Fàilte dhan a' Cholaisde Ghàidhlig. Thigibh a-staigh! (Welcome to the Gaelic College. Come on in!) Click arrow icon for audio translation.
Situated in the heart of Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, Canada, the Gaelic College of Celtic Arts and Crafts
was founded in 1938 as a school devoted to the study and preservation
of the Gaelic language, arts and culture. Students of all ages and
abilities from around the world take courses at our Cape Breton campus and online.
Our world-class instructors offer programs in Scottish traditional
disciplines including Gaelic language and song, music, dance and crafts.
We look forward to welcoming you to the tranquil setting, the
camaraderie, the wide range of study and other activities that await
you here at the Gaelic College.
Last Updated ( Monday, 26 November 2007 )
Call of the Celtic
Gaelic College puts masters together with students
THE
BOW is a blur against the fiddle as tiny fingers move on the strings
and the boy’s small, freckled face pinches in concentration.
His instructor plays along, using his feet to keep time, nodding and
smiling as the young fiddler slides through a difficult passage in the
music.
"That’s it, you’ve got it. Now we’ll try it again a little bit
faster," says Ed Rodgers, a teacher of Cape Breton-style fiddling at
the Gaelic College of Arts and Crafts on the shores of St. Anns Bay,
Victoria County.
Just about everything at this 70-year-old institution seems to be a
little bit faster, whether it’s fiddling, step-dancing, piping or
bodhran drumming.
Presbyterian minister Rev. A.WR. MacKenzie and his
colleagues set an ambitious goal back in the 1930s when they founded the Gaelic College
at St. Ann's Bay in Cape Breton.
Their mandate was "to promote, preserve and perpetuate
through studies in all related areas - the culture, music, language, arts,
crafts, customs and traditions of immigrants from the Highlands of Scotland"
The Gaelic
College has seen a lot changes
over the years, some of which MacKenzie could not have foreseen, but the
mission statement is the same in brochures for 2008.
Our Mission Statement: To promote, preserve and perpetuate through
studies in all related areas - the culture, music, language, arts,
crafts, customs and traditions of immigrants from the highlands of
Scotland.
