Culture Days @ The Library
The Toronto Public Library, the Neighbourhood Arts Network and Culture Days have joined forces to provide free venues to Toronto-based artists and arts organizations interested in taking part in Culture Days, September 30 and October 1, 2011. Forty-five TPL branches spanning the city will provide a variety of venues at no cost.
This is exactly the kind of cooperative initiative called for in the recently released Creative Capital report. It’s the first time a partnership of this scale and scope has occurred between the Toronto Public Library and the Toronto arts community. The call for artists is posted now on the Neighbourhood Arts Network.
Celebrating Community Arts Champs
The Allen Lambert Place Galleria at Brookfield Place was jumping yesterday evening as the Celebrate 27 Arts Fest hit the stage with music, dance and visual art to kick-off the 27-day community art celebration. B-boys Gadfly (below) were among the performers entertaining the sizeable audience between speeches from organizers. Celebrate 27 recognizes Article 27 of the universal declaration of human rights, which states, “Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits.”
City Councillor Michael Thompson was on hand to introduce a roster of 12 community cultural champions, leaders nominated by their peers for their great work in keeping the arts humming in their own neighbourhoods. The champions are portrayed on a collection of limited-edition scarves and t-shirts being sold to raise revenue for community arts programs (for a list of champions visit the Celebrate 27 website and stay tuned to LiveWithCulture.ca as we profile them in the weeks to come).
Two photo exhibits were installed in the Galleria for yesterday’s launch, one by photographer Michael Awad comparing Toronto and its sister city, Milan, Italy, and another by four young Toronto photographers who were mentored by Awad during the past year. For a complete run-down of Celebrate 27 events, visit the program’s website.
Winterlicious: Fort York Food Fight
Winterlicious kicks off Friday (January 28) with two weeks of great restaurant deals right across the city and more than a dozen special events like Saturday’s cast iron chef competition at Fort York National Historic Site where local culinary stars Ted Corrado (C5 Restaurant), above left, and Scott Vivian (Beast), above right, battle for bragging rights and a $2,500 prize.
Both chefs maintain that the Fort York Food Fight will be a friendly competition but Vivian states his intention loud and clear when he says his goal is “to wipe the floor with Teddy Corrado!”
The Food Fight will be the highlight of an afternoon that features an interpretive tour of the historic site from a foodie perspective (1 – 2 pm), and two workshops: Eat Green Through the Seasons, exploring the ecological benefits of eating seasonally and Growing Food Indoors, highlighting alternative gardening. The chef contest runs from 3 – 5 pm.
McLuhan Centenary Underway
At the invitation of University of Toronto President David Naylor, a select group of artists, technology innovators and academics were treated to a preview of plans for the McLuhan 100 at grano Restaurant on Thursday, January 20.
This year marks the centenary of Marshall McLuhan’s birth on July 21, 1911. Worldwide, a tremendous range of activities are being planned to celebrate and honour the man and his ideas.
With Toronto under the focus of international gaze, the University of Toronto’s McLuhan Program in Culture & Technology, part of the Faculty of Information, along with the City of Toronto’s Economic Development & Culture Division, and Mozilla, have joined forces to celebrate McLuhan, his theories and his role in the emergence of our great international metropolis.
McLuhan, who died on December 31, 1980, was a Canadian educator, philosopher, and scholar who worked at the intersection of culture and technology—the very foundation of Toronto’s mushrooming power in digital media. He did so in ways that only later became mainstream. READ MORE
imagineNATIVE: A World of Indigenous Expression
Actress, filmmaker and programmer Michelle Latimer is a perfect spokesperson for the imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival, opening Wednesday. She’s articulate and enthusiastic and as the photo at left confirms, she’s also a whole lot of fun. Latimer and I met at A Space Gallery to chat about the festival and take in RE:counting coup, a group show curated by Cheryl L’Hirondelle for imagineNATIVE. Latimer posed for me beneath one of artist Lisa Reihana’s hairdryers, part of an installation called Colour of Sin: Headcase Version, 2005.
“We think that including contemporary art is important,” says Latimer, “because those are the artists who, in my opinion, are really pushing the boundaries for indigenous artists in this country.”
Now in its 11th year, imagineNATIVE is the world’s largest showcase of indigenous film and video work and the festival draws entries from First Nations communities around the world. Did you know that Nepal has more indigenous groups per capita than any other country? Or that Taiwan has a significant indigenous population, which also happens to be the subject of this year’s imagineNATIVE spotlight? READ MORE
