A noted Canadian artist, filmmaker and musician whose contributions to art stem from the 1950s will give a rare public talk for the 2015 Dasha Shenkman Lecture in Contemporary Art.

Michael Snow will discuss the identities of image and sound with examples from his practice, including drawings, paintings, sculptures, film, video, music composition and soundtracks. The free Shenkman Lecture, hosted by the School of Fine Art and Music (SOFAM), will take place March 25, 6 p.m., in War Memorial Hall.

Based in Toronto, the 85-year-old has his work displayed in the collections of the National Gallery of Canada, the Museum of Modern Art and the Anthology Film Archives in New York, the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris and the Royal Belgian Film Archives in Brussels.

A Companion of the Order of Canada, Snow has been the subject of solo and group exhibitions in museums around the world, including Amsterdam, Berlin, New York, Ottawa and San Francisco.

The lecture is open to the public and will be followed by a question period moderated by Robert Enright, University of Guelph Research Chair in Art Criticism.

“Michael Snow is a national treasure. Alongside names like Jack Bush, Marshall McLuhan and General Idea, he has put Toronto and Canada on the map of world culture in a way that few others can claim,” said Enright.

“No other living Canadian artist has made as profound a contribution to international visual culture and Canadian artistic identity. He is internationally recognized for his skill in music, film, painting, sculpture and public art.”

The Shenkman lectures are funded through a donation by Dasha Shenkman, a Canadian art collector living in the United Kingdom.

Visitors may view works by SOFAM master’s students before and after the lecture during an open studio session in Blackwood Hall, the Firehall and Alexander Hall. The studios will be open from 3 to 5 p.m. and from 7:30 to 9 p.m.