William Tennyson Wallace

William Wallace is an artist and musician who has been building sculptural musical instruments for more than 30 years. After graduating from Fanshawe Collage and earning a BFA from the Nova Scotia Collage of Art and Design, he went on to get a MFA from the Art Institute of Chicago. While in Chicago, William founded the sculptural music troupe MASS with William Close, where they built drum sculptures and longstring instruments and performed with them thoughout the midwest. During this same time William designed and built 12 large wheeled drum sculptures for the percussion troupe Jellyeye. The drums were the foundation that allowed William to collaborate with Jellyeye to develop the unique style of choreographed drumming referred to as “Action Drumming”. William moved to Vancouver and brought the concepts of invented instrument theatre and action drumming to Canada by founding SWARM.  For 15 years SWARM was a creative force redefining Canada’s percussion scene, spawning copycat groups and most importantly, entertaining, inspiring and educating people of all ages across North America. William is now the founder of the Squamish Sound Mill Society an artist collective and performance venue.