Have we elected champions of the
arts?
Huge thanks to the over 200 arts supporters who came out
to the All Candidates Meeting “Focus on the Arts” on
November 6th to hear who would likely be champions of the
arts on Kingston’s new City Council. After presentations
by the Mayoralty and Councillor Candidates Julian Brown,
who came attired in the Kingston Arts Council Bingo outfit,
kicked off a lively question period and made the point that
the KAC, like so many other arts organizations, relies on
Bingo to cover many costs. We are pleased that a number of
arts champions have been elected and are looking forward
to improved support for the arts in Kingston in the future.
The meeting was a joint effort with the Canadian Federation
of University Women, Friends of the Tett and the KAC. (Please
note below the “Urgent Arts Advocacy Request” from
Jan Allen of the KAC Advocacy Committee.)
The Juried Arts Salon for 2007 is on its way with the appointment
of Valerie Westgate as Project Manager. She brings excellent
experience to the position, including organizing exhibitions,
film production, jurying and working with volunteers. Valerie’s
position is supported by the Healthy Community Fund of the
City of Kingston.
We are pleased to announce that the Wellington Street Theatre
will continue as a theatre for another year and the KAC will
remain in its present space. This means that the Kingston
Arts Council Gallery will be available for shows during 2007.
Please contact Sally Chupick, the gallery supervisor, for
more information.
An exciting development for us is that the KAC will be embarking
very shortly on a Feasibility Study to develop something
new for Kingston, an Arts Information System. This will be
carried out with the help of a grant from the Community Foundation
of Greater Kingston. We will keep you informed as the work
on this project unfolds.
Margaret Hughes
President
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Art
Auction Fundraiser Gala Event
December 3, 1- 4pm
Wellington Street Theatre
TICKETS $20 at the Grand Theatre Box Office (613) 530 - 2050.
The
art auction is a joint
fundraiser for the Modern Fuel Artist-Run Centre and The
Grand Theatre Restoration Foundation. Tickets for
the art auction
are $20 at The Grand Theatre Box Office. View their site: Art
Auction
Read a Common Wealth review of the Preview Show. |
OUR
COMMON WEALTH
Reviews: November, 2006
Oliver Schroer’s "Camino"
Reviewed by Wayne
Smith
Sunday, November 12
Wellington Street Theatre
Spiritual peaks were scaled in downtown Kingston this past
Sunday. An evening at the Wellington Theatre set the stage
for a musical and visual journey along the El Camino, or “the
way”. <<full
review>>
The Great Mozart Hunt
Reviewed by Sylvia Grant
Sunday November 12
Kingston Symphony Orchestra
George Zukerman, Bassoon
Ron
Hadler, Actor
Like many others, my friend Alex and I were
only too happy to brave the chilly (yet thankfully, dry)
November afternoon
to journey to St. George’s Cathedral for our first
ever Kingston Symphony Association performance: The Great
Mozart
Hunt. <<full
review>>
Art Auction
Fundraiser Preview
Reviewed by Chris Miner
Auction Previews Nov.22, 23 from
2-7 pm
Friday, Nov. 24 from 2 - 4pm
Kingston Arts Council Gallery
It was polygamist love at first sight. At about twelve years
old, I acquired a book about modern art and obsessed over Arp,
Miro, Klee, Kandinsky, Picasso, Pollock, Chagall, Maholy-Nagy,
Dadaism, Futurism and the like for years. <<full review>>
The Master Builder
Theatre Kingston production
Nov. 22-Dec. 2, 2006
Wellington Street Theatre
Reviewed by Wayne Jones
Henrik Ibsen wrote The Master Builder in 1892
when he was in his 60s, and the basic story is fairly simple.
Halvard Solness is a middle-aged architect whose great successes
are all behind him now, and he fears that his prominence will
be usurped by Ragnar, the young son of his dying business partner.
He’s having an affair with the bookkeeper—and Ragnar’s
fiancée—Kaia, and in the midst of his worry about
failure and madness he and his wife Aline are visited by the
mysterious Hilda, who may or may not be trying to save or destroy
him. <<full review>>
A Thousand Joys - Carmina Burana
Reviewed by Mary Cameron
Kingston Symphony Orchestra
Sat. November 25, 8PM
Sunday November 26, 2:30 PM
The first chorus of Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana - Fortuna,
Imperatrix Mundi (Fortune, Empress of the World) - is
meant to and does strike some terror in the listener, with
its percussion and protesting, dissonant chords. <<read
full review>>
Sign Up to receive Common Wealth Reviews hot
off the press!
December Reviews:
The Messiah: Kingston Symphony Orchestra Dec.6, 7
Chris Alfano & David Braid Dec. 7 Noonhour Jazz
Amahl and the Night Visitors Dec.
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ART OPTIONS KINGSTON SHOW AND SALE
November 26 to December 15
Kingston Arts Council Gallery
(The Upstairs Gallery)
Gallery hours
are Wednesday to Sunday between 1 pm to 5 pm.
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The Birch Bark to Wild Rice
Our project begun in the late summer is
nearing completion at the St Lawrence College Native Resource
Centre.
During
October and November Eartha, the Centre Co-ordinator,
and Mitchell Shewell, have been teaching groups of primary
schoolchildren
about the cultural traditions of wild rice gathering
and the building of the birch bark canoe. A booklet on the
subject matter covered was printed as part of the project.
The beautiful birch bark canoe, built by hand by Chris
Wabie and a group of teenagers entirely from natural
materials,
will now be housed at the Native Resource Centre where
it will be used from time to time for educational and
cultural purposes to illustrate the rich heritage of the
First Nations
of our area.
This project has been supported by the Ontario Arts Council
and the Healthy Community Fund of the City of Kingston.
 
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12th Night Art Gallery Tour
Thursday, November 30, 2006
Downtown Kingston businesses open their stores from 6 pm
to 10 pm for Twelfth Night. Each store will show the work
of one or more local artists as well as providing the public
with
free
hors
d’oeuvres.
This year posters and handbills will note not only
the names and addresses of participating businesses but will
also list which artist is exhibiting at which business.
Any
questions please feel free to contact Jan at Downtown Kingston!
613-542-8677 |
A message from the Advocacy
Committee of the Kingston Arts Council: 28 November 2006
Dear members of the Kingston arts community,
The 6 November Arts All-Candidates meeting was successful
in putting the arts on the political map in Kingston. Happily,
many of the most informed, arts-aware candidates were elected!
In order to maintain our momentum, it will be important
for arts supporters to speak with their councilors and the
freshly re-elected Mayor, to ask them to initiate and support
a strong budget allocation for Kingston arts organisations.
The 2007 budget is being drafted now and, if the arts do
not have a substantial budget line, it will be another year
before we see significant restoration of civic support to
this vital sector.
Amid the flurry of preparations for the festive season,
please take the time to contact your municipal representative
to reiterate the urgent need of the arts community for a
balanced and substantial municipal program of funding for
the arts. Our research on arts funding in peer cities suggests
that a $500,000 allocation to arts groups would be a useful
starting point.
The second key point we ask that you raise with your representatives
is the need for an Arts Advisory Board of the City. Oddly,
during the all-candidates meeting many politicians spoke
as though this is an established Board: it does not yet exist
and requires the approval of Council to come into being.
This Board must consist of a representative cross section
of knowledgeable, respected members of the arts community.
Its mandate would be to advise and communicate with City
staff and elected representatives on arts programs. It should
play a strong role in shaping the City's Cultural Policy,
recognizing that, without a good Cultural Policy based on
the real needs and aspirations of Kingston's arts sector,
City initiatives will fail to bear fruit, and will risk wasting
resources and working at cross-purposes. The Arts Advisory
Board would also have a mandate to advise on arts funding
allocations through an expert peer jury system, the mechanism
recognized as the best guarantor of high quality and effective
arts programs.
Please make that call, or send that email! We can make an
impact if we act in concert in this way. You will find your
Councilor's contact information on the City web site at http://www.cityofkingston.ca/
With thanks, and best wishes for the holidays,
Jan Allen
Chair, Advocacy Committee of the Kingston Arts Council
<back to editorial> |
Third Annual STUDENT
ART CONTEST!
March 1,2,3 & 4, 2007
Kingston Arts Council Coordinator: Gerry de Jong
This will be the third Student Art Contest that the Kingston
Arts Council is coordinating in partnership with The Lung
Association and Communities in Bloom.
We are very pleased that the following two schools have
agreed to participate this year:
J.E. Horton Public School & Rideau Public School
KAC arranges to have artists go to these schools to guide
students in creating works of art.
The best of the artwork, as selected by a KAC adjudicating team, will be
on display at Portsmouth Olympic Harbour during the Gardening Festival,
March 1-4, 2007.
The Lung Association organizes a special “Family
Night” on Friday evening, March 2, 2007, at reduced
family rates, with activities geared to families and a
presentation of awards for the best artwork as selected
by the KAC adjudicating team.
Awards for the best artwork in three categories: Grades
1-3, Grades 4-6 and Grades 7-8 are sponsored by the Kingston
Arts Council and Wallack’s Art Supplies.
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HURRICANE
We waited all evening for it,
with candles and beer, in the unfinished
part of the house. All around us the slow
progress of your new life - everything still exposed,
the stiff uprights that would support the walls,
the nests of wire.
We gave up, went to bed, and then I heard you scream
when the tree fell behind the house, missing it
by inches. When we opened the back door, a mesh
of leaves covered our faces. We went out then,
unwisely, into the swirling wind and the bright
green sky, the pop of transformers blowing, and
the entrails of wires dripping from the trees.
The wind was wild above us and we walked
below in a canopy of stillness. You are lucky,
although you would never say that about yourself,
but the night had spared your house, your car,
your boyfriend’s truck, the plans you have together.
The streets smelled of wet, green wood. Huge
trees had fallen in an instant, each still shod
in a giant, earthen slipper, leaning wearily
into each other or resting on a sagging net of wires.
How hard it is to know what is the new life
and what is the world ending.
by Helen Humphreys
Helen Humphreys is an award-winning
poet and novelist. Her novel "Afterimage" was nominated
for the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize and won the Rogers
Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize in 2001. "The Lost Garden"
was a 2003 Canada Reads selection. Her latest novel "Wild
Dogs" was published in 2004 to more critical praise. Helen
Humphreys lives in Kingston and often appears at poetry readings. |
The Kingston Arts Council Gallery is a busy
place!
Two exhibitions take place back to back this month. The
art auction preview for Modern Fuel and The Grand fundraising
committee will continue in the gallery space until Nov. 24
from 2- 7 pm. Items for the fundraising Art Auction to be
held on Dec 3 in the Wellington St. Theatre are on view at
this time. November 26, ART OPTIONS KINGSTON (AOK) will host
it’s opening reception from 1pm-4pm for a show & sale
of artwork. The show will continue until Dec. 15, open 1-5pm
Tues -Fri; and 11am-5pm on Sat & Sun. Come out
and enjoy some great local artwork.
The Kingston Arts Council Gallery space is large and bright,
however it does share space in the Wellington St. Theatre
building with some offices on the main floor and upstairs.
Due to the fact that it is a huge old building with exceptional
acoustics(!), sound carries easily from one space to another;
especially in the entrance hall & upstairs in the gallery.
During office hours, signs will be posted to remind visitors
to the gallery to take note of this.
Now that the Kingston Arts Council lease has been renewed
for another year, the gallery is again open for arts council
members to book exhibitions for shows for the upcoming year.
Please contact Sally Chupick at phone # 613-531-4545 or [email protected]
if you wish more information about this, or to book a time
for your group’s show in the gallery.
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