You’re Invited: Celebrate Canada’s Culture Days Sept. 26, 27 & 28, 2014

“Culture Days is committed to reaching the goal of having all Canadians in every community declaring “I Love Culture” and making culture a daily habit.

With the support of volunteer groups at the national, provincial and local levels, hundreds of thousands of artists, cultural workers, organizations and groups, volunteers and supporters self-mobilize to host free participatory public activities that take place in hundreds of cities and towns throughout the country over the last weekend of September each year.

The fifth annual Culture Days weekend will take place September 26, 27 and 28, 2014, and will feature thousands of free, hands-on, interactive activities that invite the public to participate “behind-the-scenes,” to discover the world of artists, creators, historians, architects, curators, designers and other creative people in their communities.”

culturedays.ca

Bloor St. Culture Corridor in Toronto, Ontario, is also offering a vast array of celebratory events and activities as listed in the press release below.

This video presents Conduct Us: The Baton.

In preparation for Conduct Us, the national Kick-off of the 5th Anniversary Culture Days weekend at Roy Thomson Hall on Friday, September 26, Culture Days and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra present a series of fun Learn How to Conduct videos starring esteemed conductor and TSO Musical Director Peter Oundjian and Colm Feore.
Conduct Us invites the public to chose from one of three well-known classical works and a once-in-a-lifetime chance to conduct a major symphony orchestra.
For more information on the event click here: http://bit.ly/VNX5fG.
Starring:
TSO Musical Director Peter Oundjian and Colm Feore
Pianist: Talisa Blackman”

Enjoy! / Amusez-vous!

PRESS RELEASE

THE BLOOR ST. CULTURE CORRIDOR HUB:

A CULTURE DAYS 2014 HOT SPOT

TORONTO, Canada (September 18, 2014): The Bloor St. Culture Corridor, Toronto’s most diverse arts and culture district, will celebrate Culture Days, September 26-28, 2014, with a vast array of exhibitions, films, concerts, culture talks, and special events.

Culture Days features free, hands-on arts and culture activities which invite the public to take a peek behind-the-scenes and try something new. Culture Days provides an ideal opportunity to invite the public to explore the range of activities offered by the diverse organizations of the Bloor St. Culture Corridor.

At the Bloor St. Culture Corridor Hub, within one easily-walkable mile on Bloor Street West, culture lovers can enjoy FREE events at the Bloor Hot Docs Cinema, Tafelmusik, Alliance Française de Toronto, the Bata Shoe Museum, The Royal Conservatory, the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM), the University of Toronto Faculty of Music, the Gardiner Museum, and the Japan Foundation.

The Bloor St. Culture Corridor Hub complete Culture Days Bright Spots Schedule is online: click here.

In one mile along Bloor Street on Culture Days weekend, the public can and enjoy the following free Bloor St. Culture Corridor Hub activities:

The Bloor Hot Docs Cinema features two free screenings during Culture Days. Planet In Focus presents The Green Chain (Saturday, September 27, 3:30pm) a powerful and thought-provoking film about people who love trees and the battle between loggers and environmentalists. The Reel Asian Film Festival presents I AM: SMTOWN Live World Tour (Sunday, September 28, 3:30pm), which follows the lives of SMTOWN K-POP artists, featuring never-before-seen interviews and footage of their historic concert at New York’s Madison Square Garden (In Korean, with English subtitles).

Audiences will be carried away by the beautiful baroque music of a Tafelmusik Quartet at the Gardiner Museum among the baroque and rococo pieces in the European Porcelain Galleries. The performance and Q&A features members of Canada’s premiere baroque orchestra – Christopher Verrette (violin), Julia Wedman (violin), Christina Mahler (cello), and Lucas Harris (lute) – and takes place on Sunday, September 28, starting at 2pm.

Alliance Française de Toronto invites everyone to come and visit between 2pm and 4pm on Saturday, September 27. Visit the new theatre, watch animated French films for children, see the exhibition of paintings by Marie Rioux in the Gallery, and enjoy light refreshments.

The Bata Shoe Museum invites everyone to get up close and personal with their exciting hands-on collection. Docents will be available in the lobby Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, 2pm-3pm, showcasing some of the most unique pieces of footwear from around the world.

The Royal Conservatory presents the Koerner Hall Free For All! on Saturday, September 27, 2014 12pm-3pm (acoustic performances) and 5pm-8pm (amplified performances), when Koerner Hall will be open for free to everyone to experience one of the world’s greatest concert halls, and see performers of all ages showcasing their bands, songs, spoken word, and more, in fast-paced 5-minute sets. The Royal Conservatory’s flagship ensemble, ARC Ensemble (Artists of The Royal Conservatory), will present “The hell where youth and laughter go,” a commemoration of the start of WWI featuring works by George Butterworth and Edward Elgar, with Ian Deakin narrating contemporary writings. The free ARC Ensemble concert takes place Sunday, September 28, 2014 at 7:30pm in Koerner Hall at The Royal Conservatory.

The Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) offers the opportunity to meet a ROM expert and learn about daily life in medieval Cairo with close-up encounters with artifacts from the ROM’s Islamic teaching collection. ROM Plaza, Saturday and Sunday 11am – 3pm.

The University of Toronto’s Faculty of Music presents a special free Culture Days Recital with Harpist Caroline Cole on Saturday, September 27, at 7:30pm, when the winner of the 2014 Canada Council Virginia Parker Prize will perform music for harp including a world premiere of Sailing on Starlight by Evan Fein.

At the Gardiner Museum on both Saturday, September 27 and Sunday, September 28 professional ceramic artists and their students practice the Japanese tradition of Raku firing on the Gardiner plaza between 10am and 4pm. On Sunday September 28, the Gardiner Museum offers free admission all day, and everyone is invited to join an experienced art educator in the lobby between 11am and 4pm to paint a clay tile they can take home.

Japanese Design Today 100, now on view at the Japan Foundation, features 100 of the finest examples of Japanese design with a focus on everyday products. It combines superbly designed products of recent years with a group of modern designs from the 1950s through the 1990s that had a significant influence on the design of today. Guided gallery tours will take place at 1pm and 3:30pm on Saturday and Sunday, plus additional activities will take place in the library on Saturday.

The Bloor St. Culture Corridor can be found at:

www.bloorstculturecorridor.com

Twitter: @bloorstculture

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bloorstculturecorridor

Culture Days invites everyone to explore, discover and participate in arts and culture in every community across the country. Over 5.5 million Canadians have participated in 25,000 Culture Days activities hosted by 4,440 Canadian artists, cultural organizations and groups since 2010. The 5th anniversary Culture Days weekend will take place on September 26, 27 and 28, 2014. Once again, the event will feature free, hands-on, interactive activities that invite the public to participate “behind the scenes”-and to discover the world of artists, creators, historians, architects, curators, and designers at work in their community.

To find out what activities are happening in your community visit www.on.culturedays.ca and plan your Culture Days weekend using the Bright Spots Schedule, presented by Sun Life Financial. Connect with Culture Days on Facebook, Flickr and YouTube and join the conversation @ONCultureDays.

Ontario Culture Days is supported by the Ontario Arts Council and the Government of Ontario in recognition of Celebrate the Artist Weekend.

The Bloor St. Culture Corridor is a uniquely Torontonian arts and culture district. The Bloor St. Culture Corridor’s 13 partnering arts and culture destinations are all located in almost exactly one mile (1.6 kms), along a vibrant stretch of Bloor Street, from Bathurst to Bay, connecting three major Toronto neighbourhoods: the Annex, University of Toronto, and Bloor-Yorkville. The Bloor St. Culture Corridor offers a wide variety of arts genres, from museum experiences to films, art exhibitions to music concerts, and it offers opportunities to experience some of Toronto’s cultural diversity, including French, Jewish, Italian, Japanese and Aboriginal arts and culture. Torontonians and visitors to the City can easily take public transit to get to the Bloor St. Culture Corridor – there are 5 major subway stations along the Corridor – and walk between destinations along Toronto’s most diverse arts and culture corridor.