The Niagara 1812 Bicentennial Legacy Council is hosting a symposium about the role of the War of 1812 in shaping Canadian, American and First Nations identity, and how the arts help us understand it.

Creating 1812: Commemoration, National Identity and Role of the Arts will be April 23 and 24 in Hamilton.

A keynote speech by actor/director R. H. Thomson will open the symposium at the Lincoln Alexander Centre in the Crown Plaza Hamilton Hotel. He will speak about The Vigil 1914-1918, a project that paid homage to Canadians killed in the Second World War. His presentation will be followed by the world premier of “Warships Down,” an episode of the Dive Detective Series for History Television and National Geographic, which explores the War of 1812 shipwrecks of the Hamilton and the Scourge. The next day, there will be workshops about the role of the arts in relation to the War of 1812.

For more information, visit discover1812.com