Max Wyman

Max Wyman was born in Wellingborough, England on May 14th, 1939, Max studied piano and theory as a youth and began his career in journalism with the Northamptonshire Evening Telegraph at 14. After studies at The University of Nottingham he worked 1960-7 as an editor, arts critic, and feature writer for London newspapers and magazines. He moved to Canada in 1967, became a Canadian in 1979, and has become one of Canada’s most respected arts and culture commentators. He served for three decades as arts critic and books editor for the two Vancouver daily newspapers. Among his books on the arts in Canada is Dance Canada; An Illustrated History (named in 2000 as one of the 165 best Canadian books of the century), and the biographies of dancer Evelyn Hart and jeweler Toni Cavelti. His latest book, The Defiant Imagination: Why Culture Matters, is a passionate manifesto asserting the central importance of arts and culture to modern society. A former board member of the Canada Council for the Arts, he served from 2002 to 2006 as President of the Canadian Commission for UNESCO. From November 2005-08, he was Mayor of Lions Bay, and chaired the first Metro Vancouver Regional Culture Committee.