Maharaja Broadens AGO’s Appeal
The Art Gallery of Ontario kicked off the press launch of its newest exhibition this morning with a genuine Indian Maharaja, his excellency Y.S. Mandhatasinhji of Rajkot, above, posing with one of the show’s most dazzling attractions, the 1934 Phantom II Star of India Rolls Royce. The AGO’s Maharaja: The Splendour of India’s Royal Courts opens Saturday with a wide-ranging exhibition featuring 200 objects and works of art spanning nearly three centuries.
Imported from London’s Victoria & Albert Museum, Maharaja includes paintings, jewelery, weapons, costumes, decorative art and furnishings. The support of sponsors Fairfax Financial, Rogers Communications, the Globe and Mail and Scotiabank has allowed the AGO to waive admission fees for anyone 25 and under until the show wraps on April 3, 2011. Said AGO Director Matthew Teitelbaum at the press launch: “We think that this exhibition is part of a signal of a new Art Gallery of Ontario, which, simply stated, is about invitation, it’s an invitation to different communities and age groups in Toronto so that they might all feel that the AGO is their home.” READ MORE
Free Galleries and Museums
I attended an event at the Art Gallery of Ontario on a recent Wednesday evening and was amazed at the crowds taking advantage of the gallery’s weekly freebie. Every Wednesday from 6 – 8:30 pm, the AGO offers free admission to its permanent collection; special surcharged exhibitions are not included but featured exhibits like the current Shary Boyle show are.
Thanks to a special sponsorship arrangement with Fairfax Financial Holdings, Rogers Communications and Scotiabank, the AGO’s upcoming exhibition Maharaja: The Splendour of India’s Royal Courts (November 20 to April 3, 2011) will be free to visitors 25 years of age and under. The AGO is also free to Ontario high school students with valid student ID, Tuesday to Friday after 3 pm.
There are a number of other free admission opportunities at some of the City’s premier cultural institutions . . . READ MORE
Spadina Returns to the Jazz Age
Spadina Museum wasn’t quite ready for its close-up during my preview tour on Monday: every piece of furniture seemed to have an ID tag hanging from it and some rooms were empty or in disarray. But all of the major facets of this re-restoration – the carpets, wallpaper, draperies, flooring – were in place and ready to be staged for Sunday’s grand re-opening.
Transferred to the City and the Province in 1978, the historic house opposite Casa Loma had not been refreshed or updated since it opened to the public in 1984. Serious maintenance issues could no longer be ignored and in November last year the house was closed to the public for a major overhaul.
“A lot of the plaster work on the first floor was starting to give way,” says Neil Brochu, a Community Cultural Coordinator with the City’s Collections and Conservation department. “Some of the ornate cornices and medallions were actually cracking and falling off their keys so that was a huge issue; in fact we had to have some of that work done prior to our big closure because it was in jeopardy.”
Early Music A Feature of Culture Days
Is there ever a Saturday or Sunday when Toronto isn’t teeming with cultural choices? This weekend, the parade of options will be richer than ever thanks to a new national initiative called Culture Days. A search of the Culture Days website reveals 12 pages of local events beginning Friday: from free dance classes to opera rehearsals and backstage tours, if there isn’t something happening this weekend that interests you, you’d better check your pulse.
Six of Toronto’s historic sites are offering free programming including site tours, scavenger hunts (Scarborough Museum) and an art exhibit (Todmorden Mills’ Papermill Gallery). Music is on the menu at Etobicoke’s Montgomery’s Inn, below, where the Toronto Early Music Centre’s Early Music Fair will be free for the first time. About 20 musicians and singers will be performing in various rooms throughout the 19th century tavern and inn.
Renaissance-era music pre-dates Montgomery’s Inn by a couple of hundred years but the rustic old rooms make the place a fitting setting, nevertheless. The Toronto Early Music Centre (TEMC) defines its focus as “historically-informed performance”, which pertains to the instrumentation and the spirit of the reading but the historic atmosphere of the old Inn is guaranteed to enhance the mood.
Roger Golden’s Passion to Create
After a decade spent honing his craft and pioneering a new material and technique, Toronto-based sculptor Roger Golden is gearing up for a trio of fall shows that truly mark his arrival on the local art scene. Golden has been showing his life-size figures made from burlap and winterstone at Ben Navaee Gallery for a few years now, but the convergence of exposure beginning this weekend takes the artist to a new level.
On Sunday (September 12), the sculptor unveils six works at the unprepossessing Taras Shevchenko Museum (1614 Bloor Street West, reception from 3 – 5 pm), and on September 28, another Golden piece will be featured in a group show at John B. Aird Gallery, part of a showcase for the Sculptors Society of Canada. Then on October 18, Golden opens his most impressive show to date, a solo exhibition of all-new works inspired by the music of Tom Waits at the Canadian Sculpture Centre (500 Church Street).
Golden confirms that the critical mass of attention is deeply gratifying. He still works a day job in construction management then pours his soul into his sculptures on evenings and weekends. “To turn this passion into a vocation is certainly a dream of mine,” says the artist. “Selling the work would be validation but at this point I’m just doing it as it comes. I can come home from a day at work and be dog-tired but when I go downstairs and turn the music on, I’m juiced, it’s like I’ve just woken up. When I’m sculpting I’m in the zone.” READ MORE
