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OPUS MUNDI

By Jeff Santa Barbara

Opus Mundi; creation of the world. It’s a bold title, but Barbara Milne and Gary Santucci at the Pearl Company are primed to live up to its grandeur. They are calling their 11–day festival a “multi–disciplinary artistic convergence,” and it promises to be a unique offering in the city’s cultural landscape.
‘Convergence’ feels like the right theme for the festival. It is a genuine coming together of old and new, local and global, traditional and experimental. Each day through May 4 will feature music, theatre, film, puppetry, spoken word or visual art. There is music from Asia Minor with Light of the East Ensemble and from India with Neeraj Prem.
There are films from Guatemala, and puppetry based on Czech folk tales and a dramatic retelling of a Sudanese folk tale. There is modern dance and classical guitar, dub poetry and a one–woman show. There is a hint of international celebrity (When the Mountains Tremble features Nobel Prize winner Rigoberta Menchu and Susan Sarandon) and a large dose of local talent.
‘Convergence’ also describes how a festival like this is possible. This is the creative expression of dozens of people from around the world who, for a variety of reasons, have made this city their home. “Hamilton is on the way to becoming a crossroads for world cultures”, says Santucci, co–founder with Milne of the Pearl Company. “We need to embrace this and present it to audiences, so that the new becomes part of our shared experience.”
Milne and Santucci recognize that top–down approaches to multiculturalism and diversity have their place, but so does genuine grassroots cultural exchange. They have partnered closely with the Immigrant Culture and Arts Association, a community organization that connects arts groups in the city and runs art education programs. The ICAA helped the Pearl Company tap into the city’s vast pool of talented immigrant artists.
But beyond the vital partnerships, Santucci and Milne see that festivals like Opus Mundi are the future of culture. There will be a time when the ‘mundi’ will be redundant, when all art in this community can be considered world art.

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