Good Food * Good Listening * Good Company
in Northern Bruce Peninsula
519-795-7477 or mail@voyageurstorytelling.ca or return to home page
In which we tell you about
The Ontario Arts Council, Word of Mouth Program
The Canada Council for the Arts, Spoken Word and Storytelling Program
and other people who think we are doing a good job
including and especially Our Audiences
Ontario Arts Council, Word of Mouth Program
We have received assistance twice from the Ontario Arts Council, in 2005 and 2006, to support the creation of new stories. We are breaking ground in the development, even perhaps the invention, of new forms of story that speak pleasurably to contemporary ears and minds, conditioned as they are by so many unprecedented influences. This is time-consuming and difficult work, which we carry out during the off-season. The support of the Ontario taxpayers through the Ontario Arts Council allows us to pursue it more energetically, more boldly, and with less anxiety about our livelihood. We are grateful.
If you want to know more about the Ontario Arts Council or the Word of Mouth Program, the place to look is the Ontario Arts Council Web Site or the Program Page (links to come).
The Canada Council for the Arts, Spoken Word and Storytelling Program
We received assistance in 2004 from The Canada Council for the Arts for a project designed to improve the quality of our concerts. We had been performing Country Supper Storytelling Concerts for two seasons then, and had begun to realize that the concert, indeed the entire event, can be a work of art in its own right. We wanted to know how to make it a better one. The support of the Canada Council allowed us to convene a workshop of some of Canada's most creative storytellers, where we worked over this idea for three days of intensive conversation. The results continue to unfold in our summer seasons. We are grateful to the taxpayers of Canada and the Canada Council for the Arts for this opportunity.
If you want to know more about the Canada Council for the Arts or the Spoken Word and Storytelling Program, the place to look is the Canada Council Web Site or the Program Page (links to come).
Reviews
Storytellers don't very often receive the benefit (because they really are a benefit, even when they stink) of reviews by competent critics, but we have one written by one our guests whose mother is also a very fine storyteller, and a good friend. He published this review on his blog, where you can see it. We thank him for doing this. He is a bio-fuel expert, and his web site is most interesting.
Our Audiences Speak (or rather Write)
We have a guest book, in which our audiences write their names, sometimes their addresses (privacy strictly preserved) to put themselves on our mailing list, and any comments they might have on the evening. In the first four years we have received nearly 700 comments, most of them so warm and appreciative that it would turn our heads if they weren't screwed on properly. Words like wonderful, delightful, amazing, enchanting, enthralling, magical, marvellous, play out of the list like sparks from a tamarack campfire.
We are more grateful for their, for your response than we can adequately describe. We do this work in order to give pleasure. That is fundamentally the only reason. We do that through fine art storytelling, because this is the best way we know. There are other ways, and we honour them, but this is our way. To give pleasure, to make connections with people, to hear them leave joyfully at the end of the evening and see them come back again, to become their friends, these are for us the highest forms of artistic accomplishment. We thank them, you again and again.
We believe that we are doing a good job, and we plan to do better. If you have been here before, we look forward to seeing you again; if not yet, then to the day when you too may feel moved to say, as other guests have said:
» Bravo!
» lifted by your talent, inspired by your warmth, touched by your hospitality thank you
» a fabulous evening with wonderful food and most exquisite storytelling
» such pleasure - nourishment for soul and body thank you
» food for body and soul a rich experience thank you
» great food, great people, wonderful storytelling
» what a great evening tremendous thank you to you both
» great people all around great food and a great walk
» a delicious evening in every way your friendship especially
» what a great evening tremendous thank you to you both
» a fabulous evening with wonderful food and most exquisite storytelling
» an incredible evening the food, stories and songs were fantastic
» what a wonderful evening excellent food and delightful , entertaining songs and stories
» our third visit it just gets better and better thanks for making it a special time
» a delightful evening excellent dinner memorable experience thank you
» simply the best! excellent stories and a superb dinner
» it's delicious, it's delightful, it's de-lovely
» one of the jewels of the peninsula
» what an exciting "full"-filling evening for body and spirit thanks so much
» this was one of the most memorable evenings of my 48 years on earth
» we had an incredible and very inspirational evening as well as a wonderful dinner to celebrate our anniversary thank you very much
» what an incredibly wonderful evening your voices, your faces, your songs, your stories all have made for an evening to remember
» WOW!
What can we say? It is our audiences who deserve the thanks, and we do thank them, from the bottom of our hearts.