News Releases

Fourth Annual Eva Holtby Lecture on Contemporary Culture at the ROM

Renowned writer Lewis Lapham explores celebrity culture on October 27

The Institute for Contemporary Culture (ICC) at the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) presents the fourth annual Eva Holtby Lecture on Contemporary Culture on Tuesday, October 27, 2009. This year the ICC welcomes Lewis Lapham, editor of Lapham’s Quarterly, who will discuss celebrity in contemporary culture. This annual lecture, named in honour of the late Eva Holtby, was made possible through the generosity of Mrs. Holtby’s husband, former ROM Trustee Philip Holtby, and Eva Holtby’s parents, Rudolph and Paula Schury.

The lecture begins at 7 pm in the ROM’s Signy & Cléophée Eaton Theatre, on Level B1. Admission is free to the public but seating will be available on a first-come first-served basis.

In his lecture, Lewis Lapham will present his unique ideas about fame in modern society, making comparisons to ancient societies and referencing the prophetic writings of Marshall McLuhan, among many other far-reaching concepts. Drawing on his great erudition, his decades of thought about American society and a good deal of humour, Lapham will present a stimulating analysis of our culture’s ravenous need for celebrity and its implications.

“We are pleased to welcome Lewis Lapham to Toronto and to the ICC,” said William Thorsell, ROM Director and CEO. “As a keen observer of popular culture, Mr. Lapham’s unique view on celebrity will stimulate a captivating discussion on our fascination with those caught in the limelight.”

Following the lecture, William Thorsell will lead a panel discussion with distinguished guests, including journalist Sarah Hampson, actor/writer/director Don McKellar, and Professor Murray Pomerance, Director of the Media Studies Working Group at Ryerson University.

Lewis Lapham

Lewis Lapham is a celebrated American writer and thinker. He is the former editor of Harper’s Magazine as well as the author of numerous books including Money and Class in America and Pretensions to Empire. A native of San Francisco, Mr. Lapham was educated at Yale and Cambridge.

In his 30 years as editor at Harper's Magazine, Lapham continuously revitalized and modernized a century-and-a-half old magazine, publishing only the best contemporary American novelists and journalists. Many of the pieces he commissioned would become bestselling books in their own right. Lapham's work at Harper's has been honored countless times by The National Magazine Awards, which calls the magazine "consistently challenging, even demanding…[its] power is in its ability to cause sometimes subtle, sometimes seismic shifts in a reader's world view."

Panelists

The Globe and Mail newspaper columnist Sarah Hampson began her career in journalism in 1993 when she started to write for magazines as a freelance contributor. For her work in publications such as Toronto Life, Report on Business, Chatelaine and the now-defunct Saturday Night she won several National Magazine Awards, including three Golds. In 1999 The Globe and Mail invited her to write a weekly Interview column, which still runs today. The tally of interviews now numbers over 500 and her subjects have included John Waters, Sophia Loren, Jane Fonda and Leonard Cohen. In 2007 she joined the staff in the Life section of The Globe and Mail and she began Generation Ex, a column about the social phenomenon of divorce. She also writes Currency, a weekly column about the way we spend money.

Don McKellar is an award-winning writer, actor and filmmaker. He has worked on the films Roadkill, Highway 61, The Adjuster, Exotica (Genie Award for Best Supporting Actor), Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould, The Red Violin, eXistenZ, and Blindness. As co-writer of the musical The Drowsy Chaperone, he received the 2006 Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical and the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Book of a Musical. He has also appeared in and written numerous TV series and was a host of CBC Radio One’s program High Definition. His credits as director include Last Night and Childstar.

Murray Pomerance is Professor in the Department of Sociology and Director of the Media Studies Working Group at Ryerson University. He is the author and editor of numerous books on film studies and criticism, including the forthcoming book, Michelangelo Red Antonioni Blue: Eight Reflections on Cinema (University of California Press). He has also written novels and short stories and was the recipient of the 1992 O. Henry prize. He is editor of the Horizons of Cinema series at State University of New York Press and co-editor of both the Screen Decades and Star Decades series at Rutgers University Press.

Institute for Contemporary Culture

As the ROM documents history, the ICC is the ROM’s window on contemporary society, exploring current cultural issues through exhibitions of art and architecture, lectures, film series, and informal gatherings. The ROM’s collections provide context and depth to contemporary issues addressed by artists, architects, and participants in ICC events from around the world. In this, and many other ways, the ICC serves as a catalyst for stimulating public conversations. For further information, please visit the ICC website at www.rom.on.ca/icc/index.php.

 

 

Issue date:
October 23, 2009

For more information:
Media Relations
Tel.: 416.586.5547
Fax: 416.586.8022
E-mail: media@rom.on.ca

News

More information on RSS Feeds and subscribing

Media release information is accurate at the issue date noted.

For older news releases, particular details (including dates) may have changed in the intervening period.