The Ed Show opens at ROM

Landscape photography exhibition. OIL. Sponsored by Scotiabank Canada. Edward Burtynsky

Edward Burtynsky is one of the chosen few. The 56-year old photographer, unlike most of his peer group, is receiving the praise he deserves in his own lifetime. So exactingly perfect are his landscape photographs that the Royal Ontario Museum, best known for dinosaurs and mummies, is breaking from its mandate to present his world traveling one-man show.
"Oil", his 53-image exhibition is so hot that Toronto's media worked hard to see who could write about it first! On the heels of a wave of international media recognition including a double-page spread in the Sunday New York Times the Toronto Star's Murray Whyte got there first.
His favourable review/feature hit the streets just hours before the rest of the media were ushered into the ROM's 4th floor Roloff Beny Gallery. It was a media preview to see this country's most respected large-format landscape photographer.
Television cameras, print journalists, bloggers and even radio stations came out to tour the exhibition. So in demand for interviews, the above picture of Ed Burtynsky and Scotiabank's archivist Jane Nokes was a quickie snap sandwiched in between a CBC National TV interview and a chat with the Globe and Mail.
Edward Burtynsky: Oil is presented by the Ryerson Gallery and Research Centre, the Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival and Scotiabank Group. The exhibition details how nature is negatively transformed by an oil driven world economy.
Burtynsky follows a bouncing ball made of oil, from the ground (including Canada's oil sands) to surface based refineries. His cameras travel down highways, across oceans and finally end up at the homes of our dirty little secrets - the garbage dumps of the world.
But even while he is photographing horrific refuse sites, Burtynsky is always the consummate landscape artist. He takes a grand panoramic view when photographing spent objects of commerce, be they tires, drive-in restaurants or mothballed engines of war.
In the photograph above he and Nokes stand in front of a photograph where mothballed B-52s, parked in an Arizona desert, have become the landscape. This is a graveyard where US warplanes (capable of carrying nuclear weapons) are put on a desert runway to allow highflying satellites to confirm that they never will fly again. Burtynsky uses his long lens to show the staggering number of gas guzzling warplanes now on the post Cold War SALT scrap heap.
Days after Oil opened to the public; another Toronto institution recognized Burtynsky. On April 14th the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art (MOCCA) and BMO Financial Group announced that it would present Edward Burtynsky with the biannual MOCCA Award . This $20,000 award honours a Canadian active in the field of visual arts for innovation, accomplishment or contribution over time, or for a specific project that has national or international significance.
BTW - the 56-year old Canadian photographer is a Ryerson graduate. His first year at Ryerson was my last. We shared one class. He doesn't remember me. Sigh.
CUTLINES:
Above and Below: Scotiabank Archivist Jane Nokes and photographer Ed Burtynsky attend the Royal Ontario Museum's media preview for the exhibition Edward Burtynsky: Oil. The exhibition is presented by the Ryerson Gallery and Research Centre, the Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival and Scotiabank Group.

Take no prisoners. Students compete for big money in Toronto Poetry Recitation Finals. Tuesday night.

2011 Recitation Finals will be held at the Young Centre for the Performing Arts
WHO: Twelve high school students; Judges Karine Glorieux, Robert Lalonde, Diana Leblanc, Dennis Lee, Karen Solie, and Élise Turcotte; Remarks by Scott and Krystyne Griffin; Emcee Albert Schultz; Live music.
WHAT: Poetry In Voice/Les voix de la poésie is a bilingual poetry recitation contest for Canadian high school students.
WHY: See student winners from 12 Ontario high schools compete for $10,000 in prize money and school stipends by reciting poems from memory at the finals for this pilot program.
WHEN: Tuesday, April 12, 2011, beginning at 7 pm.
WHERE: Young Centre for the Performing Arts
Distillery District, 55 Mill Street, Toronto, Canada.
HOW: Tickets are free for students and $10 for adults. Click here for details.

ABOUT POETRY IN VOICE:

Poetry In Voice/Les voix de la poésie is a bilingual poetry recitation contest for Canadian high school students. The contest uses a pyramid structure that begins at the classroom level. Students advance to school-wide competitions and the school champion from each of the twelve Ontario schools participating in the pilot program will compete for $10,000 in prize money on Tuesday, April 12, 2011, at the Young Centre for the Performing Arts in Downtown Toronto. The competition will expand in 2012 to include all of Ontario and Quebec, and branch out to schools across the country in 2013.
$10,000 in prize money will be awarded as follows:
1st Prize: $5,000 to the student
$2,500 to the student's school library, $500 earmarked for poetry books
2nd Prize: $1,000 to the student
$500 to the student's school library for poetry books
3rd Prize: $500 to the student
$500 to the student's school library for poetry books

Poetry In Voice/Les voix de la poésie (PIV/LVP) is the latest initiative by Scott Griffin, who is also the Chairman and founder of The Griffin Trust For Excellence In Poetry along with Trustees Margaret Atwood, Carolyn Forché, Robert Hass, Michael Ondaatje, Robin Robertson and David Young. By funding the Griffin Poetry Prize, the world's largest prize for a first edition single collection of poetry written in English, The Griffin Trust For Excellence In Poetry aims to spark the public's imagination and raise awareness of the crucial role poetry plays in our cultural life, a mission shared by Poetry In Voice.
JOIN US ONLINE:
www.poetryinvoice.com
www.facebook.com/pivlvp
www.twitter.com/piv_lvp


Stephen Weir
Stephen Weir & Associates | stephen@stephenweir.com
or sweir5492@rogers.com
2482 Yonge Street, Unit 45032, Toronto, ONT.
CANADA. M4P 3E3
Tel: 416-489-5868 | Fax: 416-488-6518
www.stephenweir.com

Swag worth more than it costs to attend Sway Magazine Launch in support of Prostrate Cancer Canada

Free Drinks. A year's subscription to Sway Magazine, world-class entertainment and a chance to help Prostrate Cancer Canada.

April 13th (my birthday) at the Embassy Night Club
117 Peter Street Toronto
Featuring:Liberty Silver, Solitar (Silver), Mac Graham, Trix, Divine Brown and special guests!
Cost: $20 Cash (but you get complimentary cocktails, hors d'oeuvres and a subscription to Sway).
RSVP to my friend Kim Graham rsvp@kimgraham.ca (or to me at stephen@stephenweir.com and I will pass it along to Kim)

CHIN Radio producing the last live TV variety show on the Toronto dial

Old Time Radio Live on TV. Every Sunday it is the Festival Italiano Di Johnny Lombardi Show on Toronto's CITY TV.

It is old time radio on television. Little bits of live music. A few jokes. An interview here, a promo there. Didn't like that last piece? Wait till the commercial is over and we will try again!
On Sunday I took two leading members of the Italian Canadian business community onto television via a radio show. The men are chairing a charity evening later this month. Group of Seven art from the McMichael hung beside Italian-Canadian landscapes in the Toronto Columbia Centre. Proceeds are to be split 50/50.
One of the sponsors of the evening is Lennie Lombardi, the owner of CHIN Radio. After buying a table he offered to help promote the event, his radio station has a live TV show every Sunday - he'd put my guests on after the first Chrysler Fiat is introduced (on the sidewalk in front of the College St station) and before the opera singer sang her second song.
For the past 25-years CHIN radio has turned their Little Italy street level lobby into a TV studio. A restaurant and magazine shop feed into the lobby and College Street is always busy after Church.
It is live TV that is currently broadcast on CITY TV in Toronto. Patrons from the cafe and newsstand customers wander in and out. The really curious have to be waved off set. People on the street press their faces against the big glass doors to see what Lenny has on TV this week.
Who knows? It is talk. It is product pushing and there is no end to the live entertainment.
When I came into the lobby studio (squeezing past the new Fiat that was all but blocking the front door), I was not sure if it was a show in English or in Italian. Some people spoke in English, others answered in Italian. Some spoke both, all at once. Beautiful Andrea Trentadue is more ring master than host. She is able to keep all the balls in the air at once, no matter what language is being spoke.
There was a friend of Lenny who has a Wizard Magic and Comic Book Show at the CNE in Toronto and in Hamilton. He put on a blue hair wig/hat and waved a spinning brightly coloured laser wand at the cameras. He wore a-way-to-tight bright blue T shirt. He brought the world's shyest magician with him. As soon as they did their 5-minute promo, a folk trio in traditional clothing from Sicily played a guitar, accordion and a tin flute. They were followed immediately by a traditional female opera singer singing Ava Maria. There wasn't a dry eye in the wings.
Cut to commercial, then it is time for MP Julian Fantino to head outside and welcome the first Chrysler Fiat to Canada. It is cute. Cars on the street honk, wave and yell encouragement at the former police chief.
Commercial. My guests run from the street back into the lobby. Perched in bar stools in front the front door (still with the Fiat in the background) they talk about the beauty of the Group of Seven and the good work that is done at the Columbus Centre. Interview over ... cue the Opera Singer!
It is crazy. It is non-stop. There are lots of hangers on, standing along the sides of the lobby. Almost everyone is male. Almost everyone is steaming towards 70. Most are too busy networking to watch the actual entertainment. There is a lot of male-to-male cheek kissing!
I have no idea what happened. Who cares. Let's book 'em Danno for the next open Sunday!

CUTLINES:

Top Left: Julian Fantino the Federal Minister for Seniors helps reintroduce the FIAT into Canada.
Top Right: A little Magic to promote March Break kid's show at the CNE.
Bottom Left: Folk Music entertainment on CHIN TV
Bottom Right: Opera singer performs in station lobby
Above: TV host Andrea Trentadne interviews Ralph Chiodo (Active Green and Ross) and Pal Di Iulio(Villa Charities) in the front lobby of the CHIN building on College Street. They are talking about the Inspired by Canada Fundraiser being held for the McMichael Gallery and Toronto's Columbus Gallery. Trentadne is host of the Festival Italiano di Johnny Lombardi TV talk show. The programme is seen in Toronto on Citytv and is broadcast live from the CHIN radio station.

Dr Dickenson moves from Federal Museum in Winnipeg to Provincial Gallery in Ontario

McMichael Canadian Art Collection Announces Appointment of New Executive Director and CEO, Dr. Victoria Dickenson


March 22, 2011 Kleinburg, ON – The McMichael Canadian Art Collection announced today that Victoria Dickenson, PhD, FCMA, has been appointed as its new Executive Director and CEO as well as President of the McMichael Canadian Art Foundation effective April 18, 2011.
Dr. Dickenson’s appointment was the culmination of an exhaustive search conducted in Canada, the U.S. and abroad to find candidates in the arts, culture, business or government arenas who had outstanding leadership skills.
“Dr. Dickenson is among Canada’s best known and most respected museum professionals,” said Upkar Arora, Chair of the McMichael Board of Trustees, and head of the Search Committee of eight. “Our search process identified her as the best candidate who had the requisite experience, passion and capabilities to build on the outstanding assets of the McMichael. Her previous work in gallery management, exhibition development and programming, fundraising, as well as her innovative thinking speaks for itself, and we are thrilled to have her take on this leadership role at the McMichael. She was our unanimous choice.”
Dickenson, a Canadian citizen and fluent in both French and English, is leaving her position as Chief Knowledge Officer at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights in Winnipeg, Manitoba, to assume her new role at the McMichael. Dickenson has a distinguished curatorial and gallery-management career including serving as Executive Director at the prestigious McCord Museum of Canadian History in Montreal (1998-2009).
At the McCord she managed to increase the Museum’s operating revenues through a combination of grants, fundraising and self-generated revenues, working with all levels of government as well as the private sector. Under Dickenson’s leadership, the McCord was nominated and received numerous awards from the museum and information sectors in Canada and the U.S. Dickenson is an acknowledged leader in the application of information technology to museology and championed a multi-party project which became the foundation for the McCord’s global web presence that continues to attract over two million visits per year.
“My goal in coming to the McMichael,” said Dickenson, “is to make the institution stronger – locally, provincially, nationally and internationally – to reach our local communities, the tourists that come to the GTA and the visitors that we reach virtually, so that more people can experience for themselves what an outstanding institution the McMichael is and what an important part it plays in our Canadian history and heritage, today, tomorrow and for decades to come. The McMichael is blessed with such wonderful assets – the gift by Robert and Signe McMichael of the works of art and the stunning grounds, the dedicated and passionate employees and volunteers, an engaged Board of Trustees and the Foundation, and a committed and supportive Ministry of Tourism and Culture. I am confident we can channel these rich assets into a bold new vision for the gallery, and we can create an outstanding institution that not only speaks to Canadians, but also speaks to the world.”
ABOUT THE McMICHAEL CANADIAN ART COLLECTION
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 5,700 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. For more information about the gallery, visit www.mcmichael.com.


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

Biography for Dr. Dickenson

Victoria Dickenson, FCMA, PhD

Victoria Dickenson initiated the post of Chief Knowledge Officer of the new federal institution, the Canadian Museum for Human Rights in Winnipeg, Manitoba in 2009. She was formerly Executive Director, McCord Museum of Canadian History in Montreal from 1998-2009. She is a graduate of the Master in Museum Studies Program at the University of Toronto and has over thirty-five years experience working in the Canadian and international museum communities.
Dr. Dickenson has worked in collections and research, as well as public programs. She has been involved with the development of numerous exhibitions and interpretive projects, within the museum community and in the private sector. She is an acknowledged leader in the application of information technology to museum practice. She also works and writes on the relationship between museums and communities, particularly in the related contexts of diversity and globalization. In 2003, she was chosen by the Canadian Museums Association as one of the recipients of The Commemorative Medal for the Golden Jubilee, in recognition of her significant contribution to the museum community in Canada. In 2005 she was named a Fellow of the Canadian Museums Association.
Victoria obtained her Ph.D. in Canadian history from Carleton University in 1995. Her thesis on the role of visual imagery in early science was published by University of Toronto Press in 1998 as Drawn from Life, Science and Art in the Portrayal of the New World, and was a nominee for the prestigious Klibansky Prize. Her current scholarly work continues to focus on issues around visualization and knowledge, and on the understanding of novelty. She is an Adjunct Research Professor at both Carleton University and at University of Manitoba.

Special photo taken for Vaughan Today (well actually on Sunday)

ONE OF A SERIES PICTURES TAKEN AT THE McMICHAEL GALLERY IN KLIENBURG, ONTARIO FOR COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER

It was snowing really bad so it was not a shock to find out that Vaughan Today couldn't free up a reporter to attend a media preview for the newly installed Norman Rockwell exhibition at the McMichael Canadian Art Collection. They were willing to run something "good" about the show, but what?
It was Sunday, the kick-off to March Break and I had this picture taken exclusively for Vaughan Today. The picture, by McMichael volunteer (and professional photographer) Jason Hashimoto shows 20-year old Alexandria Maida, assuming a pose for the camera made famous by Norman Rockwell in his triple self- portrait. It shows the late American aritst painting a painting of himself using a large mirror.
All day Sunday visitors to the gallery were invited to dress up like a Norman Rockwell painting. Hashimoto took their masterpieces and the gallery emailed the pictures to the visitors. 20-minutes before quiting time I convinced Hashimoto to try his hand at copying the master. Ms Maida, a University student and weekend guide at the gallery, agreed to be the model.
Did it work? "Brilliant Steve,Thanks" wrote editor Dan Hoddinott. Within hours of receiving the photograph it was posted on their website. Did get a call from a competing media wanted to know why they didn't get a copy too?

Promised to get Hashimoto to take another masterpiece just for them the next time he was at the gallery with his Cannon and lighting kit. Could be a new career!

CUTLINE

Top: Alexandria Maida strikes the Norman Rockwell Pose from the painting Triple Self Portrait
Middle: Triple Self Portrait by Norman Rockwell
Bottom: My picture of Jason taking a picture for Vaughan Today.