All Things Canadian.

An open-mouthed band of Canadians invaded Hopkins Center one sub-zero day in February only to discover that the facility was already theirs. The talented singers (80 girls and 40 boys) of Le Choeur des Etudiants de L'Universite de Montreal found galleries and corridors crammed with Canadiana, and they undoubtedly learned much about their native land in their visit south of the border.

They had an opportunity to see the first one-man retrospective exhibition in the United States of the work of Paul-Emile Borduas, Canada's pioneering abstract artist. The 32 paintings in oil, gouache, and watercolor on view in the Jaffe-Friede Gallery trace a remarkable yet lonely career that is little known in this country, although Borduas had achieved a considerable reputation in Canada before his sudden death in 1960 at 55.

The University of Montreal singers did miss the special opening of the Borduas show, with Canadian Consul-General Stuart Hemsley and Consul Guy Choquette of Boston present, and the special color film on Borduas' life and works - and also a lecture that would have interested them as much if not more than the Dartmouth students who attended: "The Arts of French Canada," given by Dr. Robert H. Hubbard, Chief Curator of the National Gallery of Canada.

Those visitors from Montreal who wandered into the Center's lower regions discovered an impressive array of 96 front pages of Canada's daily newspapers (both French and English) from coast to coast - all for the same day, November 1, 1966. Along with the big metropolitan dailies of Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver, viewers could pick out the MooseJaw Herald, the Medicine Hat News, and the Red Deer Advocate.

Also on display in the Center to impress (if not overwhelm) the French-speaking (and singing) students were a striking collection of still, color photographs, mostly landscapes and other "nature" scenes, entitled "Canada: The Land"; an exhibit of the craftsmanship in sterling silver, gold, precious stones, and wood by Hero Kielman of Toronto (whose son Rolf is a member of Dartmouth's Class of 1970); an exhibition of prints from the portfolio "Toronto 20" in the Barrows Print Room - work of twenty leading artists, most of them in their thirties and resident in Ontario, noted for the use of a wide variety of media and styles; an exhibition on the Province of Nova Scotia; and an eye-smashing showing of the recent work by young Canadian Jacques Hurtubuise, artist-in-residence for the winter term.

Coming soon: the award-winning Canadian play, Marise, directed by its author.