MEDIA RELEASE
December 18, 2024
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For more than 20 years Michael Barnstijn and Louise MacCallum have been leaders in innovative approaches to supporting the arts and land conservation. As founders of two organizations — the Musagetes Foundation in Guelph and rare Charitable Research Reserve headquartered in Cambridge — Barnstijn and MacCallum have greatly enriched the artistic and environmental vitality of life in our communities. Now they are being honoured by the Governor General with Canada’s highest recognition as Members of the Order of Canada.
Much of the work Barnstijn and MacCallum have made possible through their financial support and creative leadership is driven by their desire to shape better possible futures not only for the Waterloo-Wellington regions in which we live, but also for a planet in crisis. They believe that every person should have access to nature and artistic creativity as a fundamental part of individual and collective wellbeing.
Barnstijn, a former executive at Research in Motion (RIM, now BlackBerry), and MacCallum, a former software engineer at RIM, brought their innovative and inquisitive spirit to the development of Musagetes and rare. They were instrumental in building teams of people whose experimental, creative ways of thinking and doing could accomplish in the arts and environmental conservation what they did in developing the early BlackBerry smartphone.
The rare Charitable Research Reserve, led by Dr. Stephanie Sobek-Swant, Executive Director, is the first active conservation land trust in the upper Grand River watershed, with headquarters five minutes from downtown Cambridge and stewarding over 1500 acres of land in Waterloo and Wellington. It has developed into an international research institute that began with an emphasis on the ecological sciences with a cross-disciplinary approach that includes the arts as a line of inquiry. It continues to work to create space for Indigenous knowledge and ways of being. It has become renowned for its innovations in hands-on environmental education that is connected directly to real-time scientific research and accessible land-based artistic installations. Most recently, this mandate is being expressed through a joint initiative with Musagetes — the Long Dash Festival, which brings creative inquiry into nature and environmentally-based inquiry into the arts.
Musagetes, led by Shawn Van Sluys, Executive Director, is an arts-based organization that features a robust program of initiatives in Guelph while sustaining extensive, long-term projects internationally. Since its public launch in 2007, Musagetes has worked with over 300 Canadian and international artists through its residency and fellowship programs, festivals, gatherings, publications, and partnership initiatives. Among its many programs in Guelph, the ArtsEverywhere Festival is the centrepiece, featuring the Guelph Lecture––On Being, a 20-year cultural mainstay for the city. Musagetes’ work is driven by its concern for the interconnected crises of climate and biodiversity, the fragmentation of communities, and the erosion of public funding for the arts. As well, through the leadership of Elwood Jimmy, curator of Indigenous programs, Musagetes supports artistic practices that exist outside of the often-extractive frameworks of the Western art system.
For both Musagetes and rare, with the leadership of Michael Barnstijn and Louise MacCallum, a common goal is to imagine possible futures that are environmentally more resilient, creatively more enriching, and socially more just.
Barnstijn and MacCallum are also founders of THEMUSEUM, playing a major role in turning an abandoned 54,000 sq. ft. department store in downtown Kitchener into an experiential intersection of art, science and technology, creating a bold place to play for all stages of life. And, in addition, they support many innovative leaders in arts organizations, attempting to help enrich the quality of life for everyone in their communities by sharing their passion for the arts.
It is for this leadership that we congratulate Michael and Louise as they receive Canada’s highest honour for contributions to our communities and the betterment of our societies.
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Photo credit: Photo by Ljubodrag Andric, featuring an art installation titled “280 Glass Spheres” by Monica Guggisberg and Philip Baldwin.
For media inquiries and to request interviews:
Joy S. Roberts (liaison for Michael Barnstijn & Louise MacCallum)
Chair, Musagetes & rare Charitable Research Reserve
519-400-3883
jrob@regionss.ca
Stephanie Sobek-Swant
Executive Director, rare Charitable Research Reserve
226-600-0261
stephanie.sobek-swant@raresites.org
Shawn Van Sluys
Executive Director, Musagetes
519-546-7851
shawn.vansluys@musagetes.ca
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