Experience Blue!

A night under a sky so blue,
so blue, so blue.

The music, the setting, the emotion....all for a very worthy cause.

I should have blogged about this a couple of months ago, but just came across some of the opening music to this spectacular fundraiser that took place back in October of 2011. It was the major Bell fundraiser for CAMH called "One Night Under A Blue Sky"

You must listen to "MIRROR MASK" by Composer/Producer Robert Marchand (Bobbyfreeze). It was one of the 'opening pieces' for the gala. I would also like to acknowledge that this amazing night was produced by Montreal's Circo de Bakuza under the guidance of Vincent Drolet. Art direction by the very talented Tony Babinski.

As you stare at the top photo and play the music, it will give you a good feeling of what being there was like. Can you imagine? What an incredible audio/visual experience that elevates to a whole new level of performance.

As part of a company group whose a major Bell Canada partner, a friend was invited to this 'blue' gala and said it was most interesting and definitely worthwhile.

You may wonder what it was all about? "One Night Under A Blue Sky" was a big time corporate fundraiser run by Bell for CAMH - Centre for Addiction and Mental Health - and aside from the financial support, the event goes a long way to raising awareness and the understanding of mental health issues. We've become so enamored with our always-on, hyperconnected lifestyles, it's sometimes easy to forget that we're humans and not machines. If you don't think this takes a toll on mental health, I'd say you need a reality check.

From what I've heard the entertainment was a cut or two above Medievel Times. They had two world class troupes, along with several performers covering a variety of expressive modes. Let's just say it was a heady mix of highbrow cabaret, precision dance, performance art, world music and Cirque du Soleil; along with lots of haute coutere, fire, fog and water. See that piano? It was on WATER! The entertainment went beyond description and those in attendance were oooh and awwwed by spectacular music and performance artists.



Congratulations to Bell for getting so much support around such an important issue. If you're looking to take your next big party to the next level and want to add a little spark, you should probably get in touch with Freedom Ballet, Robert Marchand and La Salamandre. Just make sure you give them lots of space and don't leave anything around that easily catches fire. Anyhow, just for a taste, here's a bit of what they had going on - are you thinking Peter Gabriel?




**Photo's were taken by a guest with an iphone. I enhanced them in Picasa.

*** Tony Babinski is a Montreal based writer, creator and filmaker. He has worked with SID LEE since 2000 and is author of Cirque Du Soleil:20 Years Under The Sun, the authorized history of Cirque Du Soleil. Check out Tony Babinski's blog HERE.

***CIRCO DE BAKUZA is a creative agency specializing in events, branding and experiential marketing.We define our work as telling stories and starting conversations. Our creative and strategic services are designed to create universes, create conversation and create ambassadors.

Martha's Birthday

Image: Letter to the World, 1940 by Barbara Morgan

Artists who have been blessed with longevity have been given the incredible gift of retrospection. To recount a life well lived, to explore humanity; and to rediscover and reinvent the universal story.

Marth Graham would be 117 years young today. Graham was born in 1894 and is known for creating a completely new style of dance in the 1920s and 1930s. She started her own dance company in 1926 and created 181 dances throughout her life, until she passed away in 1991. Read more HERE.

An animated Google Doodle on the search giant's homepage today celebrates what would have been the 117th birthday of this incredible lady..a dancer and choreographer.

The animation begins with a dancer on the far right of the homepage performing one of Graham's signature works. She morphs into another dancer and then another, until there are five figures spelling out the Google logo with their movement.

Happy Birthday Martha!

Get ready for the all nighter!

Nuit Blanche Toronto: Curators & Artists Announced!

Get ready, Toronto!

This year, the city’s much-loved “All Night Contemporary Art Thing”, Nuit Blanche, takes place on October 2, 2010 from 7 pm to 7 am.

Norico Sunayama, A Sultry World, 2006
Image: Kazuki Suzuki - C Halper Nuit09 ZoneC 327

It should be good, with a great lineup of curators, each of whom will curate a section of downtown. We have high hopes for McMaster’s choice of The Open Ended Group, Anthony Kiendl’s choice of Dan Graham and Christof Migone’s choice of French artist Davide Balula, in particular. And we’re sure Toronto boy Darren O’Donnell (of Haircuts for Children fame) will not disappoint.

GERALD MCMASTER from the AGO will curate the area in and around Yorkville, from Yonge Street to Avenue Road. The artists McMaster features include French artist Agnès Winter and New York’s digital artists The Open Ended Group (Paul Kaiser, Shelley Eshkar and Marc Downie).

ANTHONY KIENDL, Director of Plug In in Winnipeg, will curate the west side of Yonge from College Street to Queen Street West. His exhibition includes a new collaborative work by Leah Singer and Lee Ranaldo of the band Sonic Youth, and a new work by the excellent New York conceptual artist Dan Graham.

SARAH ROBAYO SHERIDAN, co-director of Mercer Union, will curate the east side of Yonge from Gerrard Street south to Queen Street West. Sheridan will be working with the United Kingdom’s Ryan Gander and Toronto’s Darren O’Donnell, among others.

CHRISTOF MIGONE from the Blackwood Gallery, will curate the Financial District, straddling Yonge Street from Queen Street to Front Street. Migone’s exhibition features artists such as France’s Davide Balula and Halifax artist Michael Fernandes.


For more on Nuit Blanche, please click HERE.

Significant, Indigenous, Artist, Scholar, Writer and Curator

Image by Angus Rowe MacPherson

Stone Parliament of Art would like to introduce Gerry McMaster, one of Canada's finest and most distinguished artists. You'll be hearing more from McMaster soon! He's just been named as one of the curators of Nuit Blanche 2010 and will curate the area in and around Yorkville, from Yonge Street to Avenue Road. You may remember our picture of this area.

Gerald R. McMaster, a Plains Cree, was born on the Red Pheasant Reserve in 1953. He is a significant figure in contemporary Indigenous art in Canada because of his work as an artist, writer, curator, and prominent scholar. As an artist he works in both two-dimensional and installation media, using humour and irony to convey his comments on colonialism and stereotypes of plains First Nations.














In 1981 McMaster was appointed Curator of Contemporary Indian Art and subsequently became Curator-in-Charge of the First Peoples Hall, at the Canadian Museum of Civilization. He created such important exhibitions as In the Shadow of the Sun (1988), INDIGENA (1992), and Reservation X (1999). Since 2000 he has worked for the Smithsonian Institute’s National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, DC. McMaster began his education at the Institute of American Indian Arts, and recently received a PhD from the Amsterdam School of Cultural Analysis. From 1977 to 1981 he was coordinator of the Indian Art Program at the Saskatchewan Indian Federated College (now First Nations University of Canada).








Gerald McMater, November 1985







Colour Images: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerald_McMaster
BW Image: HERE.

ART MATTERS: Citizens, artists, academics and administrators together discuss the challenges facing culture and examine these issues in our society.

ART MATTERS!

I SEE WHAT YOU MEAN!
Big Blue Bear ~ Colorado Convention Center.

She understands the value of arts and culture. Last week in Montreal, Governor General Michaëlle Jean gave this statement: “Culture must be able to express itself everywhere and always, and be accessible to as many people as possible, for it bears within it our choices, our hopes, our memory and our imagination.”

Canada’s beautiful, and arty Governor General, Michaëlle Jean.
Image: divineshows.com

On the evening of March 1, culture-minded Torontonians gathered at a Town Hall meeting to protest the City Council’s rejection of BeautifulCity.com’s initiative to have taxes from advertising billboards going toward arts and culture.

It might not seem like a big deal, but it points to the fact that the arts community must keep fighting for recognition of the importance of art in Toronto. It’s the most obvious difference between Toronto and cities like Chicago and Montreal.

Isn’t it odd that Canada’s Governor General understands - even champions - the value of arts and culture, as does the City of Montreal and La Belle Province, while Toronto City Council (not to mention Harper’s government) has yet to have the foresight to see how a tax on billboard ads (outside the box funding stream, hello) should be used to beautify the city, creating significant long-term value for city dwellers? Especially at a time when Toronto is undergoing significant densification? (The 'Sociologists' that read this blog should enjoy this link. It includes those little charts that they're crazy about. *smile*)

On February 23, 2010 their Excellencies the Right Honourable Michaëlle Jean, Governor General of Canada, and Mr. Jean-Daniel Lafond hosted the first Art Matters public forum to be held in Montréal, at the Société des arts technologiques (SAT). The event was themed “Citizens, to the arts! (Re)Connecting citizens, artists and the arts” and honoured the recipients of this year’s Governor General’s Performing Arts Awards.

For the past four years, Rideau Hall—on His Excellency Jean Daniel Lafond’s initiative—has organized a series of forums on culture and society called Art Matters. They are wonderful opportunities to bring citizens, artists, academics and administrators together to discuss the challenges facing culture and to examine these issues in our society. More than 40 sessions have already been held across Canada and abroad.

HuffPo agrees, saying: “Art has the power to inspire, to heal, to transform, to rehabilitate, to bear witness, and to make us believe that there are better days ahead.” Read more from the Huffington Post HERE.

For more information on the Art Matters forums, please click HERE

For more on BeautifulCity.ca, and to sign the petition, please click HERE.




Resources:VOCA,Huffington Post, Futurist:Torontoist,Montreal Highlights Festival,Nuit Blanche.

Arts & Culture Alive and Well In Guelph!

The Guelph Arts Council

Guelph's Fête Romantique was the 24th annual fundraiser giving those who supported the arts in the city of Guelph, a chance to win a gourmet dinner for six served by members of the council in a local heritage home. My cousin who sits on the board sold me two tickets and once again I didn't win, but there is always next year! I can't wait to see what they plan for the 25th anniversary! With little funding directed toward the arts, this is a very worthwhile fundraiser.

If you purchased a Fête Romantique ticket and haven't heard if you've won you probably didn't. Winners were notified last Thursday. Check HERE.
It was another successful year - $16,000 raised in support of arts and heritage services and programs in the community.

Stone Parliament of Art congratulates all the winners and thanks everyone who worked so hard keeping arts & culture alive and kicking in our great city!

Fruit

by Francesca

Stone Parliament is travelling these days! Montreal, Washington, D.C., New York, Chicago and onward!

Travelling

Oil by Meg Grinder

CV/bio

It's all about TIME!

During the next couple of months Stone Parliament of Art is on the run! We're travelling to some very cool places! We have always travelled great lengths to bring you what we consider the best in art, music and performance. We like to cover a variety of artists, from the very famous to lesser known independents. All deserve our attention. We find it's usually the artist's that are less known that make the most impact so stay tuned at the Parliament in the future. You're going to like what you see and hear! From museums to musicians, musicals to opera...from mountains to wide open spaces. It's an exciting time!

You probably remember reading here about Kronos. Stone Parliament has good news! You don't have to wait until March 27th to see Kronos perform at the DeBartolo Centre (University of Notre Dame.) If you're going to be in the Chicago area come see Kronos at McAninch Arts Center this Friday, February 5 at 8 PM!

For tickets click HERE.

Driving directions HERE.

College of DuPage, 425 Fawell Blvd, Glen Ellyn, IL 60137
(630) 942-4000

FOXY LADY

by Kronos

Prof Makes Headlines!

Stone Parliament of Art has featured drama professor Judith Thompson before on the blog and we're thrilled to bring more good news. Today she appears on the front page of the Review section of the Globe and Mail praising her three decades of drama in words and photographs. Thirty years ago, her first play, The Crackwalker, debuted at Theatre Passe Muraille Backspace. Her new show, Such Creatures, opens this week at the same theatre where she started her career.

For those unfamiliar with Thompson, she's been a U of G professor since 1992, is an award-winning playwright and is known for her complex and sometimes disturbing plays that give voice to human failings and accomplishments. In 2009 she won the Amnesty International Freedom of Expression Award for her political play Palace of the End. In 2008, she was a finalist for the Governor General's Literary Awards and was the first Canadian to win the prestigious Susan Smith Blackburn Prize.

She has also been nominated for a Genie Award twice, was a finalist for the inaugural Premier’s Award for Excellence in the Arts and won the Floyd S. Chalmers Canadian Play Award. She was named an officer of the Order of Canada in 2005, considered the country’s highest honour of lifetime achievement, for her outstanding contributions in arts and writing.

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* Congratulations once again Judith! We're very proud of you!

*Image: here
*NEW YORK TIMES reveiw of JUDITH THOMPSON'S ''Crackwalker'' (at the Hudson Guild Theater)

English Prof Named Toronto's Poet Laureate

University of Guelph English professor Dionne Brand today was named Toronto's poet laureate. As the city's literary ambassador, she'll attend events as an advocate for poetry, language and the arts. She'll also create a literary legacy project.

“It’s an honour to be the poet laureate of Toronto,” said Brand. “I have a great passion for this city. In its multiplicity, it is constantly rich and surprising. I've written this about it in thirsty — that wild waiting at traffic lights off the end of the world, where nothing is simple, nothing, in the city there is no simple love or simple fidelity, the heart is slippery.”

Dionne Brand, far left, poses Howard Akler, Alana Wilcox, and Jason McBride.

Image:http://www.quillandquire.com