthy communities.”
The Cultural Capitals program started in 2002 and continued until 2013—11 years. Each year it made awards to a large city (125,000 pop+), to a medium-sized city (50,000-125,000), and two smaller cities (up to 50,000). When we began work on our competitive application, the award for a city 50,000 or less was $500,000 with an additional $100,000 contributed by the community.
The project landed on the desk of Morden’s communications officer, Carol (Martin) Wilkinson and she began the initial work on it. However, she had many other things that consumed her time, so the town council reached out to me. I met with Mayor John Wiens and Councilor Ron Laverty. I also had plenty of things “on the go,” but I decided that work on the Cultural Capitals application might be a good way to get to know our community better. (For many years, I had taught at Garden Valley Collegiate in Winkler and Morden was mostly a ‘bedroom community for me). When I began my research interviews, many people asked—quite rightly—“Who are you?”
I’ve written quite a number of grant applications over the years and without hesitation I can say that this one for Cultural Capitals of Canada funding was the most complex. In two months’ time (from mid-January to mid-March 2006), I spent nearly 300 hours researching and writing.
We started with a survey of local arts and culture groups and followed up with in-depth interviews. Basically, we were saying to groups, “What is your dream? You’ve operated for a long time on shoestring budgets. If you had better funding, what would you do to take your work to ‘the next level’?”
Next, I took all of that information and related it to the several pages of Cultural Capital criteria. Then, to make the process even more complex, we needed to fit all our ideas into a Chautauqua Spirit program of activities—essentially working from the bottom-up, creating a framework out of the details. After that came an intense period of writing and budgeting. Though I was the lead writer and researcher—trying to piece the puzzle together—it was very much a team effort. We had what we called a Catalyst Committee, and we met frequently to discuss our ideas and overall direction.
Here I need to provide more context on “Chautauqua Spirit,” the framework—or main theme—for our project. At the time, some people wondered why I—an English teacher—had chosen a name that seemed impossible to spell. (The three vowel sets all sound alike, but they go “au,” “au,” and then “ua.” Go figure!) I don’t get all the blame—or credit—for that choice. Lenore Laverty had suggested it to Carol Wilkinson before I got involved…but I loved it. Here’s why:
1) It reflected our community history. Many people know that Morden had a Chautauqua in late September, 1919 (Cheryl Link has a poster to prove it).
But my research at the MB Archives in Wpg showed that 1919 was only the first. The Dominion Chautauqua’s had Morden on its list for the next 12 or 13 years. And, for years after that, they had a strong impact on the nature of our community.
Now, by way of background, the Chautauqua movement started in Chautauqua, New York. The city was named after a lake, and the word for the shape of the lake meant “a bag tied in the middle.” The Chautauqua Institution in NY is still running, after more than 150 years.
Originally people would travel there by horse and buggy to attend the arts and cultural programs. In time, the programs became mobile, traveling to distant communities and using large tents much like a traveling circus—only better: instead of animals, they had artists! The Dominion Chautauqua movement in Canada grew out of that.
The people who attended that first Morden Chautauqua had just come through the Great War, their world torn asunder by bloody destruction and home-front deprivations. Now, at last, they could celebrate. That 1919 Chautauqua brought to Morden four days of music, drama, art and lectures—cultural inspiration to revive their “drooping spirits” and bring back into their lives joy and uplift.
Our Cultural Capitals of Canada celebrations in 2008 aimed to capture the spirit of those early Chautauqua’s. Here in the Prairies we often speak of “pioneering spirit”—that spirit of our immigrant ancestors who threw off their shackles of poverty and persecution, who journeyed to this new land and dared to start their lives over, who had great hopes for the future and worked hard to achieve their dreams.
“Chautauqua Spirit” drew on that legacy. It spoke of our spirit of community and self-reliance. It spoke of our optimism, our hope, our excitement about arts and culture, and our passionate belief that they matter to our lives. Through all of the many arts-and-cultural events in 2008, our goal was—once again—“to bring joy and uplift”.
2) Another reason I liked the Chautauqua concept was more pragmatic; it helped us to overcome a weakness in our proposal. If you’ve ever written a large grant proposal, what I say next may sound familiar. You start out with optimism and hope. The general description seems to fit well: For example—“The Cultural Capitals program promotes arts and culture in Canadian municipalities, helping communities to increase and strengthen their cultural services.” Yes, that’s us. We have a rich cultural life and certainly we want to improve it.
But then you come to “the fine print.” The Cultural Capitals project had a long list of criteria, and our prospects narrowed sharply. Our projects needed to focus on “diverse, Aboriginal, or minority-official language populations.” According to Stats Canada in 2006, Morden’s combined Indigenous and Franco populations were no more than five percent—which meant that we were 95 percent wide of the mark.
I called the federal office in Ottawa and talked with one of the project administrators. I explained that we had a broad array of arts and culture but not many French or Aboriginal residents. The woman on the phone asked, “Why are you bothering to apply?”
I felt rather discouraged, but also motivated to try harder, to find a good work-around that would get our application beyond administrative gatekeepers and on to whoever was serving on the Selection Committee. Branding our proposed activities with an Indigenous-sounding name—Chautauqua—certainly helped.
With respect to our application, the involvement of three artists also helped immensely:
1. Natalie Rostad Desjarlais—Natalie is a Metis Cree artist who has pioneered a form of rock painting that harkens back to the ancient pictographs of her ancestors. If you’ve ever seen at the Winnipeg Forks, the “healing stone” (formally called “Life in Balance”) …that’s her work. Natalie began her artistic career as a member of the Pembina Hills artists. We arranged a fully curated show of her work, complete with an exhibition catalogue.
b) David Rabinovitch—An Emmy-award winning documentary filmmaker, based in Seattle, Washington. He started life here in Morden, and he wrote—on very short notice—a powerful letter of support for our proposal.
c) Loreena McKennitt—Loreena was not available for performance in 2008, since she was traveling in Europe at the time. However, she allowed us to use her name for a music composition activity. I labelled it “the Loreena McKennitt Composition Competition.” Try saying that three times in a row. As an English teacher I should have done better, as our on-stage Masters of Ceremonies often reminded me.
The Budget side of the proposal was far more complex than I could handle. John Wiens, our Mayor, was an accountant and he kindly took care of that.
The deadline for submitting our application was March 15, 2006 and, as that date approached, we worked almost around the clock. And then…we waited and waited and waited. We had been advised that an announcement could be expected by October 2006, but we heard nothing. When the town called in to Canadian Heritage the only answer they got was that small communities “never got the grant on the first try.”
When I was asked by interested people, I simply said “It’s dead in the water.”
One town leader said to me, “Nice job, Danielson. You blew it!” And I figured he was right. When you write a big grant, to get into the Winner’s Circle, you have to take risks. Certainly, I had, and I figured they had gone against me.
Then, 15 months after we applied, the word finally came. We were successful, along with Surrey, BC; Nanaimo, BC; and Sackville, NB. Our proposal wasn’t “dead in the water”; just “deep in the water.” Canada had undergone a change of government—from the Chrétien Liberals to the Harper Conservatives and most programs were being closely reviewed. Hence the delay.
Of course, there was a lot of excitement when the good news came. Now we were touted as special for having gotten it on the first try. But for those of us most involved, the announcement also was sobering. Given the delay, we’d lost eight months of preparation time. And locally, too, we’d had a change of government. John had not been re-elected, so our visionary leader was not at the helm.
Our Catalyst Committee from the proposal work morphed into an administrative oversight committee—I served as Chair, Nancy Penner was our Project Co-ordinator, and Carol Wilkinson represented the town. So, that’s the Vision, the backstory and the context.
Now we come to the fun part—the Celebration. For those of us in the center of the project, it was hard to keep up with all that was going on. But we had good managers, and they kept everything flowing. Diana Persson documented the many activities, and I hope you enjoy her DVD review.
II) THE CELEBRATION
In the end, we proposed over 40 projects, grouped in six categories or streams:
1) Journey Home Festival
2) Chautauqua Celebration Festival
3) Canadian Fossil Discovery Centre
4) Murals of Morden
5) Coming Up Roses
6) Chautauqua Spirit Workshops
The best way to review those activities is to view the 25-minute video created by Diana Persson at the end of our year-long celebration. The “Chautauqua Spirit Program: 2008” also details with attractive illustrations the many aspects of the program.
When I recently reviewed the Chautauqua Spirit Program and the end-of-year video, I felt almost overwhelmed by the number of activities we fitted into the year. Though we enjoyed substantive funding, the participating arts-and-cultural groups were as thrifty as they had been on their “shoestring” budgets, and they made the dollars go a long way.
I admire Nancy Penner, who served as Project Co-ordinator and more than any of us, kept track of all the projects and the details. With her current leadership as Mayor of Morden, our city is in good hands.
Looking back, I wish to thank again those who provided leadership to the ambitious projects and to the many volunteers who donated time and energy to make the celebrations a success. While those events now are a memory, many benefits from that special year continue.
Special thanks, too, to several people who worked behind the scenes to help ensure our project success:
• Yvonne Peters (Inner Eye Design), who with little time available, created the attractive Chautauqua Spirit logo.
• Melanie Penner, who amidst a busy home life and office manager work for her husband’s construction business, researched and wrote dozens of news articles, and
• Basil Holewka who took dozens of photographs to document the preparations and presentations throughout the year.
III) THE LEGACY
Why take time to look back and remember such events as Morden’s 2008 Chautauqua Spirit celebrations? Is it more than just nostalgic reminiscing? I will conclude with a brief reflection on the “Chautauqua Spirit” legacy.
We turn to history for at least several reasons. It is more than just “walking down memory lane.”
• First, most of us like “a good story well told” …and we can find good stories nationally, provincially and locally. These stories help us to understand who we are, where we’ve come from, and where we may be going.
• Secondly history has a protective function. We need to learn from our past mistakes. We say, “And how did that turn out?” Or “Remember what happened last time.” Some of our greatest successes arise from our earlier failures.
• Thirdly, and importantly we gain perspective. Hopefully, we do learn from our experience and those lessons can guide us.
The Dominion Chautauqua’s in the early 1900’s did much to shape the arts and culture scene in Morden. They brought joy and uplift…and they inspired people to do bigger things (the Ruth Winkler’s, Henry Marshall’s and many others). We were mindful of their examples when we planned our 2008 celebrations. I believe that by engaging with arts and culture—what we called “Chautauqua Spirit”—we can still do that.
As a matter of historical perspective, I’ll offer five reflections:
1) The “joy and uplift” of the early Chautauqua’s is needed now more than ever. In 2025, we are not in the aftermath of war, but we find much discontent in our society and our Arts and Culture can inspire us to work together and to do “bigger things” …as we did in 2008.
2) Arts and culture activities help us to develop community leadership. We can feel overwhelmed looking at all that was done in 2008; at times it was like a three-ring circus. As I’ve noted, Nancy Penner kept it all flowing together, kept people with very different skills and talents working together, and tracked all the expenses. It was clear to me then that she’d make a good mayor. I’m glad that she now is…and I know that every day now she’s applying the skills she demonstrated in 2008.
3) Arts and Culture have a definite economic impact on a community. Study after study shows that every dollar spent on arts and culture activities has a multiplier effect. When Winnipeg became a Cultural Capital—a year after Morden—it did a detailed study of the economic impact. One of the interesting findings was that attendance at Arts and Culture events is nearly double that of sports.
4) Arts and Culture promotes co-operation. Competition has its place in our lives. It is a way of stimulating growth and high-level performance. We know that from sports involvement. But that needs to be balanced with co-operative activities. When we come home from a concert or a play, nobody asks: “Who won?” We all win—the performers and the audience. Whether it is music, theatre, visual arts, or another cultural activity, we can learn much about ourselves and about working toward a larger goal.
5) Arts and Culture contribute to our Quality of Life. This may sound like a “motherhood statement,” but it’s important to emphasize. Unlike the early days of Chautauqua, when good entertainment and learning were scarce, we now live in a media-saturated society. At the flick of a remote, we can tune into world-class performances, and we may wonder, “Why do we need local arts and culture?”
My quick answer is that it builds our local identity. We need to focus on our own stories and the needs and interests of our community. It was radio and the movies that in the early 1930s brought an end to the Chautauqua’s.
Much as we enjoy them and rely on our electronic media, they can have harmful effects. Historically, they have displaced three groups in particular: Women, People of Colour, and Rural people. Decades ago, radio and movies catered to large urban audiences. Rural people like us became “the Rubes,” people from “the Boondocks.” Today, we sometimes use the word “Perimeter-itis” for this phenomenon, the blindness to artistic and cultural richness beyond large urban centres. In communities like Morden, we do need to tell our own stories, make our own music, and direct our own learning.
Shakespeare said, in his play The Tempest, that the past is prologue to the future. The past prepares us for future opportunities. Although 2008 is long past, our Chautauqua Celebration could be seen as a “blueprint.” Even without federal funding, many of those activities could be repeated. What it takes, even more than money, is imagination, good planning and good co-ordination.
Our efforts started by asking many existing groups: “What are your dreams? What would it look like if you took what you’re doing ‘to the next level’? And “What can we do to help you get there?”
We can still do that.
The Chautauqua Spirit can live on…
in your Mind, in your Heart, in Morden
THE 2007 CULTURAL CAPITALS OF CANADA ANNOUNCEMENT
(Canadian Heritage news release: https://www.canada.ca/en/news/archive/2007/06/surrey-designated-cultural-capital-canada-2008.html)
Category: population under 50 000
Maximum contribution of $500,000
Morden's long-standing commitment to the arts and culture is seen in its Chautauqua Spirit project, which recalls the celebrations marking the first time that the train Dominion Chautauqua came to Morden in the early 20th century.
The planned festivities include a songwriting competition in honour of Loreena McKennitt, a renowned international artist originally from Morden. The two-day Back Forty Festival will give Aboriginal performers a chance to display their talent, and a new performing arts festival will be organized to offer presentations of dance and music, as well as theatre.
In addition, to leave an ongoing legacy for the community, local youth and artists will create four murals taking inspiration from the Chautauqua theme. The interest of Morden residents in culture and their pride in their arts scene will be highlighted throughout the year under this programming, which will focus especially on Métis artists, youth, and arts organizations.
