Wednesday 30 June 2010

2-for-1 Admission Tickets, Canada Day at the McMichael Gallery

McMichael Canadian Art Collection Ready to Celebrate Canada Day with One-Day Only 2-for-1 Admission Tickets!

June 30, 2010 Kleinburg, Ontario – In the spirit of celebrating the magnificent art of this country, the McMichael Canadian Art Collection is offering 2-for-1 general admission on Canada Day, Thursday, July 1, 2010. The McMichael gallery, located in Kleinburg, is the only major public gallery in Canada to exclusively collect and exhibit Canadian art and will be open 10:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m. on Canada Day. Visitors are invited to bring a friend or family member on July 1 to take advantage of the gallery’s 2-for-1 offer on general admission tickets for adults, seniors and students. Children ages 5 and under always enjoy free admission.

GENERAL ADMISSION PRICES:
Adults – $15
Seniors (65+) – $12
Students (with valid i.d.) – $12
Children ages 5 and under – Free

On Canada Day bring a friend or family member to the McMichael and enjoy 2-for-1 admission to the entire gallery!
“After almost 50 years of being located in Kleinburg, there are some people, many of them Torontonians, who have still not visited the McMichael Canadian Art Collection,” explains gallery Executive Director and CEO, Tom Smart. “We want to share the beauty of our art collection and the splendor of our grounds with as many people as possible. We hope this will prompt people to get away from the busy city and will entice our local area residents to come out to the gallery on this great Canadian holiday.”
The McMichael Canadian Art Collection is located in the village of Kleinburg, just minutes from Pearson International Airport and a short drive from downtown Toronto. The McMichael offers visitors the unique opportunity to enjoy Canadian landscape paintings in the woodland setting that inspired them. The gallery is situated amidst 100 acres of serene conservation land and housed in a sprawling complex of intimate galleries and exhibition halls built of fieldstone and hand-hewn logs. Floor-to-ceiling windows enable gallery-goers to take in marvelous views of the densely wooded Humber River Valley as they enter and exit the gallery spaces.

The Group of Seven: Revelations and Changing Perspectives
Curated by Katerina Atanassova, Sharona Adamowicz-Clements, Chris Finn
To mark the ninetieth anniversary of the Group of Seven’s first exhibition, rarely seen works from the McMichael collection and private collections are arrayed in the galleries in new and dynamic ways, opening up new themes and ideas to explore.
Following in the Footsteps of the Group of Seven
Curated by Sharona Adamowicz-Clements and Linda Morita
For over thirty years, art enthusiasts Jim and Sue Waddington have been locating the exact sketching sites for artworks by Group of Seven members. This enchanting exhibition showcases the Group’s art alongside stunning photographs taken of the original locations that inspired these artworks some eighty years ago.
Dorothy Knowles: Land Marks
Organized by the Moose Jaw Museum & Art Gallery
Curated by Terry Fenton
This exhibition celebrates Knowles’ favourite subjects—the lush river valleys and prairie landscapes that characterized her rural childhood. Knowles radically chose to document her own backyard during a time when abstract art was rapidly gaining ground.

About the McMichael
The McMichael Canadian Art Collection is an agency of the Government of Ontario and acknowledges the support of the Ministry of Tourism and Culture. It is the foremost venue in the country showcasing the Group of Seven and their contemporaries. In addition to touring exhibitions, its permanent collection consists of more than 5,500 artworks, including paintings by the Group of Seven and their contemporaries, First Nations and Inuit artists. The gallery is located at 10365 Islington Avenue, north of Major Mackenzie Drive in Kleinburg, and is open daily from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. There is a $5.00 parking fee. For directions and information, visit www.mcmichael.com.

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High Resolution images available.

Media Contact
Stephen Weir, Publicist
Gallery: 905.893.1121 ext. 2529
Toronto Office: 416.489.5868
Cell: 416.801.3101
sweir@mcmichael.com

Tuesday 22 June 2010

The Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction Marks 10th Anniversary and Welcomes Back Its Inaugural Jury






The Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction Marks 10th Anniversary and
Welcomes Back Its Inaugural Jury


Noreen Taylor, chair of the board of trustees of the Charles Taylor Foundation, announced today that the jurors for the 2011 Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction are Neil Bissoondath, Eva-Marie Kroller, and David Macfarlane. These three prominent Canadian authors all served on the jury for the first prize awarding in 2000.

About the Members of the Jury:

Neil Bissoondath’s latest novel, The Soul of All Great Designs, has just been published in Spain and France, where it was nominated for several prizes including the Prix Fémina (étranger). His novel, The Worlds Within Her, short-listed for the Governor General’s Literary Award and the Prix Fémina, won Le Prix Littéraire des Amériques insulaires (France). His books include The Unyielding Clamour of the Night (The Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction, 2005), Doing The Heart Good (The Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction, 2002), Selling Illusions: The Cult of Multiculturalism in Canada (The Gordon Montador Award and le Prix Spirale de l’essai); The Innocence of Age (The Canadian Authors’ Association Award for Fiction); On the Eve of Uncertain Tomorrows; Digging Up the Mountains; and A Casual Brutality. In 1999, he was made Doctor of Letters (honoris causa) by York University and, in 2008, Docteur en littérature (honoris causa) by l’Université de Moncton. He was recently named Chevalier of the Ordre national du Québec by Premier Jean Charest. He has lived in Toronto and Montréal, and currently resides in Québec City, where he is professor of creative writing at Université Laval.
Eva-Marie Kroller studied at the universities of Bonn and Freiburg, Germany and, in 1978, received her Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from the University of Alberta. She teaches in the Department of English at the University of British Columbia, was Chair of UBC’s program in Comparative Literature from 1990 – 1995 and edited the journal Canadian Literature from 1995 – 2003. She has been visiting professor at the Free University of Berlin and the University of Bonn, and her awards and distinctions include an Alexander-von-Humboldt Fellowship, a Killam Research Prize, a Killam Teaching Prize, a Killam Faculty Research Fellowship, and the Distinguished Editor Award of the Council of Editors of Learned Journals. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. Her most recent publications are the Cambridge Companion to Canadian Literature (2004) and, co-edited with Coral Ann Howells, the Cambridge History of Canadian Literature (2009). Currently writing biographies of the McIlwraith family and of Thomas B. Costain, she lives in Vancouver.
David Macfarlane’s books have been published in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Italy. His first book, The Danger Tree, won the Canadian Author’s Association Award for non-fiction. His novel Summer Gone was nominated for The Giller Prize and won the Chapters/Books in Canada first novel award. He is the winner of numerous National Magazine Awards and a National Newspaper Award for his journalism. His play, Fishwrap, was produced at Toronto’s Tarragon Theatre. In collaboration with composer Peter Skoggard, he recently completed a libretto for the opera Stratas, based on the life of the celebrated soprano, Teresa Stratas, and in 2008 he commissioned and edited a collection of essays called Toronto: A City Becoming. He wrote the text for What Will Be Has Always Been: An Illustrated History of Toronto, and he is currently at work on The Toronto Project, a collaborative online portal to Toronto and its history. Last fall he produced The Toronto Suite, a cross-genre musical creation, in association with the Via Salzburg Chamber Ensemble at Toronto’s Glenn Gould Theatre. A musician with the not-yet-too-famous rhythm and blues band, Three Chord Johnny, he lives in Toronto.

About the Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction:

The trustees of the Charles Taylor Foundation established The Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction to commemorate the life and work of the late Charles Taylor, one of Canada’s foremost essayists and a prominent member of the Canadian literary community. Charles Taylor was a foreign correspondent with The Globe and Mail and the author of four books: Radical Tories; Reporter in Red China; Six Journeys: A Canadian Pattern; and Snow Job.
The Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction is awarded annually to the author whose book best combines an excellent command of the English language, an elegance of style,quality of thought,and subtlety of perception.
The prize consists of $25,000 for the winning author and $2,000 for each of the remaining finalists. All of the shortlisted titles receive extensive national publicity and marketing support.
The jury will announce the shortlist for The 2011 Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction on January 5 and the winner on February 14, 2011, at events to be held in downtown Toronto.
The trustees of the Charles Taylor Foundation are Michael Bradley (Toronto),Judith Mappin (Montreal), David Staines (Ottawa), and Noreen Taylor (Toronto).
The Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction is presented by the Charles Taylor Foundation with the support of its partners: Ben McNally Books, Bravo! and Book Television, CNW Group, Event Source, Indigo Books and Music, Le Meridien King Edward Hotel, Quill & Quire, The Globe and Mail, and Windfields Farm.
For more information please visit: www.thecharlestaylorprize.ca
http://www.thecharlestaylorprize.ca/2011/hr_images/2011_j_neil_bissoondath_hr.jpg
http://www.thecharlestaylorprize.ca/2011/hr_images/2011_j_eva_marie_kroller_hr.jpg
http://www.thecharlestaylorprize.ca/2011/hr_images/2011_j_david_macfarlane_hr.jpg

Photographs: Top - Neil Bissoondath.
Lower Left - Eva Marie Kroller.
Lower Right = David Macfarlane

Toronto Irony: Braving the fences and the police to hear about an assocation dedicated to breaking down walls


Awards Given Out By Toronto Community Foundation


Underneath the boom box singers and after-school chefs, there is indeed a statue of Glen Gould! This morning, behind 10 ft tall fences and under the watchful eyes of thousands of G10 security officers, the Toronto Community Foundation held an awards event in the CBC's downtown Glen Gould Theatre. The Toronto Community Foundation connects philanthropy with community needs and opportunities in order, according to the TCC "to make Toronto the best place to live, work, learn, and grow."
IT is one of the largest of Canada's 165 community foundations. Established in 1981, the TCC has over $225 million in assets and works with hundreds of concerned Torontonians and high-impact community organizations.
This morning's event - Vital Toronto 2010 - saw the presentation of 26 awards to people and groups who make a difference in the city. The children, pictured above, take part in Beyond 3.30, an after-school programme at a number of city schools including Rockcliffe Middle School and Lawrence Heights Middle School.
Beyond 3.30 gets kids involved in meaningful (and fun) projects immediately after school classes end, Monday to Friday.The Toronto Community Foundation gives funding to the project.
Some of the children enrolled in Beyond 3.30 took part in the morning TCF event - cooking food, putting on drumming demonstrations and performing Beat Box on the Glenn Gould stage.
Matt Galloway, host of CBC Radio's Metro Morning,was the MC for the 2-hour event. His special guest was outgoing mayor, David Miller.

Wednesday 16 June 2010

Breaking News: McMichael Canadian Art Collection will remain open throughout the G8 and G20 Summits

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McMichael Canadian Art Collection will remain open throughout the G8 and G20 Summits

Experience the exceptional reinstallation of the gallery’s renowned permanent collection plus two new exhibitions!


June 16, 2010 Kleinburg, Ontario… The McMichael Canadian Art Collection, the only major public gallery in Canada to exclusively collect and exhibit Canadian art, announced today that it will remain open throughout the G8 and G20 Summits – June 25 to 27, 2010. The gallery will be open 10:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m. seven days a week throughout the summer.
“I think that any G8 and G20 visitors, be they delegates or press, wanting to experience the very best in Canadian art should make a point of visiting the McMichael,” said gallery Executive Director and CEO, Tom Smart. “We are the spiritual home of the Group of Seven and display remarkable works by First Nations and Inuit artists. We have always had a policy of being 100% Canadian in terms of what we collect and exhibit.”
The McMichael Canadian Art Collection is located in the village of Kleinburg, just minutes from Pearson International Airport and a short drive from downtown Toronto. The McMichael offers visitors the unique opportunity to enjoy Canadian landscape paintings in the woodland setting that inspired them. The gallery is situated amidst 100 acres of serene conservation land and housed in a sprawling complex of intimate galleries and exhibition halls built of fieldstone and hand-hewn logs. Floor-to-ceiling windows enable gallery-goers to take in marvelous views of the densely wooded Humber River Valley as they enter and exit the gallery spaces.
During the G8 and G20 summit the gallery has three special exhibits on display. These exhibitions are:
The Group of Seven: Revelations and Changing Perspectives
Curated by Katerina Atanassova, Sharona Adamowicz-Clements, Chris Finn
To mark the 90th anniversary of the Group of Seven’s first exhibition, rarely seen works from the McMichael collection and private collections are arrayed in the galleries in new and dynamic ways, opening up new themes and ideas to explore.
Following in the Footsteps of the Group of Seven
Curated by Sharona Adamowicz-Clements and Linda Morita
For over thirty years, art enthusiasts Jim and Sue Waddington have been locating the exact sketching sites for artworks by Group of Seven members. This enchanting exhibition showcases the Group’s art alongside stunning photographs taken of the original locations that inspired these artworks some eighty years ago.
Dorothy Knowles: Land Marks
Organized by the Moose Jaw Museum & Art Gallery
Curated by Terry Fenton
This exhibition celebrates Knowles’ favourite subjects—the lush river valleys and prairie landscapes that characterized her rural childhood. Knowles radically chose to document her own backyard during a time when abstract art was rapidly gaining ground.
About the McMichael
The McMichael Canadian Art Collection is an agency of the Government of Ontario and acknowledges the support of the Ministry of Tourism and Culture. It is the foremost venue in the country showcasing the Group of Seven and their contemporaries. In addition to touring exhibitions, its permanent collection consists of more than 5,500 artworks, including paintings by the Group of Seven and their contemporaries, First Nations and Inuit artists. The gallery is located at 10365 Islington Avenue, north of Major Mackenzie Drive in Kleinburg, and is open daily from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. For directions and information, visit www.mcmichael.com.

CUTLINE: Sask. Artist Dorothy Knowles attended the recent opening of her exhibition at the McMichael Canadian Art Collection.
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High Resolution images available

Media Contact

Stephen Weir, Publicist
Gallery: 905.893.1121 ext. 2529
Toronto Office: 416.489.5868
Cell: 416.801.3101
sweir@mcmichael.com

Wednesday 9 June 2010

McMichael Canadian Art Collection Host to Sorbara Press Announcement

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June 9th - Greg Sorbara announces $4.42 million in funding to Tourism Region at Gallery Press Conference

Vaughan MPP Greg Sorbara was at the McMichael Canadian Art Collection this morning to make a major funding announcement on behalf of the Minister of Tourism and Culture. Speaking to a small crowd Sorbara announced that the Government of Ontario is "boosting support for tourism in York Region to help attract more visitors, investment and economic activity."
According to the former Finance Minister, Ontario is "providing $4.42 million over the next two years to help tourism partners develop a new regional tourism organization and enhance destination marketing and management."
"This new regional tourism organization," he continued, "which will serve Dufferin, Caledon, Durham Region and York Region, will help the tourism industry across the regioncontinue to grow and support local jobs and businesses."
The half-hour press event was held in the McMichael's historic Founder's Lounge. Mr. Sorbara was introduced by Tom Smart the CEO of the McMichael.
The announcement was a timely one. Tourism Week in Canada runs June 7th to 13th this year.
Cutlines: Top. Greg Sorbara announces provincial support to Tourism in York Region, Durham Region and the Hills of the Headwaters.
Right. Greg Sorbara MPP, Vaughan Riding is getting miked up for interview with Fil Martino, Rogers Cable 10.

Tuesday 8 June 2010

Four Million Dollar Boast For York Region Tourism From Province - Press Conference Tomorrow

Local Tourist Boards in Dufferin, Durham and York Regions To Get A Boost. Press Conference at the McMichael Gallery



Greg Sorbara,
M.P.P. Vaughan


Greg Sorbara to make an important funding announcement for the local Regional Tourism Organization of Dufferin, Durham, and York Regions.

DATE:
Wednesday, June 9, 2010

TIME:
9:30am

LOCATION:
McMichael Canadian Art Gallery
10365 Islington Ave.
Kleinburg , Ontario
L0J 1C0

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For further information contact:

Rose Vecchiarelli
Office of Greg Sorbara, MPP
905-851-0440

Issued by Stephen Weir on behalf of the Province of Ontario. 416-801-3101