Following her entertaining, enlightening and delicious 2025 presentation, “Delectable Encounters: Art, Food and the Day of the Dead” Janet Dawson once again brings her incites to art and all games people play in life on and off the field, the game board, the pitch.
On Sunday, August 16, her illustrated presentation, “GAMES PEOPLE PLAY: Chance, Intrigue, Romance, Suspense”, will be particularly entertaining as it follows on the heels (but doesn’t step on them, nor get a red card!) of the FIFFA World Cup 2026. Janet looks at the depiction of actual competitive games throughout art history as well as strategic gaming in love and romance. Presentation begins at 1 pm in Gallery Stratford’s Community Studio. Enter through The Shed at the back of the building.

Proceeds from ticket sales and donations will support Gallery Straford programming as well as Tepoz Roza Women’s Health Project, an organization dedicated to reducing the mortality rate of breast and cervical cancers among the women of Tepoztlán, Mexico.

Cost: $35

Purchase tickets here!

About Janet Dawson

Janet Dawson is a dynamic and engaging speaker whose three great passions are art, food and Mexico. She has given talks on art in Canada, England, Mexico, Switzerland and the U.S. In September 2023, she was a featured speaker at a Meighen Forum dinner event at the Stratford Festival where she gave a deeply researched talk on Mary Shelley, Frankenstein, molecular gastronomy and art. Born and educated in England and Canada, Janet has lived, studied and worked in Dallas, London, Mexico City, Miami, Paris, Toronto, and Washington D.C.

In London, she earned an M.A. in Art History from the University of London’s Birkbeck College, and a Diploma in Modern Art Studies from Christie’s Education. She was selected to join the first group of docents at Tate Modern Museum of modern and contemporary art in London, when it opened in 2000.

Janet divides her time between Tepoztlán and Toronto. Given her passion for art, food and Mexico, it is fitting that Janet was Scholar in Residence at the cooking school Cocinar Mexicano in Tepoztlán, where she gave presentations on the roles of food and tradition in Mexican art.