reenactments of events such as the arrival of the message from Querétaro from Josefa Ortiz. Bicentennial celebrations also included events such as the Ballet Mazatl. Festivities were concentrated in and around the Jardin Principal, the Ignacio Allende House and the Centro Cultural. SMART is a multi-media cultural festival, held annually in May, that combines exhibits by Mexican artists with a variety of culinary and social events at local hotels, including the festival founder Hotel Matilda, Dos Casas Hotel and L'Otel. Arts, music and literature San Miguel de Allende has long had a reputation as a haven for visual artists. In the Spanish colonial period, San Miguel was the largest recipient of funding for the arts. The city was full of rich arts patrons from the start in the 1500s. Rich Spanish families like the Condes de la Canal paid for the sumptuous Chapel of Loreto and employed artists in all aspects including baroque music compositions. A fragment of that musical past is used in the Holy Week music accompanying the celebration of mass around Easter. Religious and secular music continues to be a town focal point, with the English composer and pianist Michael Hoppe performing frequently in San Miguel de Allende. Since the 1950s, when Diego Rivera and David Alfaro Siqueiros worked there, it has attracted professional and amateur painters, sculptors and printmakers to the classes and workshops frequently held. In addition to two major art institutions (Instituto Allende and Bellas Artes), artists and art venues can be seen in various parts of the town. It is not unusual to see sketch artists working on the street and selling their work. Some notable immigrant painters associated with San Miguel are Canadians Mai Onno, principal painting professor in the Bellas Artes founding school of the arts, Toller Cranston, Marion Perlet, Gary Slipper, Mack Reynolds, and Andrew Osta. More recently, the town has been attracting writers, film makers, and musicians. The town annually hosts an important free film festival, the GIFF. One annual event that caters to the writing community is The Writers' Conference, which brings together authors, editors and literary agents. The 2009 event attracted names such as Erica Jong, Todd Gitlen and Josephine Humphreys. Writers have lived here since the mid 20th century. Beat poet Neal Cassady died on the railroad tracks just outside town. Billy Collins's poem "The Symphony Orchestra of San Miguel de Allende" in his collection Whale