Sunday, 2 December 2012

PR pointers - Sex doesn't always sell

 On Flickr, people vote with their eyes.  God. Shipwrecks or a Bikini Queen. The eyes have it, and, numbers don't lie!


Pop Quiz - How Well Do You Know People's Tastes?

I have stitched three pictures from my flickr account into one low rez image at the top of this blog post.
In the upper most box is a picture I took underwater in Florida - Christ in the Abyss. It is a picture of a famous statue that is underwater in a Florida Keys party. Bottom left is photographer Dave Tollington's picture of the Titanic Museum in the Smokey Mountains.  Bottom right is my photograph of  SERENA DI MILLO.  I took the picture seconds after she won the 2011 Miss Chin Bikini International Contest here in Toronto at the annual CHIN Picnic.

Which picture do you think has received the most hits???

Drum Roll.

Answer: Never underestimate the drawing power of the Titanic! Close to 3,000 people have looked at that picture. 500 more hits than Christ in the Abyss and 2,500 more hits than Serena!

Thursday, 29 November 2012

Postive PR for dearily departed Master Painters

 Euro Interest In Group of Seven Spur Canadians To Leave Love Letters To Famed Dead Artists In Kleinburg Cemetery

Lawren and Bess Harris headstone. Flowers and note from a fan!
From a Huffington Post Blog by Stephen Weir:
 http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/stephen-weir/group-of-seven-graveyard_b_2208610.html

There are signs that the Group of Seven is finally hip with the Canadian people, even those who don't go to art galleries.
I was out at the McMichael Canadian Art Collection with a video crew last week. The McMichael has a hot show called Painting In Canada: Tom Thomson and the Group of Seven. It is a show that blew off the doors at galleries in the UK and Europe over the past year. It has the best Group paintings from private collectors, the National Gallery in Ottawa, the Art Gallery of Ontario and the McMichael. This is the final (and only Canadian) stop for the touring show.
The show is experiencing record attendance in the public gallery located in Kleinburg, Ontario  - even though many of the paintings have hung in the log cabin gallery for decades.  The art-gallery-going public is rediscovering what has been in front of them all the time.  It took a London, England art gallery, the Dulwich,  and its curator Ian Desjardin, to bring the Group and Tom Thomson across the pond for an almost year-long tour.  This blockbuster exhibition has managed to rekindle interest in early 20th century Canadian landscape paintings.
At the end of last week's gallery taping I took the TV crew to see the Group of Seven cemetery. It is a quiet thoughtful park that is not often seen by visitors even though you have to drive past it to get into the gallery's parking lot. But, now with visitors wanting to see everything Group related, people are taking the time to stroll out onto the wooded grounds and see the graves. Some have attempted to interact with the dead.
We got there and I found that someone had taken the time to write fan letters to the long dead artists and placed them in front of their rough-rock headstones (the stones were cut from the Canadian Shield when the Trans Canada highway was being blasted through Northern Ontario). Bouquets of wild flowers and even a small stuffed bear pin have been left as well.
Frederick Varley's gravestone.
 The graveyard, by government statute,  is only for the artists who were in the Group of Seven, their wives and for gallery founders Robert and Signe McMichael. Tom Thomson is not there; his death predated the formation of the Group (he died in 1917 and is twice buried elsewhere).
In all there were 10 members of the Group of Seven. All but one of the artists were married. Lawren Harris was married twice. Of the ten artists who were members of the Group of Seven, six – Arthur Lismer http://www.stephenweir.com/gallery1/index.php/lismer-note-and-flowers, Frederick Varley http://www.stephenweir.com/gallery1/index.php/fred-varley-and-letter-798534596, Lawren Harris http://www.stephenweir.com/gallery1/index.php/IMG_0157, Frank Johnston, A.J. Casson and A.Y. Jackson – are buried in a small cemetery on the McMichael grounds, along with  Robert and Signe. Esther Lismer, Florence Johnston and Margaret Casson are buried there with their husbands. Harris is buried with his second wife Bess. Jackson never married and Varley's wife is buried elsewhere. I only attended two of the funerals (I am not that old!).
In fact I have been at the McMike on a part-time basis, on and off for the past 15-years.  I have spent hours over the years sitting in the cemetery - best place for cell phone reception.  I have never seen flowers, badges or letters left at the grave sites before. I was really curious, but no I didn't open the envelopes.  I do know that so far the artists have not responded to their first mail call since their burials back in the 20th century.

More information:  Last month my associate, art videographer George Socka interviewed Dulwich curator, Ian Desjardin and asked him why the Group of Seven has suddenly been embraced by art lovers in England, Europe and yes back here in Canada. This video, unique to Huffington Post is at:http://youtu.be/F-uCu98wOik
McMaster University professor James King just released a long overdue biography about Group of Seven artist Lawren Harris.  Socka has also filed a YouTube video story about James King lecturing about Lawren Harris and Tom Thomson. 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqExkWGzfBI&feature=relmfu
Inward Journey: The Life of Lawren Harris is available at bookstores and on line at: http://www.amazon.ca/Inward-Journey-Life-Lawren-Harris/dp/177102206X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1354119155&sr=1-1
Letter in front of Arthur Lismer's grave
Flowers, a child's bear pin and letter

Thursday, 8 November 2012

Popular Stephen Weir Facebook Posting from Election Week


Dollaromney?

Interesting tidbit in this month's  Financial Post Magazine. The business publication features the top CEOs in Canada. #1 is the founder and CEO of Dollarama, Montreal's Larry Rossy. Buried in the feature story about Rossy  is a single paragraph that says that Rossy now holds only 10% of the company stock. Why such a small percentage for a company he founded? Look south of the border to the holdings of the Romney family.  To quote FPM " He (Rossy) and his partners sold the bulk of it to (Mitt Romney's) Bain Capital in 2004". 
Information Source: Larry Rossy - Dollarama's CEO May Sell Small Bargain Items But He's Also Paying Attention To the Big Picture by Hollie Shaw. November 2012. Financial Post Magazine. http://www.nationalpost.com/Larry+Rossy/7502629/story.html

Facebook posting by Stephen Weir November 6 2012 


Sunday, 28 October 2012

What I am working on now (let me know if you would like to attend)

Logo black and white
The McMichael Canadian Art Collection in Kleinburg
invites you to attend the media preview for:  

PAINTING CANADA: TOM THOMSON  
AND THE GROUP OF SEVEN
Tom Thomson - The Jack Pine 
Tom Thomson, The Jack Pine, 1916-1917, Oil on canvas, 127.9 x 139.8 cm,
National  Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Photo © NGC
 
MEDIA PREVIEW
Thursday, November 1
1:30 - 3:30 p.m.
McMichael Canadian Art Collection  
 
 Preview the exhibition that caught the imagination
of art lovers 
in England and across Europe
Painting Canada: Tom Thomson and the Group Of Seven 
November 3, 2012 to January 6, 2013
After a tremendous tour in Europe, Painting Canada comes to the McMichael, the only Canadian venue for this exhibition. The exhibition features a rare assembly of works of Tom Thomson and the Group and, whenever possible, includes both sketch and canvas by each artist--some familiar to audiences, from public institutions across Canada, but also a large number of works never seen in public, coming from private lenders. 
WHO:
Ian Dejardin, Dulwich Picture Gallery Director, Curator, Author 
Katerina Atanassova, McMichael Chief Curator 
Dr. Victoria Dickenson, McMichael Executive Director and CEO  
WHAT:
Tour the exhibition with our curators. 
Light refreshments will be served.
Tour the gallery grounds with an educator to visit the Tom Thomson
shack from 1914, and the Artists' Cemetery where six members 
of the Group of Seven are buried.   
WHERE:
The gallery is located at 10365 Islington Avenue, L0J 1C0, north of Major Mackenzie Drive in the village of Kleinburg, City of Vaughan. 
  
HOW:
RSVP by email to Stephen@stephenweir.com  

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION:
Michelle Kortinen
905-893-1121 ext. 2210
  
Stephen Weir
416-489-5868
416-801-3101
For more information about Painting Canada:
Tom Thomson and the Group of Seven, visit 
www.mcmichael.com
Painting Canada: Tom Thomson and the Group Of Seven
Organized by the National Gallery of Canada and Dulwich Picture Gallery, in collaboration with the National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, Oslo, and the Groninger Museum, the Netherlands. With the generous support of the McMichael Canadian Art Collection, the Art Gallery of Ontario, and other lenders.   

Wednesday, 24 October 2012

Reunited - Charles Taylor Prize 2012 nominated authors to speak in Edmonton on Thursday!


CHARLES TAYLOR PRIZE FINALISTS CHARLOTTE GILL, JJ LEE, MADELINE SONIK AND ANDREW WESTOLL APPEAR AT LITFEST’S CHARLES TAYLOR PRIZE BASH TOMORROW NIGHT

The trustees of the Charles Taylor Foundation salute Litfest – Edmonton’s International Literary Festival for their emphasis on the genre of literary non-fiction.
Reunited! For the second year in a row, this year’s prize finalists are the event headliners – See presentations by Charlotte Gill, JJ Lee, Madeline Sonik, and the 2012 prize winner, Andrew Westoll. Wade Davis is out of the country but sends greetings.
Also to be revealed during tomorrow night’s Charles Taylor Prize Bash: The names of the three jurors for the 2013 prize will be announced tomorrow at Litfest, followed online via CNW. The trustees of the Charles Taylor Foundation chose to again announce its forthcoming prize jury at Litfest, in support of this popular Edmonton-based International Literary Festival which concerns itself primarily with works of non-fiction.
Media Contact: The authors, trustees, and jurors are available for interviews. Please contact Stephen Weir & Associates for more information:
·       Stephen Weir: 416-489-5868 cell: 416-801-3101 sweir5492@rogers.com
·       Linda Crane : 905-257-6033 cell: 416-727-0112 cranepr@cogeco.ca
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 runners up. All of the shortlisted titles receive extensive national publicity and marketing support.
The prize longlist will be announced via press release on December 4th; the shortlist will be revealed at a press conference on January 9th, and the winner will be named at a gala luncheon and awards ceremony at the King Edward Hotel in downtown Toronto on Monday, March 4, 2013.
The trustees of the Charles Taylor Foundation are Michael Bradley (Toronto), JudithMappin (Montreal), David Staines (Ottawa), and Noreen Taylor (Toronto).
·       For more information please visit: www.thecharlestaylorprize.ca
·       Follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/taylorprize

Wednesday, 17 October 2012

Unsuccessful PR Efforts

TALES FROM THE BLUE BIN:  TWO REALLY BAD PROMOTIONAL IDEAS
Saying something loudly doesn't make it true. Doubly so when it is the printed word doing the yelling.
I was given a card (pictured top) to keep so that I wouldn't forget the show I had just paid to see. Since then the card has been pinned to my corkboard wall. It has been up there for a while.  It has taken a couple of Starbuck splashes over that time.
I took it down when I realized the card's message hadn't worked. I can't tell you what show I was given this at. An art show? A play? A dance performance? Hmm. Probably something at Harbourfront. Won't ever know now, it has been moved into my blue bin.
Two years ago I was on assignment in the Yucatan. Cave Diving. One of the caves came to the surface near the beach community at Tulum. We stripped out of our wetsuits and drove to the coast to enjoy the sun, the open space and the blue sea (all the opposite of what we had been scuba diving through). Walking the beach I took this picture of a bench in the white sand.
The chair's signature -- The Only Chair You Will Remember For the Rest of Your Life -- is a lie. Today I was warehousing photos onto a backup hard drive (my digital blue bin) when I looked at the picture once again. Had to check my notes to see where I had taken the picture ... I had forgotten the chair, the beach and even the country I was in, when I took the photo.
In the world of PR there is a lot of borrowing. Here are two ideas that you don’t want to sneak out of my wastebasket.
 

Crowdsourcing and Health Care - Tweet Topic Today!

 The Crowd Sourcing Conversation Continues Today ....
 
Following yesterday's standing-room-only "WHAT CROWDSOURCING CAN DO FOR HEALTH INNOVATION" presentation at the Sony Theatre with crowdsourcing pioneers Jeff Howe and Rahad Harfoush, there will be an on-line discussion about the topic this afternoon.(October 17).
 
Saint Elizabeth Home Care, the organizers of yesterday's seminar are staging the Twitter discussion beginning at 1:00 pm ET today.  They are the guest host for this week's Health Care Social Media Canada tweet chat #hcsmca. #hcsmca is a regular chat event involving an established community of people who crowdsource healthcare solutions every week.