AGO Unveils Weston Family Centre

Art Gallery of Ontario president Tony Gagliano shares a laugh with Senator Linda Frum, left,  and AGO CEO Matthew Teitelbaum and Tamara Rebanks (George Weston Limited VP), all of whom spoke at this morning’s opening of the new 35,000 square foot Weston Family Learning Centre at the AGO. The new facility offers innovative art education programming to children, youth, families and students of all ages, and features 6,000 square feet of studio space. The new wing was designed by Toronto firm Hariri Pontarini Architects.

Marshall McLuhan, Family Man, Revealed

The human side of great 20th century intellectual Marshall McLuhan was revealed yesterday afternoon when three of the author’s six children gathered at their childhood home to unveil a Heritage Toronto plaque marking the house’s history. Teri McLuhan (far left), Elizabeth McLuhan and Michael McLuhan (both above right) each took a moment to reminisce about growing up in the house at 29 Wells Hill Avenue, around the corner from Casa Loma. Teri recalled a house filled with music, both recorded (McLuhan senior apparently had a soft spot for Erik Satie, Flanders & Swann and Tom Lehrer) and performed, sometimes by Glenn Gould, who was a frequent visitor.

Also pictured above are University of Toronto Dean of the Faculty of Information, Seamus Ross (yellow tie) and poet Dennis Lee (in the hat), who initiated the plaque program as his legacy project following his term as the City’s Poet Laureate from 2001 – 2004. Lee noted that McLuhan was living in the house when he wrote The Gutenberg Galaxie (1962) and Understanding Media (1964), “which to my mind were seminal books of the 1960s. The Gutenberg Galaxie . . . changed the configuration of my mind because the dots were being connected in such a way that just to keep up with it you had to alter the way your mind worked. It was a thrill to discover that the author of that book was a denizen of the same place as I was.”

Legacy Plaques Honour Cultural Pioneers

The Heritage Toronto Legacy Plaques Program unveiled eight new tributes this morning honouring leaders in the city’s cultural and intellectual life. Lawyer Grace Westcott (left, chair of the Legacy Project) joined City Councillor John Parker (Ward 26 Don Valley West) and Karen Carter (Executive Director of Heritage Toronto) for the unveiling in the City Hall members lounge. The plaques are being installed at the former residences of media theorist Marshall McLuhan (29 Wells Hill Avenue), National Ballet of Canada founder Celia Franca (166 Carlton Street), composer Harry Somers (158 Douglas Drive), architect E.J. Lennox (487 Sherbourne Street), photographer William James (250 Major Street), writer Jane Jacobs (69 Albany Avenue), painter Tom Thomson (38 Elm Street) and geologist/physicist J. Tuzo Wilson (Ontario Science Centre). The Toronto Legacy Project was established in 2002 by the city’s first Poet Laureate, Dennis Lee, to celebrate our artists, scientists, and thinkers by weaving their names into the cityscape.

Doors Open Toronto: City in Focus

This weekend’s edition of Doors Open Toronto focuses on photography with a number of locations presenting photo exhibitions, as well as artist talks with a range of accomplished local photographers, many of them specializing in shooting buildings and interiors. That’s Toronto’s Tom Arban, above, shooting from the top of the TD Centre; he’s one of several pros participating in Ask a Photographer Q&A sessions (Arban will be at Diamond+Schmitt Architects HQ at 2 pm Saturday).

This year’s roster of buildings opening their doors to the public includes rare access to the R.C. Harris Water Filtration Plant, Fire Stations 311 and 227, the TTC’s McCowan and Roncesvalles Carhouses, the Toronto Harbour Commission Building, the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute of St. Michael’s Hospital, Native Child and Family Services of Toronto, the Empress Building, the High Park Club and Corus Quay.

Most of the participating buildings are open from 10 am to 5 pm; check the website for individual venue details. READ MORE

401 Richmond’s Arts Ecosystem

There aren’t many arts hubs as thriving and successful as Toronto’s 401 Richmond. The century-old tin can lithography factory was saved from a wrecking ball in 1994 and slowly redeveloped into the thriving colony it has become, housing both for-profit businesses and artist-run centres. On every floor, down every hallway there’s art, art and more art.

The 200,000 square foot building, which runs nearly the length of a city block, from Peter Street to Spadina Avenue, was purchased in 1994 by Urbanspace Property Group, whose founder, Margie Zeidler, is seen at left with the Toronto Arts Council’s William Huffman. This Saturday (November 27) and December 18 from 12:30 – 2:30 pm, Huffman is leading tours of this remarkable arts hub for anyone interested in seeing first-hand how the strands of Toronto’s arts community knit themselves together.

Last month, I interviewed video artist and Reel Asian programmer Heather Keung who has spent her whole career so far at 401 Richmond. Straight out of OCADU she went to work at Images Festival before moving down the hall to Vtape and then down one floor to Reel Asian.

“It’s a small community so it’s easy to plug into,” Keung told me, “especially in a building like this. It’s a fairly easy network to access what with the different festivals, the media art centres, production centres and distributors; we see each other on a daily or weekly basis. When I bring people from Hong Kong for a tour of the building they simply can’t believe it, the energy, the activity, the buzz of the place.” READ MORE