wine women and philosophy takes flight in new directions

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.

Mind Body Connections

On Thursday, January 20th, wine women and philosophy kicked off its 2011 members' salon series with a foray into mindfulness and meditative practices, led by guest speaker Patsy Walker (pictured). As those of you familiar with our salon evenings will know, a pedagogy of conversation is central to our approach to doing philosophy together at these bi-monthly get-togethers. This has led us to experiment with a wide range of conversational forms and formats - the interview, the symposium, the informal dialogue, peripatetics (asking questions while walking) and the debate, to name just a handful - and the result of this experimentation has been to give us each an insight into our own learning processes and preferences.

This is the first time that we have had a guest speaker address us (until now, those animating the evening have been members) and we were delighted to welcome Patsy into our salon. After all, the guest speaker was a staple of the 18th and 19th century Parisian Salons upon which we model ourselves : a specialist in a certain domain, generally literary or artistic, brought in by the hosting salonniere to enlighten and enrich her cast of salon regulars. We were also delighted to see so many new faces in the room - one, who had been gifted a membership by her daughter-in-law for Christmas; another three, who were friends of an existing member and an away day participant - all of whom we welcomed with joy. There was delight, too, in seeing the familiar faces who form our own cast of salon regulars...Drink in hand and salon packed to the gills, Rona welcomed one and all to the season's premiere, and we were off.

Providing a philosophical backdrop for the reflections on mindfulness that Patsy would offer and expound upon, Linnet spoke briefly of Cartesian Dualism and the age-old quest to work out the limits of, and connections between, mind and body. Explaining the methodological process used by Descartes to first differentiate mind from body and then, elevate mind over body, Linnet suggested some of the shortcomings of this kind of dualist and hierarchical thinking - particularly for women. A brief discussion of Descartes' famous Cogito - "I think, therefore I am" - provided a fitting segue into Patsy's far more organic approach to the mind/body connection, and her discussion - based on personal experience - of those mysterious powers and mystic realms that Descartes' reductive reasoning failed to take into account. Making a good case for the benefits to be had in embracing a more mindful approach to life and its various challenges, Patsy then put her talk into action: leading us through a couple of meditative exercises, and showing how a simple activity like drinking a cup of tea could provide the perfect space for daily meditative practice.

We want to thank Patsy for providing us with an eye-opening look into the world of mindfulness and its link to the body's various energies, not to mention her encouraging of members to find their own "third eye." We also appreciate the stories that members and guests shared of their own forays into meditation and mindfulness, both in the larger group discussion and in the smaller conversational breakaways that followed.

The next salon evening takes place on Thursday, March 10th at 7:30pm, and has as its theme our personal codes of ethics as they link to symbolism and heraldry. We will be designing our own coats of arms...If you already have a family coat of arms, why not bring it along. We will be Skyping in a member who lives in Scotland, Kim Nicoll, who has done a fair amount of research into Scottish heraldry. This is yet another experiment in conversation - this time, a trans-Atlantic exchange via Skype technology. This technology might well allow us to create face-to-face dialogue across thousands of miles, but it doesn't get rid of the five hour time difference between us and the UK. Please try to arrive five to ten minutes early for this one, as Kim will be joining our salon evening at 12:30am her time and we don't want to keep her waiting too much!

Thanks to Heather Deeks For Giving Us A Photographic Flavour of Christmas Past...

The spirit of participation is alive and well at wwp

Yesterday evening's members' holiday party was so much fun and a huge success. The night started off with a vernissage in the sunroom. On display were paintings done by participants on the recent painting autumn colours weekend (see our October post for more details), and over glasses of bubbly the artists gave wwp members an insight into the thought processes and practical processes that underlay their works. This act of sharing was in keeping with the overall philosophical theme of the evening - participation - and set the tone for our showcasing of the creative side of wine women and philosophy, and our celebration of what we have produced as a group this past year.

Moving through to the salon we listened to the wwp band, The Elegant Hedgehogs. Formed less than 4 months ago, and growing out of an impromptu band jam weekend (see our August post for more details) at the Nurtury, band members Wendy (guitar), Heather (clarinet), Sue (clarinet), Sherrie (guitar), and Linnet (flute) not only looked very elegant in their 'hedgehogs rock' T-shirts (bought specially and arriving just in time for the occasion)...The quintet also showed just what comes of that old mantra - "practice, practice, practice" - and a passion for playing together. The segue between the band's three pieces and the wwp choir's contribution to the evening was an ensemble rendition of The Rainbow Connection. This was only the second time that the band and choir had joined forces (the first was a run-through rehearsal last week) and the result was amazing. Choir members Kathy, Linda, Janice, Marian and Linnet then proceeded to entertain us with some wonderful numbers, ranging from the soulful Down to the River to Pray to the foot-tapping Sunny Side of the Street. Choir director Kathy and pianist Linda then organized us all into a participatory Carol singing session. After warming up our voices on those familiar old chestnuts of the holiday season, the seasonal sing-song culminated in wwp's now 'traditional' singing of The Christmas Gloria in two-part harmony. We were great! Or at least, so the resulting high fives that followed this year's glorious rendition of the song would indicate.

After a break for some festive refreshments, we had a visit from Ms Claus (Pat) and her faithful elf (Sue) who gave out presents in true Santa style! Towards the end of the evening we gathered to talk about the proposed table runner for the Nurtury. Each member explained the significance of the piece of fabric she is contributing to the runner that will celebrate the 2 year mark of wine women and philosophy. We all took inspiration from the beautiful quilt that Sheelah is currently working on with her quilting group, and Sheelah gave us some ideas as to how we might pull our own quilting project together. Liz suggested that we should make a weekend of it - sitting round the fire up at the Nurtury, drinking some wine, doing some applique, and sewing up the runner. Not surprisingly, there were many keen takers for this idea.

As ever a big thanks to everyone who participated in last night's salon - we really are blessed with wonderful members! Two years on, we feel that we are in the midst of a special collective energy and truly believe that wine women and philosophy is being nurtured and propelled by more than just us. It is so rewarding to see our dreams for a women-driven pedagogy emerging out of what we have created together. We are delighted to welcome new members Barbara Ann, Nancy and Brenda to the fold. And, in addition to them, we want to thank Marianne, Kathy, Wendy, Heather C, Bernice, Janice, Carolyn, Pat G, Sue, Elizabeth, Allannah, Heather D, Marilyn, Patrice, Sheelah, Rose, Linda, Marian and Sherrie for making the party something special to remember.

If anybody took photos of the evening please send them along. As you can tell, we were too busy having a good time to take more than this one photo of the band and choir warming up - hardly a representative picture of this entire evening's participatory action! And for those members who have yet to drop off their fabric for the table runner, we're waiting...

We wish all our members and supporters a very happy holiday. See you next year!

Evening at Astri Prugger Design on December 9th

Many thanks to Astri and to all the women who dropped by Astri's boutique - Astri Prugger Design - on Victoria Avenue last Thursday evening. Over glasses of bubbly we exchanged ideas and shared stories...We also got a good look at Astri's latest creations, which confirm for us that a place on her upcoming Discover Your Inner Fashion Designer weekend with us (Feb 18-20) is one of the hottest tickets in town. It's certainly the best way to beat those winter blues, so book early to avoid disappointment!

Warming up for wwp members party...

The wwp choir and wwp band came together last Wednesday evening to do a run-through of the pieces they will be performing at the annual members' holiday party this Thursday evening. They'll each be performing three numbers, and will combine for a fourth. The band's t-shirts have arrived in time for the gig - hedgehogs rock! - and choir member Linda has stepped in to play the piano on short notice while choir director Kathy nurses her frozen shoulder...So it is looking like the show will be going on!

Judy Chicago in Glass

Last Saturday, 6 wwp members paid an impromptu visit to see Judy Chicago's latest exhibition in Montreal - Judy Chicago in Glass at the Musee des Maitres et Artisans du Quebec in Saint Laurent until January 9, 2011.

Our interest in Judy Chicago had been rekindled when we celebrated her seminal 1970s The Dinner Party installation at one of our summer salons...We were interested to see what Judy Chicago was up to these days.

You have to make a reservation to see the show...For $7 we got a great tour from art history student, Claude, who shared her enthusiasm for Chicago's works in her latest medium of choice - glass - and also taught us a lot about the church in which the museum is housed. The exhibition is small and the pieces are thought-provoking. As usual, Chicago's work has a strong conceptual element to it - always motivated by inequities in the world, be it women's lack of visibility in art and other public spheres, or be it the lack of tolerance of diversity and acceptance of 'otherness' in our world. Some of us weren't sure that they liked the work itself...But you have to admire Judy Chicago's ability to pour her heart and convictions into a wide range of artistic forms and to constantly expand the parameters of feminist art.

Thanks to Wendy and Heather for getting us organized to see the show. Great photos, Wendy!