About The Author

David P. Silcox

David P. Silcox has enjoyed a long and distinguished career in the arts, his positions ranging from the first Senior Arts Officer of the Canada Council for the Arts and Associate Dean, Faculty of Fine Art, York University, to federal Assistant Deputy Minister of Communications (Culture) and Ontario Deputy Minister, Culture and Communications. Most recently he was president of Sotheby’s Canada for twelve years. He has also written major prize-winning books, including Painting Place: The Life and Work of David B. Milne; The Group of Seven and Tom Thomson; and, with Harold Town, the groundbreaking Tom Thomson: The Silence and the Storm. In addition, he is the author of many articles and catalogues about Canadian art and artists.

 

Silcox has founded several important performing arts events in theatre, music, dance, and the visual arts in Canada. He has served on the boards of more than thirty cultural organizations, including the Stratford Festival, National Film Board, Toronto International Film Festival, CFDC (now Telefilm Canada), Royal Conservatory of Music, and Gardiner Museum.

 

Internationally, Silcox has served on the boards of Studio International, the Americas Advisory Board of the Praemium Imperiale arts prize (Japan), and the American Friends of Canada (now the Council for Canadian American Relations). He organized a major Canadian exhibition for the Edinburgh International Festival, and is chair of the Canadian Friends of Dulwich Picture Gallery, London, and a Trustee of the Canada House Trust, London.

 

To honour his contribution to culture and the arts in Canada, Silcox has received the Order of Canada, the Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts, and honorary doctorates from Victoria University in the University of Toronto and the University of Windsor. He is also a long-standing Senior Fellow at Massey College and a Fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society.