Results tagged “culture”

When you go to The Nutcracker, what you notice first are the girls. The little ones. You see the first little girl, squirming while her harried mother untucks taffeta skirt from tights, and then you see them everywhere. Little girls in festive plaid or their first favourite colour, pink. Little girls in ringlets and lip gloss, in patent mary janes, or still in snowboots, refusing to change into their fancy shoes.

This evening, Toronto Culture and Fort York are unveiling a permanent public art installation under the Gardiner Expressway (off Fort York Boulevard, between Bathurst and Fleet Streets). In WATERTABLE, Toronto artists Lisa Steele and Kim Tomczak use video and lights to create the effect of rippling water on the underside of the highway—a reminder that the Gardiner runs along what used to the original shoreline of Lake Ontario. Ever wonder why the the Toronto Harbour Commission building is notably not on the harbour? It used to be surrounded by water on three sides!

Many of us developed an affection for opera early in life through Looney Tunes versions of Rossini and Wagner. For some, having Elmer Fudd chant “Kill the Wabbit” to the tune of “Ride of the Valkyries” in Chuck Jones's animated masterpiece taught us everything we wanted to know about opera. But if your ambition to appreciate the finer things in life extends beyond Bugs Bunny, real opera could be an intimidating world of old rich people, dead composers, elitist intellectualism and impenetrable European languages.

This what a bioterrorist looks like, according to the FBI. Dr. Steven Kurtz (right) is a Professor of Art at SUNY Buffalo and member of Critical Art Ensemble (CAE), an art and theatre collective co-founded by Kurtz and his late wife, Hope. In May 2004, the Kurtzes were preparing a piece called Free Range Grains, which allowed participants to test food for the presence of genetically modified organisms, when Hope died of heart failure...

As Torontoist reported yesterday, the Hummingbird Centre is changing its name to the Sony Centre for the Performing Arts, marking the second change in corporate naming rights during the venue's half-century existence. Support of the site has ranged from a philanthropic brewer (O'Keefe Brewing head E.P. Taylor) to a multinational media company.

Beyond the month of February, it is not often that Torontonians have a public opportunity to celebrate their city’s black legacy. But they’ll get one this weekend at the 15th annual Marcus Garvey Celebrations. The celebrations, which honour the iconic Jamaican American revolutionary, will this year also pay tribute to Torontonians Lucie and Thornton Blackburn in commemoration of the bicentenary of the abolition of the slave trade in Ontario.

The city of Paris has recently been courting tourists from London, England with a new series of ads that look like this:

Tut tut tut. We’re all very disappointed in you, John Krasinski, for your decision to star in License to Wed. Sure, you’ve been working so hard to build up your hipster cred—interviewing the Shins, playing on stage with Ben Gibbard, but I’m afraid we might have to revoke your hipster privileges.

Photo by Carrie Musgrave.

Photo of CP-7069 from Railroadfan.com

Torontoist has had a long history of critiquing Tourism Toronto's lackluster ad campaigns. Remember Toronto Unlimited? We had a field day with that one. And those awful Live With Culture ads? Yuck.

Billed as being about "Film & Culture About People from Israel & Palestine," the Voices Forward Film Festival is particularly intriguing because the area is going through a cultural renaissance right now, with writers and directors rejecting the nationalism of the previous generations to tell their own stories. The fest not only unites filmmakers from that troubled region, but it also shows Toronto audiences that, hey, it's not all bombing and hatred in the Middle East.

27 Front Street East, 2 blocks East of Union StationHaving attended a number of these things, Torontoist humbly recommends that they're worth going to if, A) you want to learn more about the nature of our energy and environmental challenges, and/or B) you want to learn more about the possible solutions. If, on the other hand, you already have some ideas about what you could personally do to make a difference, you might want to invest your time in actually doing them instead of sitting in a dark room listening to people talk.

How is National Poetry Month treating you? On the second week of celebration, Torontoist is beginning to buckle a little under the strain of too much fun, but it warms our hearts to witness the large number of bookish events offered this April. We are happy to announce the winners of our poetry contest as part of the nationwide festivities.

Just like Will Smith circa 1998, Tourism Toronto is going to Miami.

With the sun out, the temperatures high, one can only think of one thing—what's going on in the World of the -ist's?

"I’m going to Pakistan in November to share Q&A with young theatre artists during a festival celebrating Punjabi culture. I arrive on November 17. Look for more posts then."

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Canada Council for the Arts, the organization wants us to get involved in their "50 for 50" Arts Challenge. Canadians are invited to meet the challenge by engaging in 50 arts-related activities over the course of the year.

Last Thursday's 20th Anniversary bash for Artscape was a who's-who of Toronto arts philanthropy: the guest list boasted big names from around the city like Councillors Joe Mihevc and Gord Perks, Toronto Arts Council Executive Director Claire Hopkinson, Poet Laureate Pier Giorgio Di Cicco, and more. It was an evening of being seen, sampling a whirlwind of savoury hors d'oeuvres and trading congratulatory speeches with some of Toronto's most influential arts personalities.

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Do either of these ads say "Toronto" to you?

One of Toronto’s newest literary series, Toronto Wordstage (which is run by Allan Briesmaster, John Calabro, Beatriz Hausner, and Lucianno Iacobelli) celebrates its 13th edition this evening with a stellar line-up of writers.

Reading Toronto states "the city is a book with 100,000 million poems." Torontoist is aware of many poems that have been written by Toronto poets, but thinks there is ample room in the GTA for a few more (maybe a million-or-two would improve the present un-poetic monstrosity that is Dundas Square). We're also curious to know where new poems are being written: During TTC commutes? On the picturesque grounds of Casa Loma? Under the Gardiner?

Nine graduate students at Ryerson University and York University in the communications and culture program have banded together to create Make the World Your Salon: Modernist Salon Culture, an exhibit that resurrects the salon culture of the early twentieth century frequented by the bohemian artists of the day. The exhibit encompasses photography, artwork, and multi-media, and features graphic photography by New Yorker Carl Van Vechten; a reproduction of Marcel Duchamp’s With White Noise; and the screening of a documentary film about the Paris salon of Natalie Barney and her Sapphic circle.

When Coach House Books launched uTOpia: Towards a New Toronto last year we were absolutely, positively thrilled. The book brought together a group of people in love with the city and its potential.

Torontoist pals and favourite artistic couple (sorry Brangelina) Emily Schultz and Brian Joseph Davis are opening up the Centre for Culture and Leisure No.1 tomorrow night. The duo wanted to "provide a fluid, public space for play" and have opened up this spot just off Queen Street and Elm Grove Ave.

We start today's blog roundup with more line eavesdropping. This time it's a couple complaining about their single tickets and the definition of "best seat available." The gist of the complaint: