Feed the Soul
About the Series
Date(s): Wednesdays, April 29, May 6, May 13, May 27, June 3 (*NOTE: no lecture on May 20th)
Time: 10:00 am - 12:00 pm
Place: In-person or Live-streamed at St. Paul's Centre in Orillia
Price: $80 +HST for the whole 5 lecture series; $20 +HST for a single talk.
Discover the joy of lifelong creativity in this inspiring Spring 2026 lecture series with Third Age Learning Lakehead (TALL).
Why do we engage with the arts? Simply put: because it makes us happy. This series explores how connecting with music, visual art, theatre, literature, and creative expression can deepen life satisfaction at every stage of life. Drawing on research, personal reflection, and real-world examples, we’ll look at how the arts enrich our emotional well-being, strengthen community, and bring meaning to our everyday experiences.
Whether you’re a lifelong arts enthusiast or someone curious about where to begin, these sessions will offer practical, welcoming ways to get involved—no experience required. Learn how to rekindle old passions, discover new creative outlets, and integrate the arts into your life in ways that are accessible, fulfilling, and fun.
Come as you are, and leave inspired to create, connect, and thrive.
Please bring your own mug to enjoy a hot beverage during the intermission. Alternatively, TALL branded travel mugs will be available for purchase for $5 (cash only).
If you are unable to attend the lectures in person, a link will be sent to all registered participants for viewing from the comfort of your own places and spaces! Be sure to invite folks in your network, near and far!
Plus: Enjoy a FREE Lecture on April 27th, celebrating the President’s 60th Anniversary Public Lecture Series from 5:30-7:30pm on the Thunder Bay Campus or via livestream. Register for this lecture here.
TBD
Kate Hilliard
Wednesday, April 29, 2026
Creativity isn’t a rare gift—it’s a skill you’re already using, whether you realize it or not. Drop in here soon to learn more about what to expect as Kate Hilliard launches our series, "Feed the Soul", in which we explore the Arts, impact, and our own entry points!
Learning to see again - Art and truth
Tony Bianco
Wednesday, May 6, 2026
This lecture encourages us to explore how we see, why we understand art (or don't), and what it does to our quality of life. We will take a brief journey through different cultures and their art, and end up igniting our own creative potential, artist or not. Whether or not we identify as artists, we all have the capacity to think and see creatively. The goal is to leave with a renewed curiosity about the visual world and a spark of confidence to explore our own creative potential.
Tony Bianco has been painting professionally for 40 years. His work has been featured on over 120 coins produced by the Royal Canadian Mint. He has created a series of over 150 paintings of our national parks, entitled “a Portrait of Canada” which has been shown in numerous museums and galleries across Canada.
His work has been described as optimistic, which he takes as the greatest compliment.
“When I was a young boy, I would stop by a forest on the way home from school and settle at the base of a tree, waiting. Presently, I would begin to see a beauty in the light. Birds and animals would appear and there would be a great sense of the sacred animation of all things around me. I’ve been trying to capture that beauty and spirit in my work ever since.”
TBD
Chancellor Rita Deverell & Rex Deverell
Wednesday, May 13, 2026
Before the curtain rises, consider this: theatre is where stories stop being told and start being lived, right in front of us. Come back soon to read about the Deverell's upcoming presentation!
TBD
Isabel Huggan
Wednesday, May 27, 2026
Being a writer isn’t just about putting words on a page—it’s about learning to see, think, and feel with intention. To be updated here soon with a summary of Isabel's presentation!
Recently retired in Orillia, Isabel Huggan was an instructor in the Humber College Writing Program until 2020. Over the past 40 years, she has given writing workshops in Canada, Kenya, Australia, Switzerland, France and the Philippines. Her published work includes the prize-winning memoir (Belonging) and two collections of stories (The Elizabeth Stories and You Never Know), along with book reviews, essays and poems in literary magazines. With a career that included both university and high school teaching and newspaper reporting, she remains enthusiastic about the benefits to be achieved by writing – pen on paper or fingers on keys, diary entries, letters, fictional stories or truthful accounts -- believing that the written word empowers both writer and reader.
The Music of Talk
Tom Allen
Wednesday, June 3, 2026
This closing lecture in the Feed the Soul series explores the profound ways music connects us to ourselves and to one another. Through rhythm, melody, and shared emotional experience, music reaches beneath words to express what we often cannot say, reminding us that our feelings are universal. As the series concludes, this talk reflects on music’s power to comfort, unite, and affirm that, no matter where we are in life, we are never truly alone.
Tom Allen was born in Montreal. He worked as a bass trombonist in New York City when there were still places you just didn’t go, toured with the Great Lakes Brass and began working for the CBC on his 30th birthday, a very long time ago. He has written books, created and hosted countless shows for theatre companies and orchestras, as well as touring a series of chamber musicals with his beloved, the harpist Lori Gemmell. Those include The Missing Pages, Being Lost and JS Bach’s Long Walk in the Snow, plus a forthcoming exploration of the music of deep geological time with the poet Don McKay. Tom was recently granted an honorary Doctoral degree from Brandon University. His latest project is an 18th century-style Classical Musick Almanack, being created with illustrator Ian Bell, built on gossip, smut, steampunk technology and, within certain limitations, history. He can’t imagine there’s anything else you’d like to know, but if there is visit his website, www.tomtomallen.com .
How to Buy Tickets
The Spring 2026 session of Third Age Learning Lakehead will be delivered in person at the St. Paul's Centre in Orillia and virtually. Light refreshments (coffee and cookies) will be served if attending in-person. Please bring a reusable mug.
Tickets for the full series are $80 plus HST. Single lecture tickets are $20 + HST.