wine women and philosophy is in the process of shifting its focus from weekend getaways to project-based initiatives. We have always seen wwp as a vibrant collective - the multifarious talents and combined energies of our growing membership having confirmed for us over the past two years that this is what wine women and philosophy truly is.Within our membership there are women with wide and varied interests and this has prompted us to move in the direction of creating different wings of wine women and philosophy where projects involving music, art, the DIY movement and philosophy - both as a study in itself but equally as a thread running through these other wings - are conceived, hatched and then nurtured.
As you may already know, wine women and philosophy has an ongoing choir that came out of one of our very first weekends back in March 2009, and a band - The Elegant Hedgehogs - that was formed after a group of women eager to play music together came up to the Nurtury to jam for a couple of days last summer. A weekend of painting this past Autumn forged a lasting link between those who participated in this activity and future plein air painting outings are being planned. In addition, our weekend painters became interested in the women of Beaver Hall - a group of female painters including Prudence Heward, Anne Savage and Sarah Robertson who painted in and around the Montreal area in the first half of the twentieth century - and have since seeded the roots of a small 'recuperative' history project aimed at learning more about this group of inspiring and talented and sadly, largely overlooked, modernist painters.
This past Christmas a wwp table runner project was launched to honour the ongoing support of our members and to celebrate our achievements thus far. Within the next couple of months the table runner project will be up and running with members coming together both in Montreal and up at the Nurtury to quilt and embroider it into being. A wine women and philosophy cook book full of recipes from our daytime and weekend getaways is in the pipeline, the proceeds of which will go to our bursary programme - the Marcelle Foundation. And of course, our bi-monthly salon evenings continue to thrive and our membership continues to grow, all of which keeps philosophy as a conversational form and activity alive and well. There is even talk of starting a philosophy club for those who want to do philosophy on a more regular basis, and a Wednesday Walks series for those interested in ambulatory - or peripatetic - philosophy.
As you can see there is much in the works. Among the questions that we are asking ourselves at this junction are how best to use the Nurtury as a kind of club house in which to pursue these various wings of activity? - and how to ensure that the vibrant and exciting community of women that has grown out of our getaways can continue to pool its collective energies in this next stage of our development? During this time of change and rejuvenation we invite you to be part of the conversation we are having with regard to this new direction and to share with us how you see wine women and philosophy evolving in the future.
