Annual General Meeting and The Wonder and the Divine

On June 3, 2026, SACC held its annual meeting including arts organizations,

individual artists, representatives of the City of Stratford and the City of Stratford

as well as members from the community. The guest speaker was Andre Morin,

CAO for the City of Stratford, who talked about the Grand Trunk site’s future and

how SACC could fit in. The meeting began with an original poem by Stratford’s

Poet Laureate, David Stones.

The Wonder and the Divine

Sculptor. Actor. Playwright. Dancer.

Songwriter. Singer. The Poet Romancer.

Self expression steeps deep:

a harvest of wound and flower,

blood married to bloom,

the nervous razor blade of creation.

Yet, too, is artistic expression what

life is, the oxygen of human spirit,

proof that every voice contains its

own weather, its own constellation

of stars and scars, celebrations

and songs beating at the

doorway of the human soul.

Culture is not an add-on, not the

frock trotted out by wardrobe to tart

up the window mannequin.

It is the nervous system of belonging,

the tap root and fevered spine of

festivals, concerts, exhibits and theatre,

the spirit of flame and lit wick of every

story tremulously whispered into

the mic for the first time.

In studios, theatres, concert halls and

borrowed basements, artisans spool

their magic, stitching the bridges

that bind otherwise strangers by

language, faith, love and sorrow, the

pixie dust of interpretation sealing each

piece eternally into mind and heart.

Singularly and in unison our artists

sew together the socio-political flotsam,

weave into whole and breathing cloth

culture and caring into the artistic

tapestry that is the ultimate fabric

of community and connection.

A city with depleted arts is a husk,

a desiccation of spirit and disunity,

a withering of what humanity

is meant to be and the promise

we hold for each other.

Photographer. Novelist. Director. Musician.

Designer. Cartoonist. Producer. Magician.

When culture flourishes it carries

the community with it, connects what

divides, fuses the twine of shared

identity into the transcendent harmony

that is the music of civilization,

the wonder and the divine of a oneness

that blooms into the eternal

choir of the living.

David Stones, Stratford Poet Laureate