Scotiabank Caribana 2010 - Event Calender issued by Stephen Weir & Associates

The official Caribana 2010 event schedule has been released. The current schedule does not include any new events but that could change in the coming months.

CARIBANA™ 2010 OFFICIAL SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

Calypso Tents Music Series
Fridays, Saturdays & Sundays from June 5 - July 4, 2010; 8:00 pm - Midnight
This is an exciting annual showcase of Canada's best Calypso and Soca original music for the Caribana Festival. The series runs three nights each week (Friday Sunday) at various venues in Toronto, each night featuring a different cast of singers and 'live' bands performing Calypso in its best storytelling tradition: social and political commentary, humor and wit.

Scotiabank CARIBANA™ Official Launch
Nathan Phillips Square, City Hall
Tuesday July 13, 2010; Noon - 2:00 pm
This official ceremony launches the activities for the 2009 Caribana Festival Season. Patrons can meet and mingle with Federal, Provincial and Municipal officials, Caribana representatives and sponsors while sampling Caribbean and international cuisine. It is a snapshot of what's in store over the coming weeks.

Scotiabank CARIBANA™ Junior Carnival
Shoreham Drive | Yorkgate Mall
Saturday, July 17, 2010; 10:00 am - 4:00 pm
Junior Carnival provides festival-goers and the surrounding community the opportunity to experience the thrills and joys as young masqueraders participate in their early festival years.

Art Exhibition
Royal Ontario Museum
Thursday July 22 – Monday Aug 2, 2010; Noon - 9:00 pm
The Association of African Canadian Artists presents original paintings and sculptures that have been influenced by the diversity of our people.

Scotiabank CARIBANA™ Caribana Gala
Liberty Grand – Exhibition Place
Friday July 23, 2010; 6:30 pm – 1:00 am
An elegant evening of style and glamour, celebrating Caribana and paying tribute to its pioneers.

Kaiso 365 (Calypso Monarch Finals)
Venue TBA
Saturday July 24 - 7pm - Midnight
This is where the Calypso Monarch is crowned. Come and see the best and biggest Canadian Calypsonians battle for the crown. From the topical to the lyrical, the sweet soca rhythms will lift you out of your seat and get you moving.

King & Queen Competition
Lamport Stadium
Thursday July 29, 2010; 7:00 pm - Midnight
On the Thursday evening before Caribana Day the Kings and Queens of the Bands meet to do battle. Like peacocks they will primp and preen, eliciting “oohs” and “aahs” from the audience. It is an honour for any participant to be enthroned the King or Queen of Scotiabank Caribana 2009. The King and Queen symbolically have the keys to the city, freedom of the streets. Their movements are supposed to be uninhibited. Band members and onlookers alike are to give them the respect, even if mockingly, usually accorded to real-life royalty
(Admission: $27 in advance. $35 at the door)

Pan Alive
Lamport Stadium
Friday July 30, 2010; 7:00 pm - Midnight
A thrilling evening showcasing the musical and tonal qualities of the steelpan as members of the Ontario Steelband Association compete before a panel of judges. This Panorama of the North is the biggest opportunity to hear this wonderful instrument in all its glory. The evening is devoted entirely to the capturing rhythms of the steelpan.
(Admission: $20 in advance)

Scotiabank CARIBANA™ Parade
Exhibition Place (Lake Shore Blvd)
Saturday July 31st, 2010; 10:00 am - 6:00 pm
This showcase event features an incredible display of colour and pageantry, commencing at Exhibition Place and proceeding west along Lake Shore Boulevard. Exhibition Place and Lake Shore Boulevard will come alive with the sights and sounds of Carnival!
(Admission: $18)

De CARIBANA™ Lime
Ontario Place
Sunday August 1, 2010;12:pm am – 8:00 pm
This event features a full day of performances from a variety of artistes, highlighting the diverse cultures of all the Caribbean people. Activities include a food competition, song, dance, theatrical drama and storytelling.
(Admission $14)
For more information please visit www.CaribanaFestival.com or post a comment on this site, and your questions will be answered!
Cutline: Blue stiltwalker at the Scotiabank Caribana Lime 09, Ontario Place. Photograph by Andrew Weir

Big Show for 88-year old George Hunter

He took pictures used on Canadian $5, $10 and $50 and now at the age of 88-year old George Hunter has a new exhibition of photographs that he took over 60 years ago!
A Canadian photography pioneer, George Hunter captured the disappearing nomadic Inuit way of life for the National Film Board in a series entitled, Canadian Inuit 1946. Print images taken from Mr. Hunter’s original negatives add visual clarity and cultural context to this exhibition. Mr. Hunter’s images capture and reflect Canada and its peoples. Many of his iconic photographs are on permanent display in museums and galleries across Canada. Now 88, Mr. Hunter resides in Mississauga.
George Hunter attended the opening of his exhibition at the Kipling Gallery on November 19th in Woodbridge,Ontario.
CUTLINES: George Hunter is interviewed at the Kipling Gallery by Zoomer TV.
Bottom Photo. George Hunter and his partner stand behind a Abraham Rueben carving at the Kipling Gallery opening of the two artists' work.

Successful exhibition opening for Abraham Anghik Ruben

Both Norse and Inuit Spirits inspired famed carver Abraham Anghik Ruben to spend a year carving hundreds of pounds of Brazillian soap stone. The fruits of his labour inspired art buyers who came to the Kipling Gallery in Woodbridge Ontario to see and buy his work. In the space of 4-hours over $750,000 worth of red stickers were placed on purchased work.
These bold pieces transcend boundaries imposed by traditional Inuit art mediums, portraying a fresh and broader perspective of northern cultures. At age 58,the Paulatuk carver now resides in Salt Spring Island, B.C He will be at the gallery until Sunday night.
The Kipling Gallery, 7938 Kipling Avenue, in downtown Woodbridge is open Mondays to Fridays from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Saturdays from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. www.kiplinggallery.com
CUTLINES: Two top pictures:Inside looking out. Two view of the Kipling Art Gallery on opening night.
Third from top:Abraham Anghik Ruben talks to a guest at the opening of his new exhibition.
Bottom: Abraham Anghik Ruben is interviewed in the Kipling Gallery by Zoomer TV.

Both Norse and Inuit Spirits inspire famed carver Anghik Ruben - Meet 88-year old arctic photographer George Hunter

New Works
by Abraham Anghik Ruben
and introducing George Hunter

Meet master Inuit sculptor Abraham Anghik Ruben and photographer, George Hunter


Thursday, Nov. 19th, 2009
5:30 pm to 11:00 pm • Kipling Gallery, 7938 Kipling Avenue, Woodbridge

WHAT: Media are invited to meet the artists at the opening of the Kipling Gallery’s latest exhibition:
New Works by Abraham Anghik Ruben, and introducing photographer George Hunter.

Abraham Anghik Ruben
The celebrated Paulatuk carver introduces his latest stone carving series, From Thor to Sedna – The Mystical Gods of the North, which draws heavily on myths of both the Inuit and Norse cultures. These bold pieces transcend boundaries imposed by traditional Inuit art mediums, portraying a fresh and broader perspective of northern cultures. At age 58, Mr. Ruben now resides in Salt Spring Island, B.C.

George Hunter
A Canadian photography pioneer, George Hunter captured the disappearing nomadic Inuit way of life for the National Film Board in this series entitled, Canadian Inuit 1946. Print images taken from Mr. Hunter’s original negatives add visual clarity and cultural context to this exhibition. Mr. Hunter’s images capture and reflect Canada and its peoples. Many of his iconic photographs are on permanent display in museums and galleries across Canada. Now 88, Mr. Hunter resides in Mississauga.

WHO: Tour the exhibition with the artists and gallery owner Rocco Pannese

WHY: Mr. Ruben’s mystical images break the mold in terms of Inuit stone carvings. He is one of Canada’s most successful and accomplished living Inuit carvers and rarely travels to Ontario. His earliest arctic work is important, not only because he has recorded a life style that has largely disappeared, but, also because the photographs are outstanding artistic achievements. George Hunter’s photography career spans seven decades. Highlights of his work include images on Bank of Canada $5 & $10 notes, Time Magazine spreads and images for Canadian pavilions at Expo 67.

WHERE: The Kipling Gallery, 7938 Kipling Avenue, in downtown Woodbridge is open Mondays to Fridays from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Saturdays from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. www.kiplinggallery.com

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Media contacts:

Stephen Weir 416-489-5868 • c. 416-801-3101 • stephen@stephenweir.com
Linda Crane 905-257-6033 • c. 416-727-0112 • cranepr@cogeco.ca

Gallery Contact: Rocco Pannese (905) 265-2192 • info@kiplinggallery.com

Blog Day at Body Worlds 3

Social Media Experiment Blog Body Worlds 3 at Toronto's Science Centre


A few days after holding a standing-room-only press preview of BODY WORLDS 3: THE STORY OF THE HEART for Toronto’s “established” media the Ontario Science Centre staged a morning Social Media (SM) preview of the same show. Toronto Bloggers, Tweeters, Web Masters and their guests were invited to tour the show and meet a heart expert.
Close to 50 Toronto area on-liners came out on Saturday October 24th, to take pictures, tweet and gather material for their take on an exhibition of sliced, diced and splayed bodies. The new exhibition has more than 200 authentic human specimens on display, including entire skinned and exposed bodies, as well as individual organs and transparent body slices.
There are several versions of the Body World touring show, created by Germany’s Dr. Gunther von Hagen; to date over 26-million have passed through the turnstiles globally. This is the second time that the Science Centre has hosted a very popular (read long line-ups) Body Worlds exhibition.
As traditional media outlets loose advertisers, readership and staff, publicists have to look in other directions to get the word out and motivate potential ticket buyers. While the average Toronto blog has a readership roll smaller than the size of a violin, given the power of links and the chance to go viral, anyone of the Science Centre morning guests has the potential of being instantly as big as the whole orchestra!
The Science Centre has always been a Social Media leader within Toronto’s cultural Group of Seven (Harbourfront, AGO, ROM, CN Tower, Ontario Place and the Ballet/Opera). Probably because its day-to-day audience is so young -- most don’t know what the world was like before Facebook -- the Science Centre learned early how to effectively communicate on-line with schoolage children. It has an in-house You Tuber, events for on-line audiences and a web site that communicates with hundreds of Torontonians daily.
The Science Centre has held events for its Social Media audience before, but the Saturday morning preview was the first time it pitched directly to the people who feed content into the growing SM information pool. According to the Ontario Science Centre communications department, the morning preview was set up at the request of the company managing the Body Worlds 3 tour – it is something they do in every city their bone show rolls into.
I attended both the Body Worlds 3 press launch and the subsequent SM preview morning. Although the goal of both events was the same – generate publicity for the show – the conduct of the attendees was totally different.
At the press conference everyone is working … Job #1 is to get the story and get out … fast. Yet, everyone knows everyone and the press conference is also a moving social event repeated at every media event across the GTA.
While waiting for the guest speakers to arrive it is old home week round the muffins and coffee. Who has been laid off? Any jobs in your newsroom? Guess who got sued?
Most reporters are mildly interested in the exhibition but have other stories, other worries and maybe even other press conferences to cover that day. Best press conference? Short. Colourful. Quotable and always newsworthy.
There are questions to be asked. Photos to be taken. Press kits to be reviewed. “Bits” to be recorded either for TV or the news outlet’s website. And did I mention there are questions to be asked?
“Why did you cut up a giraffe?” Dr. Angelina Whalley (the wife of Dr. Gunther von Hagen) is asked. “Do you think the Body Works 3 show is controversial?” A CITY TV reporter quizzed me from behind her video camera as I walked through the exhibit prior to the press conference – yes the ol’ tried and true journalist-interviewing journalist.
SM Saturday was different. No one knew each other. There was no kinship between the person tweeting for his fan base of 10 and the young blogger working for a Social Media marketing company.
I approached as many SM attendees as possible as we joined the Conga Line snaking its way through the sold-out exhibition hall. All bloggers were given badges and permission to take photographs inside the exhibit space, so it was easy to separate the freebee invited guests from the paying customers ($28.50 to get in).
I didn’t know what to expect. Are all bloggers/tweeters/Facebook fanatics and web masters 20-something geeks? Nope. Some were young. Some were older than me. The only “geek” I ran into was a Tweedledee-looking fellow with coke bottle glasses and pants belted just below his man-breasts. He embarrassingly denied being a SM guest even though we registered at the desk at the same time and he wore a media badge.
I did met up with a photographer who works for ctv.ca as an online editor. In his spare time he takes pictures (lots and lots of pictures) at events and posts them on the network’s popular website. I had first meet him at Scotiabank Caribana – the photos he posted from the annual parade were emotionally charged and were viewed by tens of thousands of people (and probably ‘borrowed’ by hundreds of other SM participants).
What really stood out was that the guests that Saturday were not journalists. They didn’t ask questions. They didn’t take notes (although a couple tweeted as they walked by exhibit cases filled with body parts). Some were taken aback when I (a stranger) started quizzing them and jotting down their words in my low-tech notebook.
Most have full-time jobs and don’t consider their blogs an occupation. They haven’t yet learned how to get the most out of a media preview. No notes. Few pictures. No desire to interview.
Upon leaving the exhibition hall, the SM guests were invited to meet with Dr. Chi-Ming Chow. He is a spokesman for the Heart and Stroke Foundation and a Cardiologist and Assistant Professor of Medicine at St. Michaels Hospital. He had been asked by the Science Centre to be a resource person for any blogger wanting to know about the human heart.
“ I think the show is good because it is educational. It reminds me of my days in medical school,” said Dr. Chow. “But, for many (people seeing the Body Works 3 show) it is also visually shocking.”
“ Here in Canada we wage a two prong attack against heart disease; education and treatment,” he told me. “This is a good tool because it is the larger story of the heart. It shows what healthy organs look like and it does show disease, obesity what happens when you smoke and what happens (when you don’t quit).”
I was the only blogger to interview Dr. Chow. He was pleased to come out to his first SM event, but seemed disappointed that no one else stopped by to have a heart to heart with him.
“First time I have been asked, to event like this” said Karim Kanji, who has a blogs called Inspiration by Karim. “ But, surprisingly I have a second one this afternoon. A travel show. I can get used to this!”

http://inspirationbykarim.blogspot.com/

“ I work in social media so I do get invited to a lot of things,” said a chatty 20-something female blogger as she handed in her press badge and picked up a press kit and a free T-Shirt.
“ I have got to say this is the best I have been treated. Free tickets, I was allowed to bring a guest. I loved not having to Queue. The press kit will come in handy, and swag too! What’s not to like about an event like Body Worlds 3?”
Did the SM guests respond by promoting their show? I obviously have. The Science Centre communications department said they were pleased with the response, but pointed out that the show is sold out almost every day regardless of whether the bloggers or the media ever tweet or get off the pot.

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CUTLINES: Above -- visitors stream through the Body World 3 exhibition at the Ontario Science Centre. Mixed in amongst the paying customers are close to 50 bloggers who attend a free Saturday morning SM preview of the show. Was it successful? Hard to say yet, but, Goggle News tells all. For the Science Centre it doesn't matter much ... the show is a sell-out! Pictured below at right --is an out-of-focus Palm camera shot of a Karim Kanji at the social media registration desk.

NEW INUIT ART EXHIBITION IN GTA: Abraham Anghik Ruben and introducing George Hunter

ARTS LISTING
Kipling Gallery
Abraham Anghik Ruben and introducing George Hunter


An exhibition of stone and bone carvings by famed Inuit master sculptor Abraham Anghik Rubin. Accompanied by photo series, “Canadian Inuit, 1946” from veteran Canadian photographer George Hunter. Artists will be in attendance at launch Thursday, November 19th from 5:30 to 10:00 pm. November 6th through December 5th. Kipling Gallery, 7938 Kipling Avenue, Woodbridge, ON. 905-265-2160, www.kiplinggallery.com


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Media contacts:
Stephen Weir 416-489-5868 / c. 416-801-3101 / Stephen@stephenweir.com
Linda Crane 905-257-6033 / c. 416-727-0112 / cranepr@cogeco.ca

Cook to speak at IFOA this Friday

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Charles Taylor Prize Winner Tim Cook to Read at IFOA
Who: Tim Cook, winner of the 2009 Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction headlines Non-Fiction Night at Harbourfront’s International Festival of Authors.

What: Tim Cook will read from his award-winning book Shock Troops which follows the Canadian fighting forces during the titanic battles of Vimy Ridge, Hill 70, Passchendaele, and the Hundred Days campaign. Shock Troops builds on Volume I of Cook’s national bestseller At the Sharp End.

When: Friday, October 30, 2009; 8:00 p.m.

Where: Brigantine Room, York Quay Centre, Toronto.

Why: Signature Non-Fiction event at highly regarded 10-day authors’ festival.
Tim Cook, Charles Taylor Prize founder Noreen Taylor, and Charles Taylor Foundation trustee David Staines will be available for media interviews.
The Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction is presented annually by the Charles Taylor Foundation with the support of its partners: AVFX, Ben McNally Books, Book TV, Bravo!, Canada Newswire, CBC Radio One, The Globe and Mail, Le Meridien King Edward Hotel, Quill & Quire publications, and Windfields Farm.
Previous Winners of the Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction:
2000 Wayne Johnston for Baltimore's Mansion: A Memoir
2002 Carol Shields for Jane Austen
2004 Isabel Huggan for Belonging: Home Away from Home
2005 Charles Montgomery for The Last Heathen: Encounters with Ghosts and Ancestors in Melanesia
2006 J.B. MacKinnon for Dead Man in Paradise
2007 Rudy Wiebe for Of this Earth: A Mennonite Boyhood in the Boreal Forest
2008 Richard Gwyn for John A.: The Man Who Made Us
2009: Tim Cook for Shock Troops: Canadians Fighting the Great War, 1917–1918,Volume 2
The trustees of the Charles Taylor Foundation are Michael Bradley (Toronto), Judith Mappin (Montreal), David Staines (Ottawa), and Noreen Taylor (Toronto).

CUTLINE: Noreen Taylor and this year's winner of the Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction, Ottawa historian Tim Cook. Cook won the 2009 Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction for his book Shock Troops: Canadians Fighting the Great War, 1917 – 1918, Volume Two, published by Viking Canada. The prize of $25,000 was awarded Monday, February 9, 2009, at a gala luncheon held in the historic Sovereign Ballroom of Toronto’s Le Meridien King Edward Hotel. Photo by Tom Sandler