The festival has hosted various local, Canadian, and internationally renowned performers, such as: Wynton Marsalis, Canadian Brass, Emily Carr, Adrienne Clarkson, Dizzy Gillespie, Marcel Marceau, Stephan Grappelli, the Royal Shakespeare Company, Sharon Lois and Bram, and others.
Artown has welcomed such international, national, and local artists as Mikhail Baryshnikov, Marcel Marceau, Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis, Project Bandaloop, the American Ballet Theatre and Harlem Gospel Choir just to name a few.
Among the notable figures he interviewed over the years were Jorge Luis Borges, Noam Chomsky, M. C. Escher, John Kenneth Galbraith, Marcel Marceau, Groucho Marx, Vladimir Nabokov, S. J. Perelman, Picasso, Menachem Mendel Schneerson, and Isaac Bashevis Singer.
During this time, he was frequently invited by Marcel Marceau to teach at Marceau's Ecole Internationale de Mimodrame de Paris Marcel Marceau.
Marcel Duchamp | Marcel Proust | Marcel Marceau | Marcel Breuer | Marcel Pagnol | Marcel Lefebvre | Marcel Dzama | Marcel Griaule | Marcel Carné | Marcel Mauss | Sophie Marceau | Marcel Mule | Marcel Journet | Marcel Janco | Marcel Gauchet | Marcel Dassault | Marcel Bozzuffi | Cedrik-Marcel Stebe | Saint-Marcel | Marcel Vanthilt | Marcel Reif | Marcel Labey | Marcel Granet | Marcel Cerdan | Marcel Bigeard | Marcel Bellefeuille | Gabriel Marcel | Saint-Marcel-lès-Valence | Rosie Marcel | Readymades of Marcel Duchamp |
In 1974 Graham wrote the screenplay for the horror film Shanks, directed by "Hollywood B-movie veteran" William Castle and starring Marcel Marceau.
In 1958, he traveled to Paris, France, to study dance and drama at the Sorbonne, as well as to study mime with the French masters, Etienne Decroux, Jean-Louis Barrault, and Marcel Marceau.
After its restoration the building became a venue for artists such as Pierre Fournier, Hans Arp, Oskar Kokoschka, Yehudi Menuhin, Martin Walser, Marcel Marceau, Henryk Szeryng, Salvador Dalí and Askenase himself.