REVISED: Event Occurs Tuesday at noon. Raising A Totem Pole - A rare event in Ontario.

Don Yeoman's latest will be raised at the McMichael on Wednesday morning. First new totem pole in a GTA public building since 1984
There are few opportunities to see a totem pole raised in Ontario. For one thing, although there are First Nations' artists who carve Totem Poles in the province, their work is often classed as tourism-driven. Before the turn of the last century, pole carving was not considered part of the Woodland culture.
No, the tradition of totem pole carvings belong to the First Nation Tribes of the Pacific Northwest Coast. Totem poles are monumental sculptures carved from large trees, usually cedar, but mostly Western Redcedar, and the peoples of the west coast have been making them since the 18th century.
According to Wikipedia "totem pole construction underwent a dramatic decline at the end of the 19th century due to American and Canadian policies and practices of acculturation and assimilation."
Although the number of new poles created last century was very small, the tradition continued. And today a number of successful native artists carve totem poles on commission. So successful are these artists that it is hard to purchase a new pole ... their work is such high demand.
Back in 1984, Toronto's sesquicentennial a new totem pole was commissioned and raised inside the public space of the Macleans Magazine / College Park building in downtown Toronto. Since then there hasn't been a totem raised in public space. But, that is going to change next Wednesday!
A new, very modern (the totem includes images of ipods, cell phones and computers) totem carved by Don Yeoman is to be erected next Wednesday morning, indoors, at the McMichael.
I have assisted in both the repossession of an indoor totem in Windsor and the erection of a large two-story totem in Curve Lake, Ontario. Because Totem's tend to have wings at the top, their erection, especially when it is windy, is a very tricky and dangerouns operation.
With that in mind, the McMichael is restricting access to the gallery on Wednesday to working media, when Don Yeomans' 20ft tall totem is erected inside the McMichael's Great Hall. Here are the details.

Photo Opportunity: REVISED TUESDAY, September 1, 2009 at NOON

A Media Exclusive by invitation only! This is the only opportunity to cover the installation of the McMichael’s latest major art acquisition – a twenty-foot totem pole to be raised in the gallery’s Grand Hall.
WHAT: The McMichael Canadian Art Collection has recently commissioned a major acquisition; a full-scale totem pole by artist Don Yeomans will be installed in the gallery as part of its permanent collection. The installation and raising of the twenty-foot totem pole will take place September 2nd at 10:00 a.m. in the gallery’s Grand Hall, which will be closed to the public. Media will have exclusive access to witness and photograph/film this historic moment.
WHEN: Wednesday, September 2, 2009 at 10:00 a.m. (photo op will take a maximum of 30 minutes)
WHERE: McMichael Canadian Art Collection, Grand Hall. The gallery is located on Islington Avenue, north of Major Mackenzie Drive in Kleinburg.
WHO: Media are invited to attend to witness/photograph/film the totem pole installation and speak with: Artist, Don Yeomans; McMichael Executive Director & CEO, Tom Smart.
WHY: Don Yeomans is one of the most respected and renowned Northwest Coast Native artists. Born of a Masset Haida father and a Métis mother from Slave Lake, Alberta, Yeomans has studied and worked in the Haida style since he was a youth. He uses many materials in the creation of his artworks and his carving skills are exceptional and consummate his understanding of the Haida form. This latest thought-provoking artwork challenges many traditional native values by interweaving traditional iconography and totemic animals with today’s different modern modes of technological communication.
About the McMichael
The McMichael Canadian Art Collection is an agency of the Government of Ontario and acknowledges the support of the Ministry of 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 on Islington Avenue, north of Major Mackenzie Drive in Kleinburg, and is open daily from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Admission is $15 for adults, $12 for seniors/students and $30 for families. There is a $5 fee for parking. For more information about the gallery visit www.mcmichael.com.
YOU MUST RSVP PLEASE. Media contact:
Stephen Weir, Publicist
Gallery: 905.893.1121 ext. 2529
Toronto Office: 416.489.5868
Cell: 416.801.3101
stephen@stephenweir.com

Media Preview: June 25th, see the Contemporary First Nations Art of the Northwest Coast exhibition before it opens

.


MEDIA PREVIEW

A McMichael Exclusive! Exhibition of Contemporary First Nations Art of the Northwest Coast will be on display this summer.

When: Thursday, June 25, 2009, 11:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.

Where: McMichael Canadian Art Collection, 10365 Islington Avenue, Kleinburg (just north of the Major Mackenzie Drive, Islington Avenue intersection)

Why: Challenging Traditions: Contemporary First Nations Art of the Northwest Coast, organized by the McMichael Canadian Art Collection and guest-curated by Vancouver-born Ian M. Thom – the resident expert on British Columbia’s art and artists – will be exclusively shown at the McMichael this summer before it goes on tour. The McMichael and Douglas & McIntyre have co-published a landmark book by the same name, written by Thom. The forty artists included in the exhibition have been selected by Ian Thom and each artist has built a substantial and important career. They address, in their own ways, an important visual and cultural tradition in a unique, personal voice. Lastly, and perhaps most controversially, each artist produces work of remarkable depth, beauty and quality. Moreover, the curator has attempted, wherever possible, to select recent, newly created work in direct consultation with the artists themselves.

Who: Meet exhibition curator and author, Ian M. Thom; meet McMichael Executive Director and CEO, Tom Smart.

What: This summer, the McMichael Canadian Art Collection, renowned for exclusively showcasing Canadian art, will feature an extraordinary exhibition of Northwest Coast contemporary art. Challenging Traditions: Contemporary First Nations Art of the Northwest Coast explores the re-emergence of the art of the Northwest Coast. View over seventy works by 21st-century contemporary First Nations artists who have taken traditional Northwest Coast artistic practices and infused them with modern cultural influences.

Challenging Traditions: Contemporary First Nations Art of the Northwest Coast has been financially assisted by the Ontario Cultural Attractions Fund, a program of the Government of Ontario through the Ministry of Culture, administered by the Ontario Cultural Attractions Fund Corporation. The publication and accompanying curatorial research has been generously funded by the Audain Foundation.

About the Gallery

The McMichael Canadian Art Collection is an agency of the Government of Ontario and acknowledges the support of the Ministry of 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 on Islington Avenue, north of Major Mackenzie Drive in Kleinburg, and is open daily from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Admission is $15 for adults, $12 for seniors/students and $30 for families. There is a $5 fee for parking. For more information about the gallery visit www.mcmichael.com.

-30-

Image credit: Bill Henderson (Kwakwaka’wakw, b.1950), Sun Mask,2007–2008, yellow cedar, cedar bark rope, acrylic, 147.3 x 147.3 x 9.1 cm, Private Collection, Courtesy of Inuit Gallery of Vancouver Ltd. Photograph by Kenji Nagai

To RSVP, for further information or to receive high resolution photographs, contact:

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

Post Script to McMichael Media Preview of Three Art Exhibitions

So, after reading about how the McMichael Canadian Art Collection went against traditional PR practises and staged not one but three art exhibition media previews at the very same time on the very same day, you must be wondering how it played out? Very well -- although the very unstructed nature of the event(s) called for flexibility that even I found difficult to provide.
This is what happened. The National Post did not respond to the Media Alert. Instead, a reporter from the Ottawa Citizen called the gallery and conducted a phone interview about the Brush with War exhibition. His story appeared 10 days before the media event and was picked up by a number of Canwest papers. A few days before the Media Preview, the National Post called the gallery and requested pictures from the War exhibition. Three days before the Preview, the National Post ran a two-page expanded version of the Citizen story.
The Toronto Star called to say they wanted to see the two Karsh shows. "But", they told me, "We can't wait to Thursday. We have to come out Tuesday or we won't be able to come at all." Their reporter did visit the gallery and did get to see the Karsh exhibitions ... sorta. Not all of the pictures had been framed yet and nothing was hung ... we leaned the Karsh masterpieces against the freshly painted walls at floor level to give the reporter an idea of what the show will look like by the time the Media Preview rolls around.
The Vaughan Weekly came out a half-hour early on press preview day, and left just as the event began. The Vaughan Citizen, Rogers TV, a Chinese Daily Newspaper, Beach Digital and the Globe and Mail came out on Thursday at 11 and got to meet six war artists who saw action while covering Canada's involvement in peace keeping assignments and in war time. They also got to interview the three curators of the exhibitions and take pictures of the people installing the art. And, for the first time in years we had coffee and tea thanks to he Canadian Forces.
After the Media Preview ended a TV crew from Bravo came and did a story on all three shows (we asked the curators and artists to stay for the taping). At the very end of the day North Magazine came by to take photographs of the McMichael's CEO and the gallery's new head curator.
Great turnout for the McMichael even if they went, as usual, against Weir's rules for when to hold a press event.