Tulip Festival lineup revealed
Liberation party to kick off festivities
The Ottawa Citizen
By Tony Lofaro
The Canadian Tulip Festival unveiled its new lineup Tuesday, offering 1945-style nostalgia with a Liberation Street Party and the return of some favourites, including a revived Festival Passport.
The theme this year is Liberation and a highlight is the Liberation Street Party, which kicks off May 7 on Sparks Street, recreating the events of May 7, 1945, when news arrived that Europe had been liberated by Allied forces. There will be bands and street cafés from Elgin to Bank Street, including Cabaret Libre, which will showcase 1940’s-era cabaret and swing music.
The festival runs from May 7 to 24.
The International Pavilion returns to Major’s Hill Park after a one-year stay at Lansdowne Park and will feature a beer garden hosted by Beau’s Brewery of Vankleek Hill, as well as the cuisine and culture of 23 countries.
Celebridée, the much vaunted speaker series, returns to the Mirror Tent at Major’s Hill Park and some of the announced speakers so far include Jeremy Rifkin, author of Empathic Civilization, Andrew Cohen, president of the Dominion Institute, and Ottawa lawyer Ron Caza.
Under its Capital Sounds banner, the festival is bringing music back to Major’s Hill Park with Ottawa bands The JiveWires and John Carroll and The FiftyMen. There will also be a P.E.I. Kitchen Party with chef Michael Smith, featuring six local restaurants offering samples of seafood.
To read the full article, click on Tulip Festival lineup revealed.
[N.B. Chantal Gagnon has advised that, in September of 2009 the Dominion Institute and the Historica Foundation of Canada merged to create the Historica-Dominion Institute, and that Andrew Cohen's proper title is President, Historica-Dominion Institute.]
Group events at the NAC in May and June, 2010
Bring Your Next Group Event to Canada’s National Arts Centre (NAC) in Ottawa.
May 13-15 – Southam Hall
CTV Pops: Irving Berlin: From Ragtime to Ritzes
Group tickets from $16.53
An all-star cast of vocalists, including charismatic Tony DeSare, and your NAC Orchestra celebrate Irving Berlin, one of the legendary creators of the Great American Songbook. This lavishly produced program showcases nearly a century of his music from ragtime through two world wars, Hollywood, and Broadway – sampling all-time favourites from among the nearly 1,500 songs he wrote. This musical genius will amuse, touch, and WOW you with classics such as “Alexander’s Ragtime Band,” “There’s No Business Like Show Business,” “Blue Skies,” “Always,” and “Puttin’ on the Ritz.” You won’t need “Top Hat, White Tie and Tails” when you “Let Yourself Go” at this CTV Pops concert!
Reserve your tickets
June 2-3 – Southam Hall
Group tickets from $16.53
Bronfman & Brahms
NAC Orchestra favourite Yefim Bronfman returns to play Brahms’ symphonic-length, wonderfully challenging Piano Concerto No. 2. This program also includes Dvorák’s Symphony No. 8, notable for its stunning Allegro movement, full of vibrant fanfare, variations and fierce marches.
Musically Speaking: Pre-Concert Chat at 7 p.m. (in English) – “The Allure of the New”
CBC Radio Executive Producer Jill LaForty interviews Robert Harris, host of CBC Radio’s I Hear Music, and his popular series, “Twenty Pieces of Music that Changed the World.”
April 29 – 30, 19:30 – Theatre
Saburo Teshigawara/KARAS
Miroku
Group tickets from $30.13
Internationally-acclaimed dance artist Saburo Teshigawara erases the body and reaches for the dance of the soul. Fusing the clarity and complexity of dance, he searches for the perfect fusion of elements — for a new form of beauty. In Miroku, his stunning new solo, he explores space and light, extremity and velocity, creating an eternity beyond time, where everything harmonizes with delicate, yet powerful, tension. Unnaturally fluid, melting movement becomes edgy, vibrating … then blissfully still. Choreography and set, lighting, and costume design by Teshigawara.
Production: Karas/New National Theater, Tokyo
“The last moment was a moment where the dancer became one with the universe. He approached the ultimate form of dance, and created a magnificent epic of the human spirit.” – Kumiko Murayama, The Asahi, December 25, 2007
The programming for our 2010/11 has been announced after 4 great launch events from the NAC Orchestra, English Theatre, Théâtre Français, and Dance. There are many great group events to start planning for today!
For further details, visit the respective links below and contact your group sales team at grp@nac-cna.ca.
NACO English Theatre
Théâtre Français Dance
Know that when you contact Group Sales, you will receive quality, personalized service! Groups of 10 or more can reserve seats early and avoid missing out on SOLD-OUT performances!
Study examines festivals’ impact
Ottawa Sun
By Donna Casey
How much money do Ottawa’s festivals bring to the city? How many visitors come from out of town? Would a volunteer who’s an accountant by day prefer to help with the books or take tickets at the gate?
Ottawa festival planners want answers to those questions and are launching a five-year study to determine the social, economic and environmental impact of festivals in Ottawa.
To read the full article, click on Study examines festivals’ impact.
Video Clip of Sold-Out Evening with Jane Goodall (Apr. 12)
The Ottawa International Writers Festival got a video clip from our sold-out evening with Jane Goodall on April 12th. Thanks to Carleton University for co-presenting this with us, and thanks to the Jane Goodall Foundation for making it possible.
The Writers Festival (Spring Edition) is fast approaching! Visit us online for all the details. Featuring special Earth Day programming, acclaimed poetry, the return of Books and Brunch, new fiction from around the world, BIG IDEAs, Global Perspectives and Extraordinary Canadians, we’re in for a real treat this year.
It’s going to be a stellar Festival so we hope to see you there from April 22 to 27.
Sean Wilson
Artistic Director
Ottawa International Writers Festival
Festival Discussion Forum
Ottawa International Animation Festival – Call for Submissions
Organizers of North America’s largest animation event are looking for entries for the 2010 edition to be held in Ottawa, October 2-24. The categories are: independent short films, feature films, new media, commissioned films (TV series, commercials, music videos, etc), student films and made for children.
Deadline for entries is June 1, with preview DVDs arriving no later than June 15.
There is no entry fee.
For more information and online entry form, go to www.animationfestival.ca.
Direct questions to entries@animationfestival.ca or 613-232-8769.
SAW Video and National Gallery of Canada Hosts International Curator Sarah Cook
SAW Video and the National Gallery of Canada present a Curatorial Talk by author, editor, and curator Sarah Cook on Thursday, April 29th, at 6pm, to mark the Canadian launch of her book Rethinking Curating (co-authored with Beryl Graham) and month-long writing residency with SAW Video in Ottawa.
“Curatorial Practice & New Media Today”
Thursday, 29 April 2010, 6pm-8pm
National Gallery of Canada, 300 Sussex Drive
Lecture Hall, Free admission
Writing residency for Public Domain, SAW Video’s commissioning project
April 26 – May 22, 2010
Arts Court, 2 Daly Ave
To book an interview, call SAW Video at 613-238-7648 or drop in (Room M76) on Tuesday afternoons (April 27th, May 4th and 11th) from 3pm-5pm.
Please visit www.sawvideo.com for more details.
“Aboriginal Experiences” – Devastating Longhouse Fire in Ottawa
Aboriginal Experiences, Arts and Culture are sad to announce that on Friday, April 2nd (in the middle of the night), our longhouse, located on the sacred and historical Algonquin territory of Victoria Island, was burnt to the ground. Sadly, during the winter months a good portion of our “village” displays, seating, etc., is stored in the longhouse and was also lost in the fire. At this point, the Fire Department has declared the fire accidental, yet no less devastating to our team or the Aboriginal community as a whole who have been tremendously supportive, offering prayers and assistance.
Aboriginal Experiences is an award-winning cultural attraction that has been sharing native culture, teachings and arts with residents, students and international visitors to our Nation’s Capital since the summer of 2000. In 2009, it was selected as one of Canada’s “28 Most Significant Aboriginal Attractions”.
2010 was off to a fabulous start, as our company was selected as exclusive caterers for the 2010 Aboriginal Pavilion in Vancouver, and our dance troupe had the honour of performing at numerous events celebrating Aboriginal cultures with Olympic fans from around the Globe. We were looking forward to building upon that great success with our visitors for this coming season, scheduled to open May 1st.
Although insured, it is a challenging task to rebuild and replace so much of what was lost. However, no one has lost sight of the reason why Aboriginal Experiences exists and we will move forward, with the support of our community, to rebuild a venue for our talented team of artists to share their culture with “all our relations”.
Please visit our website, www.aboriginalexperiences.com, or contact us at 613-564-9494 for more info.
Visitors this year will be hosted in temporary shelters and have an opportunity to witness the “rebuild”.
On behalf of our entire team of Aboriginal Experiences, “Meegwetch” for the continued support.
Trina Mather-Simard
SAW Video Presents Radical Polish Video Artist Artur Zmijewski – Apr. 21
OTTAWA – April 6, 2010
Radical Polish artist Artur Zmijewski is well-known and discussed in the international arts community, notably for his provocative video work. SAW Video is bringing a selection of these works to Ottawa for an exclusive one-night screening on April 21, 2010, in the auditorium of Library and Archives Canada, 395 Wellington St, at 8pm.
The event is open to everyone and admission is free. Guest speaker Daniel Baird—arts and literature editor for The Walrus—has written extensively about contemporary Polish video.
The Films
Often inviting people living with infirmity, disability or illness to participate in social experiments, Zmijewski’s videos rip open the safety nets and social contracts built into the terms of contemporary representation. Questions about socially approved “norms” and how the body functions or looks different recur in his work. Zmijewski unabashedly confronts and depicts controversial viewpoints on historical and contemporary structures such as the Polish military and the church. The artist constantly draws a line between the manifestation of socio-political corruption and the innocence and purity of humanity. In doing so, viewers are left to consider their own limitations as they come face-to-face with potentially difficult or unfamiliar ideas.
The Program
THEM, 26:30 minutes, 2007
The Game of Tag, 4:25 minutes, 1999
KR WP, 7:10 minutes, 2000
Eye for an Eye, 10:00 minutes, 1998
Videos in Polish with English Subtitles
The Artist
Artur Zmijewski lives and works in Warsaw, Poland. He studied in Grzegorz Kowalski’s studio at the Department of Sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw (1990-95). His video and photography has been extensively exhibited and critically reviewed. He represented Poland in the 2005 Venice Biennale and in 2007 was included in Documenta 12. Zmijewski is also on the editorial team of Krytyka Polityczna (Political Critique), a forum for left-wing political and cultural discourse in Poland. He is represented by Galerie Peter Kilchmann in Zurich, Switzerland.
Established in 1981, SAW Video is an artist-run-centre committed to support ground breaking artistic production, presentation and programming of independent video and media art. SAW Video provides many services to its membership including affordable technical facilities, and a wide range of programmes designed to create an atmosphere that will inspire production through the exchange of ideas around form, content and style.
SAW Video receives ongoing financial support for its activities from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council and the City of Ottawa.
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For more information, contact:
Denise MacDonald
Communications Coordinator
SAW Video
67 rue Nicholas Street
Ottawa, Ontario, K1N 7B9
denise@sawvideo.com
613:238:7648
Early Sell-Out for Ottawa Half-Marathon
March 30, 2010, OTTAWA – Sending a clear signal that Ottawa Race Weekend is a leading spring-time destination for road race athletes, organizers announced Monday that registrations for its half-marathon distance had sold out.
“We are one month ahead of last year’s May 1st sell-out date,” said Jim Robinson, General Manager, Run Ottawa. “Considering the half-marathon field accommodates 10,500 runners, we’re taking it as an early sign that Ottawa Race Weekend 2010 will be another record-breaking year.”
With two full months to go before the first start gun is fired on the May 29-30 Ottawa Race Weekend, coveted spots in other race distances are also filling up quickly. The 4,500 limit in the marathon field is 73% sold, 66% of the 9,500 spots in the 10k race are spoken for, and registrations for other races are selling quickly.
“Ottawa Race Weekend appeals to racers because the course is flat, the weather is usually great, and our events are very well organized,” said Jim Robinson. “If you plan to run this year, don’t wait to register. We don’t expect available spots to last long.”
[Originally posted at Time-to-Run.]
For more information or to register, visit Run Ottawa.
