It has been a sad summer and autumn for Classical Pursuits, as several long-time participants have passed away. Of course, in a small organization like ours, our participants and travellers are also our friends. Some have known Ann for years or decades and travelled with her and other leaders all […]
Convivium
Strange Eyes for Strange Landscapes
[Editor’s note: We are thrilled to welcome Mandy Burton as a Toronto Pursuits leader. Her imaginative, multi-genre seminar will take us into realms both ancient and futuristic, where a cast of non-human characters helps us consider with piercing clarity those questions we as humans yearn so deeply to answer: Who […]
Travel Pursuits Poland: The Best-Laid Plans
Adjacent to Kraków sits Nowa Huta, an in-your-face proletarian antithesis to the medieval and Renaissance architecture found in Poland’s hub of intellectual and artistic expression. Begun in 1947, and funded by the Soviet Union, Nowa Huta is considered one of the finest examples of deliberate social engineering in the world. […]
Room for Greatness: A Week of Women and the Arts
[Editor’s note: Veteran Toronto Pursuits leader and arts writer Betty Ann Jordan is eager to take on the issue of women’s under-representation in the arts with participants, and keen to highlight the possibilities for change. We hope you will join her for this eye-opening week of women and the arts.] […]
What Price Certainty? Four Great Playwrights on Doubt
[Editor’s note: Only a few places remain in longtime Toronto Pursuits leader Gary Schoepfel’s seminar Benefit of the Doubt. If you’ve never taken part in a discussion led by Gary, you are in for a rare treat. His questions open up new ways for participants to examine their beliefs about […]
ON THE ROAD WITH ANN – Welcome to the Rock!
“Knock, knock.” “Come on in. The door’s open.” That’s the kind of open-armed reception you receive in Newfoundland, where we will be returning this August on the Travel Pursuit In Search of the Newfoundland Soul. As before, we will split our time between St. John’s and the Eastport […]
See Naples with New Eyes
[Editor’s note: Our first Naples departure is full! To reserve a place on our second departure, please call our travel partner Worldwide Quest at 1-800-387-1483. We hope you will join leader Nella Cotrupi on this unique literary adventure.] Buon giorno, I recently learned that Francesca Siniscalchi, who has established a […]
Edith Wharton’s Republic of the Spirit
[Editor’s note: We are so happy to have Great Books Foundation senior editor Nancy Carr at Toronto Pursuits. Her seminar Innocence, Experience and Wisdom: Edith Wharton will immerse participants deep in a world both strange and familiar, where characters look to find meaning in a complex and quickly changing world. […]
Love in Stereo: Reading The Alexandria Quartet
By Becca Fisher [Editor’s note: Becca will be leading Eye of the Beholder, a Toronto Pursuits seminar on Lawrence Durrell’s much-loved tetralogy The Alexandria Quartet. She is Director of Continuing Education at our partner Harrison Middleton University and a longtime member and discussion leader in the Great Books community. We […]
A Musical Microcosm of the World
[Editor’s note: Musician, writer, and broadcaster Rick Phillips returns to Toronto Pursuits with A Symphonic Symposium. What does the symphony mean to you? Reflect on this and other questions as you learn about the history of this musical form and listen to and discuss symphonies from across the centuries.] The […]