Trade paper, 8.75 x 5.75”
86 pages, 20 illustrations
$24.95 Canada ($18.95 US)

ISBN: 0-9689737-0-1

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A new President who abolished his school’s entire curriculum overnight. A college calendar printed in the form of a deck of tarot cards. A leading faculty member who described himself as an “LSD therapist”, and handed out diplomas printed on paper bags.

Few Canadian schools have seen anything like the unique blend of creative energy, idealism and naiveté that swept through the Ontario College of Art in 1971-72.

This book examines the turbulent events that led to Roy Ascott’s hiring as OCA President, and the even more turbulent events that occurred during his brief — ten month — tenure in the job.

“The one thing almost everyone connected with the Ontario College of Art & Design knows about the history of the place is that a man named Ascott became President at some point in the past, that he was fired, and that everything that’s gone wrong at the College since then is his fault.

“A competing version of the story has it that Ascott was actually the Messiah and that everything that’s gone wrong since his time at the College is the result of his crucifixion. ... ”

“Will fascinate anyone with connections to OCA, while others enjoy it for the nostalgia it triggers for the ambience of that long-past, flower-child era.”

“Takes us back to a time when cultural horizons were broader and the landscape still lit by an idealistic light. ... Here is a school in the midst of a civil war with itself, but whose instabilities and divided passions gave rise to some enduring talents.”

“Thank you for immortalizing those wild days with such a balanced and cogent account. ... Funny to relect that after 30 years, the curriculum of most art schools (of which there are now too few) and university art departments (of which there are now too many) remains the same.”

Morris Wolfe is a writer and editor. He taught part-time at the Ontario College of Art & Design between 1971 and 2001.

Wolfe has written, edited and co-edited eleven books, including A Saturday Night Scrapbook; Aurora: New Canadian Writing; Signing On: The Birth of Radio in Canada; Jolts; and Menya: an end of life story, which was also published by grubstreet books.

His essays, articles, reviews and columns have appeared in numerous Canadian magazines and newspapers. In 1994 he won a Canadian Association of Journalists award for investigative journalism.

An on-line collection of Morris Wolfe’s essays, including previously unpublished pieces, has been released on the grubstreet books web site, grubstreetbooks.ca:

Essays, New & Selected, by Morris Wolfe

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