Today's ad features your stereotypical 1950s architectural professional: trenchcoat, tie, hat (preferably a fedora), and a fistful of building plans. The building this dapper construction supervisor is depicted next to would quickly become one of St. Clair Avenue's architectural landmarks. Pigott Construction was based in Hamilton, where company president Joseph Pigott contributed heavily to the community as a president or board member of institutions such as McMaster University and the Art Gallery of Hamilton.......

Toronto has been called a city of neighbourhoods: The Beach, Yorkville, Chinatown, Little Italy, Greektown, The Annex; all have their defining characteristics that make them appealing to locals as well as visitors. And when it comes down to it, most of these areas are well-defined by the intersection of two major streets. Photo by sono salvo from Flickr. Baldwin Street, a lush strip that runs between Spadina Avenue to the west and McCaul Street to......

Urbanist is a photo series that will look at developments, architecture, trends and activities happening in various cities––including our own––to inspire the urbane urbanist at home to make Toronto a better place. While Toronto has been making headlines in recent years for its investment in artistic institutions such as the Art Gallery of Ontario, Royal Ontario Museum, and the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, Ottawa has been in the spotlight of late because......

Beginning this Thursday, the fifteenth annual Junction Arts Festival will be swarming the streets with an entourage of innovative musicians, performers, and visual artists hailing from Canada, Denmark, Brussels, and the United States. Taking place on the one kilometre stretch between Quebec Avenue and Keele Street on Dundas Street West, the festival will present the works of over fifty visual artists as selected by the 2007 Juried Art Exhibition—and for the first time, will......

Another spate of announcements from the Toronto International Film Festival, with in particular an entirely new programme announced, Future Projections. To feature installations, interactive film projects, and other film-related art work presented outside the cinema space and throughout the City of Toronto, it’s to work as a companion to the Wavelengths programme. Eight of the nine multimedia installations will be offered as free, non-ticketed events, with entry to the Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery......

Yesterday the AGO revealed its latest summer exhibition, Treasures of the Tsimshian from the Dundas Collection—a first for the public eye in more than a century. Featuring 39 First Nations artifacts deriving from the 18th and 19th centuries—comprised of daily objects varying from ladles, combs and feast bowls to more exquisite pieces such as ceremonial masks, clan helmets and clubs carved from antlers—the Dundas collection is certainly worth a peek (even if there are some......

The Toronto Public Library is the only good thing to have come from amalgamation. One of the worst things to have come from amalgamation, on the other hand, is City Council's insistence that everything that it doesn't do is a result of not being able to afford to do it, and that everything that it does do is a result of not being able to afford not to do it. Last Wednesday morning, June......

Artist Damien Hirst's diamond-studded skull reminded us that we used to live across the street from a lady who kept a magical Mayan crystal skull in her house. Which got us to thinking about other spooky things. So we've compiled a list of ten, supposedly haunted places in the city. Make your own ghost walk and if you do actually see a spirit, please let us know. 1. The Hockey Hall of Fame (pictured here)......

As noted in today's Daily Photoist, it's a big week for the Royal Ontario Museum, with the public unveiling of the Michael Lee-Chin Crystal days away. Will any of the displays added to the new galleries over the next year wrest the claim of "most unusual exhibition" title from today's ad? Probably, since Animals in Art's claim appears to be hanging artwork in the ROM instead of, say, the Art Gallery of Ontario. The......

At left: stills from Dr. Strangelove. At right: re-creations by Kristan Horton. Today's Morning News has an interview with Toronto's Kristan Horton, an artist whose...uh...unique work, "Dr. Strangelove Dr. Strangelove" is on display at The Art Gallery of York University (AGYU; Accolade East Building 4700 Keele Street) until June 24, in conjunction with the release of a 200-page book of the same name (also published by the AGYU). Horton "has recreated each scene of......

For two weeks in May, a 1280-cubic-foot shipping container at an as-of-yet-unannounced location along Queen Street West will serve as the temporary home for Jeremy Lynch's fascinating Containers exhibit. The Canadian-raised Lynch's "individual art project, free from any Institutional or Corporate participation" is relatively straightforward but utterly unique: he makes hundreds of "3d street art from used 35mm film containers and plastic toy figures" and places them around the streets of Toronto and Berlin.......

Many artists will agree that the creative effort is as important as the final presentation. With this in mind, Noah Mintz (formerly of hHead; presently of Noah’s Arkweld and Mastering Engineer at Lacquer Channel) and Aniko (Creative Director of The Spa Suite at the Gladstone Hotel) have organized an event that foregrounds the often collaborative, spontaneous process of artistic creation: "In an industry where we all get plenty of opportunity to celebrate the finished product......

“You can try to take away my coffees and my creams. Go ahead. I’m still here. I’m still going to get re-elected." Councillors Giorgio Mammoliti and Paul Ainslie scrapped it out yesterday in city hall over free coffee. The delicious roasted bean elixir is offered free to city councillors and costs taxpayers $20,000 per year. The Art Gallery of Ontario announced a landmark donation of $10-million from twenty of Toronto's most prominent Italian-Canadian families.The......

Along with a multi-image magnet set ($16.95), an Indian Church nightlight ($34.95), and a package deal with the Fairmont Royal York titled “Painted Wilderness in the City” ($269.00+), the AGO’s latest exhibition offers demystification of one of Canada’s most famous artists. Emily Carr: New Perspectives on a Canadian Icon, a traveling show co-organized by the Vancouver Art Gallery and the National Gallery of Canada, aims to reassess the heavily mythologized life and work of......

Bunch Family is at it again. The family oriented group, who also run the Family Dance Party and Bunch Rocks events, bring the Bunch Family Salon to The Arts and Letters Club (14 Elm St.) this Saturday, February 24th, from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. The event "is a symposium of art, music and ideas for kids and parents," keeping the Bunch tradition that family events should be designed with both the children and parents......

If you attended Nuit Blanche last fall and noticed pairs of police officers dancing the tango in the streets, apparently swept away by music pouring out of cars parked nearby, then you're already familiar with the charming and often funny work of Toronto artist Diane Borsato. It's conceptual art, but you don't need a degree in art theory to appreciate it. In 2003's "Warm Things to Chew On for the Dead," she placed "warm,......

There are many ways to chart a city's history. One can dig into the city archives, flip through photographs or listen to its citizens tell their stories about its daily life. The evolution of a city can also be traced through a vehicle that drives people crazy when it originally appears, but forms a valuable record when seen with distance: advertising. Old ads are a valuable tool in looking at elements such as neighbourhood socio-economic......

Blame international architect Will Alsop for the latest Queen West trend. When his design for the Westside Lofts condo presentation centre was constructed near Queen and Gladstone, many regarded the multi-coloured swiss cheese structure as garish and ugly. At yet, the building's hideousness has proved the secret to the condo project's attention-getting strategy. Clearly, other Queen West businesses have taken a cue from Alsop's design. Art supply store Woolfitt's sits in the shadow of......

After bringing us the films of Michelangelo Antonioni and Krzysztof Kieslowski this past summer, the fall season of Cinematheque Ontario begins on October 6th. The programme features a series of films by Terry Gilliam, including his latest, Tideland (not screened in Toronto since TIFF 05), and Brazil, introduced by the director himself. The films of Andy Warhol, a series of Vietnam films, and a spectrum of Vancouver New Wave will be screened as well. Tickets......

Emily Schultz, author of Joyland, former editor of Broken Pencil and This Magazine is looking for your pledges. No, this is not a PBS style pledge drive where you get a special gift when you show your support. I steal from just about everyone who crosses my path. But my fear is that someone, someday, will recognize a very familiar description, moment, or trait that has cropped up in my work. Well, Schultz wants......

This weekend is the Canadian Art Foundation’s 11th Annual Canadian Art Gallery Hop Toronto. This weekend is also Artscape’s 4th Annual Queen West Art Crawl. Two big art events this weekend? Holy Jesus! What to do? The kickoff for the Gallery Hop is tonight. But before you pick up the phone to reserve a last minute ticket beware the $250 admission price to the event at the Kool Haus (patron tables for 10 are......

Back To School* Cheat Sheet: Thursday, September 21st @ The Tranzac (292 Brunswick Ave.) Doors at 9pm ▪ $5 cover ▪ 19+** Featuring: Dollarama ▪ Idiots! The Ghost is Dancing ▪ DJ Wes Allen Summer is all but done. The sun's gone into hiding. Sure, the Film Festival is going strong, but when Brad Pitt leaves, what's left? Evenings of studying, or, worse, working, reminiscing about how much you miss studying? Another long, depressing......

On Saturday, we had the opportunity to check out Andy Warhol / Supernova : Stars, Deaths and Disasters, 1962–1964 at the Art Gallery of Ontario. The exhibit which runs from July 8th to October 22nd features the darker side of Andy Warhol and is guest-curated exclusively for the AGO by film director David Cronenberg.......

Billionaire Kenneth Thomson, Canada's richest person, has died at age 82. He was ranked ninth on the Forbes magazine list of the world's wealthiest individuals with an estimated fortune of $19.6 billion. His family began their fortune through small radio stations in northern Ontario. After serving with the Royal Canadian Air Force during the Second World War, Thomson attended Cambridge University and later joined his father in the newspaper business, becoming a newspaper mogul,......

So, did anyone see the article in today’s Eye about the imminent death of the Festival cinemas? A nice article reminding us that it’ll take someone with a good deal more money than business sense to save the Royal (at a cool $2.7 million) but it more timely in reminding us that while our cinemas might be dying, we at least still have the Toronto International Film Festival Group’s Cinematheque Ontario to keep us in......

Mercer Union, a non-for-profit art gallery dedicated to the existence of contemporary art, is once again bringing you the good life; by providing a forum for the production and exhibition of Canadian and international "conceptually and aesthetically engaging art and related cultural practices". This is something that Torontoist can totally get behind. They pursue their primary objectives through activities that include exhibitions, lectures, screenings, performances, publications, events and special projects. This year, the Mercer......

A couple of weeks back Torontoist threw down our gauntlet pillow and challenged cities to a pillow fight challenge. Well it seems that our west coast Canadian brethren have picked up the challenge. Apparently No-Funcouver does know how to have fun and staged a large pillow fight right in front of the Vancouver Art Gallery over the weekend. Ok, Newmindspace kids, don't be like the Leafs and let us down. The next pillow fight......

As part of Toronto’s Live With Culture initiative, an all-night party to celebrate contemporary art is scheduled to start this year on September 30 at 7:00pm and end on October 1 at 7:00am. The event is called the Scotiabank Nuit Blanche and is modeled after an annual Parisian festival that began in October of 2002 and has already spread to other cities such as Brussels, Rome, and Madrid. Private and public buildings will be......

At right: The new CIBC Lobby in Accolade East is lovely...so why can't we stop thinking "red rum!"? Full disclosure: Torontoist is a former Yorkie, having graduated from the Fine Arts department several years ago with all the requisite loving hatred. But our curiousity about the Fine Arts department's brand spanking new Accolade Project overcame our lingering bitterness (not to mention our longtime dread of the 96A bus - at least it doesn't go along......

Let’s open with an image. By far our favourite image of film in the past...Ooh, ages, Date Movie’s unique take on Napoleon Dynamite. I can almost hear the two (count ‘em) writers from Scary Movie in the pitching office. “Okay, get this, right. We’ve got a version of Napoleon Dynamite. Now, you know how all the kids are wearing those ‘Vote for Pedro’ t-shirts, right?” (The movie exec nods with recognition, a feign he’s......