Gaelic College of Celtic Arts and Crafts
Encyclopedia
The Gaelic College of Celtic Arts and Crafts (also known informally as the Gaelic College) is a Canadian
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
educational institution located in the community of St. Ann's
St. Ann's, Nova Scotia
Not to be confused with present-day Englishtown, Nova Scotia, which was formerly known as Saint Anne.St. Anns is a Canadian rural community located in Victoria County, Nova Scotia.Situated on the southwestern shore of St...
on Nova Scotia's
Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the most populous province in Atlantic Canada. The name of the province is Latin for "New Scotland," but "Nova Scotia" is the recognized, English-language name of the province. The provincial capital is Halifax. Nova Scotia is the...
Cape Breton Island
Cape Breton Island
Cape Breton Island is an island on the Atlantic coast of North America. It likely corresponds to the word Breton, the French demonym for Brittany....
along the world-famous Cabot Trail
Cabot Trail
The Cabot Trail is a highway and scenic roadway in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia.It is located in northern Victoria County and Inverness County on Cape Breton Island....
.
History
The Gaelic College was founded in 1938 by Presbyterian Minister, the Reverend A.W.R. MacKenzie, having opened in a one-room log building on land in St. Ann's which had been owned in the 1800s by the Reverend Norman McLeod, another Presbyterian minister who had lived on the site for 30 years and who migrated in the 1850s with 800 settlers from surrounding communities to Waipu, New Zealand.The Gaelic College has evolved over time into a beautiful modern campus overlooking St. Ann's Harbour.
Mission
The institution's mission is as follows:
"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."http://www.gaeliccollege.edu
The early years of the institution's history were dedicated to the instruction of the Scots Gaelic
Scottish Gaelic language
Scottish Gaelic is a Celtic language native to Scotland. A member of the Goidelic branch of the Celtic languages, Scottish Gaelic, like Modern Irish and Manx, developed out of Middle Irish, and thus descends ultimately from Primitive Irish....
language which in the 1930s was under significant threat of dying out, having once been spoken by over 100,000 Nova Scotians, until the advent of modern transport and communications in the early 20th century began to force English assimilation in the agrarian economies of Cape Breton Island and Nova Scotia.
Today the Gaelic College has a broader mandate to preserve the culture of the Scottish Highlanders who settled in the area with McLeod. Thousands of students, old and young, come from all over North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
and around the world to attend summer sessions and courses held throughout the year.
Program
The college's curriculum covers the following areas:- Great Highland Bagpipe
- Highland Dance
- Cape Breton Fiddle
- Piano Accompaniment
- Cape Breton Step Dance
- Celtic Harp
- Scottish Small Pipes
- Gaelic Song
- Drumming & Bodhran
- Traditional Piping
- Gaelic Language & Song
- Weaving