Results tagged “royalontariomuseum”

DANCE: In keeping with the gory theme of the week leading up to Halloween, The Chimera Project presents the return of Blood as part of the Harbourfront Centre's Next Steps Series. Choreographed by Malgorzata Nowacka (who is also the founder of The Chimera Project), Blood explores urban mythology using some of the company's typical style, fusing ballet with urban dance influences and improvisation. Enwave Theatre, Harbourfront Centre (231 Queen's Quay West), 8 p.m., $20–30.

Glass, Aluminum, Sky & Glass, Wood, Sky

Hot off the heels of another summer hit movie and likely Oscar-worthy role in Julie & Julia, Meryl Streep visited Toronto for an informal conversation chat with Globe and Mail journalist Johanna Schneller in the Royal Ontario Museum at a special event entitled "An Evening with Meryl Streep." The evening is part of the series The Question of Celebrity, a lineup of public programming surrounding the museum’s newest exhibition, "Vanity Fair Portraits: Photographs 1913-2008."

We can’t seem to get enough of looking at people, and famous faces are a whole other matter. Whether it’s subconsciously analyzing bone structure to gauge attractiveness, or searching for the unspoken in an subtle expression, we are captivated by images of each other, with celebrities the ultimate draw. The ROM is banking on this in their new exhibition, “Vanity Fair Portraits: Photographs 1913-2008.” Showcasing 150 photos from the magazine’s archives, it celebrates the act of looking at people, and of looking like you’re famous. The show is half of a joint venture with the AGO, who are presenting the work of Edward Steichen during the fifteen years that he was the principal photographer at Vanity Fair. Steichen forms the link between the two shows, with his work appearing in both.

       

The Institute for Contemporary Culture (ICC) at the ROM recently unveiled newly constructed walls in the Roloff Beny Gallery on the fourth floor of the Michael Lee-Chin Crystal. Nine brand new, soaring walls vary in height and angle to create a series of forms. Together, they produce a dialogue with the existing architecture and aim to enhance experiential variety for the visitor. The newly configured gallery space will launch on September 26 with the exhibition Vanity Fair Portraits: Photographs 1913–2008.

Aha! we thought, when news of the TTC's long-anticipated project to put art on our beloved Metropasses landed in our inbox: they get it! By issuing a public call for submissions of interest, the TTC was demonstrating not only a sensitivity to the small aesthetic details that can brighten our day, but giving Torontonians the opportunity to actively engage with the transit system on which they are most often merely passive riders. Maybe, we even dared think, Valentine Makhouleen's nifty designs might actually be put to use.

In the basement of the Royal Ontario Museum, the crowds marvel at the ancient Dead Sea Scrolls. They peer at the tiny Hebrew words, which form excerpts from the Bible and the Psalms. Upstairs on the museum’s third floor, an art installation explores the power of the word in a modern context.

On Friday, as part of Doors Open, the ROM hosted "The Bold Museum": an informal discussion between Kenton Vaughan (the director of The Museum, a documentary on the construction of the Michael Lee-Chin Crystal) and Kelvin Browne (the author of Bold Visions: The Architecture of the Royal Ontario Museum). We had high hopes for the event, as the ROM’s transformation is beautifully explored in Browne and Vaughan’s work, but instead of sharing their knowledge, the two spent the night discussing the merits of their creations, rather than the substance of them.

The TTC's newfound propensity for remodelling isn't limited to just their stations, shelters, routes, and vehicles: the transit organization is now in the midst of exploring how to open up the Metropass to local artists and arts institutions in time for the summer.

             

At the Royal Ontario Museum, the portraits of homeless or formerly-homeless people holding signs with self-scrawled messages on them start outside the main entrance on Bloor Street, one large-scale man and large-scale woman standing back-to-back, dwarfed by the Crystal. They continue life-sized just inside, one young woman hiding above the main entrance, an older man further inside off to the right. In total, there are eighteen portraits wheatpasted at spots on the Crystal's bare walls, part of a series called "The Unaddressed" created by Dan Bergeron—fauxreel. Like his spectacular Regent Park portraits from last year, Bergeron's focus in "The Unaddressed" is on uprooted subjects, which is why it makes sense that the portraits themselves refuse to rest in only one location: all eighteen portraits, in addition to being safely contained on the ROM's property and walls, are also mirrored on walls across Toronto.

In tough economic times, people look to business leaders who have experienced—and, even better, thrived through—nasty bear markets and recessions. Veteran investor Warren Buffett has become even more influential and a guiding voice in newspapers, in magazines, and on television. And, on Monday, Buffett's name was brought up in the Michael Lee-Chin crystal by the namesake of the space.

Following Wednesday's announcement by Ontario culture minister Aileen Carroll, six GTA cultural institutions will receive an additional $43.4 million in funding that recognizes “the innovative programming and collections that attract millions of visitors and help Ontario compete on the international stage.” The beneficiaries of this one-time surge of $18.6 million and total annual operating increase of $24.8 million are the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Royal Ontario Museum, the Royal Botanical Gardens, the Ontario Science Centre, the Ontario Heritage Trust, and the McMichael Canadian Art Collection.

On Saturday, the Royal Ontario Museum held PROM, an annual fundraiser thrown by the Young Patrons’ Circle program. In its fourth year, PROM drew eight hundred attendees, including National Post columnist Shinan Govani and the hosts of the After Show on MTV Canada. In total, the event raised over fifty thousand dollars for the museum.

No victors were declared last night in the ongoing struggle between the street and the man, between high and popular culture, between the alleyway and the gallery. In a panel discussion on the evolving nature of street art, the only consensus was that more conversations—open-ended, open-minded, open-hearted—are required.

The Hug Me Tree has gone high art. An icon of the Queen Street West shopping district for the past decade until its unceremonious uprooting last August, this humble tree stump is now on display at the Royal Ontario Museum.

The ROM is kicking off Egypt Month on Saturday, February 28 with a new attraction: the Book of the Dead (and no, it’s not the Necronomicon from the Evil Dead series—that demonic text was Sumerian). The seven metre–long scroll, which is part of the ROM’s Out of the Vault Series, has recently been restored to its full beauty. Written in 320 BC for a wealthy Ptolemaic Egyptian named Amen-em-hat, the text of the scroll contains numerous spells, hymns, and instructions to help guide the deceased through the underworld. The scroll also depicts Amen-em-hat fishing, farming, and standing in judgement before the Egyptian gods.

Vandalist recently sat down with OTHER, one of the artists participating in "Housepaint, Phase 2", now showing at the ROM. OTHER, a.k.a. Troy Lovegates, a.k.a. Derek Shamus Mehaffey, is an acclaimed street artist who has made his mark the world over. We caught up with him at his temporary studio space, just off Dufferin, while he prepared a piece bound for the ROM last month, and chatted about the show, being on the road, homelessness, and his Toronto roots.

The University of Toronto has purchased the McLaughlin Planetarium from the Royal Ontario Museum for $22 million, with plans for "academic use." The Planetarium, which we profiled in detail last March, was, since its closure, transformed into temporary offices for ROM employees and a temporary warehouse—one of the most amazing ones imaginable—for ROM artifacts. But the more time that passed after its closure, the less it seemed possible for the museum to be able to develop the land that it was on: the ROM was met with widespread opposition to a proposed condo project in 2005, and though they were still planning a tentative new development last year, we wrote then that "as impractical as it is now, the Planetarium still stands on hallowed ground, and it is hard to imagine that another fight over its future is not on the horizon." U of T and the ROM, regularly at odds over the Planetarium's fate, have seemed able to agree on that point: U of T President David Naylor described the purchase in a press release as a "win-win-win for the U of T, the ROM, and the public," and the Globe summarized the situation nicely: "The museum gets $22-million to help pay off the $84-million left owing to the provincial government after its $270-million expansion, the university gets badly needed room to grow and the public gets relief from a persistent threat to despoil a treasured landscape."

The ROM has latched onto the one sure-fire way to attract new customers amidst an economic crisis: they're giving stuff—that is, admission—away for free. To children. Actually, sorry, scratch that—to one child. This weekend, and every subsequent weekend up to, and including, February 8, every paying adult, senior, and student can bring along that one special daughter/son/grandchild/sibling, while the other pesky little tykes take care of themselves at home (that's what TV's for, right?).

HOLIDAYS: The ROM has created a holiday companion for its new Earth's Treasures gem exhibit. Special holiday activities include mining for gems, panning for gold, making diamond tiaras, and constructing scientific models of diamonds. The museum has arranged family fun on all levels of the Lee-Chin Crystal, and on New Year’s Day each adult, senior, or student admission gets one child in for free. Royal Ontario Museum, (100 Queens Park), 11 a.m.–5 p.m., $22.

A little over a year ago, Thorarinn Ingi Jonsson walked into the Royal Ontario Museum, left a bomb just inside its entrance, and walked out. The bomb, of course, was fake, a replica created for a class project at OCAD, but that hardly mattered: it looked just like the real thing, and when it was discovered, wrapped in a plastic bag with a note that said "this is not a bomb" on it, it shut down not only the museum and a significant stretch of Bloor Street but an AIDS fundraiser. Jonsson spoke to Torontoist before turning himself in to police; after that, he was thrown out of OCAD, charged with (and pleaded guilty to) mischief, placed on probation, and returned to Iceland, before coming back to Toronto in February and, only recently, speaking to press again.

SLUMBER PARTY: Kids are invited to pass out on the floor of the museum, without getting dragged out by security guards like you did during frosh week. The Royal Ontario Museum opens its doors tonight for a sleep-over like no other—children five and older are invited to check out dinosaur exhibits, talk to experts, watch a screening of A Night at the Museum, and take part in a late-night DJ/PJ party at ROMkids Sleepover: December. The night includes an evening snack, a healthy breakfast, and a high likelihood of someone looking up at the giant T-Rex skeleton in the middle of the night and peeing themselves. Royal Ontario Museum (100 Queen's Park), December 5, 5 p.m.–December 6, 10 a.m., $67.50 for members, $75.00 for non-members.

The Engelhard diamond. Photo by Rick Sheridan/American Museum of Natural History.

Thorarinn Ingi Jonsson—he of fake ROM bomb fame—has given an interview to the Post, the first since his conviction for mischief and subsequent probation in September. The interview's short, but there's a lot to take away from it: Jonsson reveals that his piece was "equally as big" in his native Reykjavik as here, but "in Toronto, it was crazy. Hate mail, and death threats, and people coming up on the street and threatening me"; he discusses some of the ways in which 9/11 was art (a comparison that, however disquieting, has been made by everyone from Jean Baudrillard to Elizabeth Wurtzel); talks about a piece of his in Reykjavik that pissed off the neighbours there; and claims that "besides the interruption to the benefit, the public response, and the way people handled the piece, I consider [the ROM piece] my finest work to date, in a certain way." Oh, and he really likes it here and hopes to come back: "I’m so in love with Toronto. I wish they were more positive towards me."

                                  

A small group of activists gathered outside the Royal Ontario Museum on Saturday to highlight the often-ignored plight of dinosaurs in captivity around the world. The energetic protesters from Dinosaurs In Need, Ontario, carried signs proclaiming "dinosaurs are people too" and pleading for help to "save steggy." A petition was available to sign, and copies of the group's newsletter, the T-Rex Times, were handed out to passersby. Children were targeted with small dinosaur-themed toys.

FESTIVAL: Ladyfest kicks off their highly anticipated music series tonight, as the week-long festival continues. Tonight, come out to the Boat for performances from electronic soul group Lal, alternative crooner Emma McKenna, and experimental pop band Miau Miau. Also starting today is "Ooh-La-La," the female-identifying art exhibit at Beaver Hall Gallery (rescheduled from Sunday), which will run until September 27. The Boat (158 Augusta Avenue), 9 p.m., $5–$10.

Every weekday morning, bright and early, we feature a photo (or two) from a photographer in the Torontoist Flickr Pool. It's our way of giving the many excellent photographers in our pool the attention that they deserve.

LECTURE: Join urban experts Brian Andrew, Mark Kingwell, and Jay Pridmore at the ROM for a discussion on large-scale urban development. The talk, Shanghai: City of the Future?, is presented by the Institute for Contemporary Culture at the Royal Ontario Museum and complements the ROM's current exhibition, Shanghai Kaleidoscope. Royal Ontario Museum (in the Signy & Cléophée Eaton Theatre), 7:30 p.m., $10 ($6 for Friends of the ICC, $8 for ROM Members).