With more than 200 events taking place on the Bloor St. Culture Corridor in November, there is no need to look far to find your arts and culture fix. Located within an easily-walkable area between Bathurst and Bay Streets, the 13 arts and culture destinations of the Bloor St. Culture Corridor offer a vast range of exhibitions, films, concerts, culture talks, and special events that will appeal to various different tastes.
Visual Arts
From November 5, the Japan Foundation presents the opening of Threshold, an exhibition featuring the artwork of Ryoji Ikeda and Walter Jule, two pioneers in the field of printmaking and photography. A glance at these artists’ chronologies reveals their mutual integration of innovative printmaking processes in conjunction with traditional Japanese techniques. Both Ikeda and Jule draw inspiration from Eastern philosophy, enacting the themes of time, light and various states of being. The exhibition will be on view until January 29, 2015.
Five exhibitions are also on display at the Bata Shoe Museum in November, including Fashion Victims: The Pleasures and Perils of Dress in the 19th Century; Collected in the Field: Shoemaking Traditions From Around the World; Beauty, Identity, Pride: Native North American Footwear; and All About Shoes with Footprints on the World Stage, a special feature exhibition of extraordinary footwear worn in moments of triumph on the world’s stage, worn by icons like Pierre Trudeau, Madonna, Roger Federer, Napoleon and Marilyn Monroe.
This month, the Gardiner Museum presents 12 Trees of Christmas: The Toronto Edition, a display of dazzling designer trees themed around local neighbourhoods, including Leslieville, Chinatown and many others. On view November 12 to December 14. With more than 2,000 ceramic figurines, Piece by Piece, now on view at the Gardiner Museum, brings the 18th century to life through a multitude of haunting narratives evoking war and peace, love and hate, death and destruction, and victory and defeat. Running until January 4, 2015, the exhibition marks British artist Clare Twomey’s Canadian debut.
On display until November 16, The Entire City Project at the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) showcases, through the photography of Toronto-based artist Michael Awad, every corner, and every space of the Museum in a way never seen before. In addition to The Entire City Project, there are more than a dozen other exhibitions at the Royal Ontario Museum, including Genizot: Repositories of Memory, an installation that explores the many ways in which memory works and where it is placed; Fashion Follows Form: Designs for Sitting; 100 years of Collecting; Around 1914: Design in a New Age; an internationally renowned photography competition, and more.
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| Michael-Awad, TTC Subway, 2012 |
Film
As Seen through These Eyes screens at the Miles Nadal Jewish Community Centre on November 9 at 4pm and 7:30pm. The powerful documentary, co-presented with Holocaust Education Week, is about a group of extraordinary people who fought the Nazis with the only weapons they had: charcoal, pencil stubs, shreds of paper and memories etched in their minds. As Seen through These Eyes filmmaker, Hilary Helstein will be in attendance.
The Hot Docs 2014 award-winning documentary Keep On Keepin’ On, featuring legendary jazz trumpeter Clark Terry and the blind piano prodigy he mentors, opens on November 14 at the Bloor Hot Docs Cinema. A visually-stunning film about art and culture, Hermitage Revealed opens on November 21 and profiles The State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia as it celebrates its 250th anniversary. In addition, the Music on Film series continues at the cinema on November 25 with a screening of Vladimir Horowitz: The Last Romantic, presented with The Royal Conservatory of Music.
The 1935 version of David Copperfield, based off of the Charles Dickens novel, screens on November 20 at the Bata Shoe Museum. Chronicling a young man on his journey from impoverished childhood to the discovery of his vocation as a successful novelist, David Copperfield is presented as part of the Bata Shoe Museum’s Nineteen Century Literature in Classic Films series.
In November, Alliance Française de Toronto screens an array of both documentary and fiction films, including Toronto by its Insiders, an examination of local film directors and how Toronto inspires their creations; Comment j’ai détesté les maths, a testament to how mathematics has changed our world, for the better or sometimes for the worst; The Spanish Apartment, a chronicle of the adventures of a strait-laced French student who moves to Barcelona, and more.
Music
The Toronto Consort‘s season opening concert Paris Confidential takes place on November 7 and 8. The evening pays tribute to the flourishing of music, dance, literature and the visual arts in France during the 16th century. Jane Couchman, Professor emerita of French and Women’s Studies at York University’s Glendon College, will provide a free lecture prior to the performances.
Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra and Chamber Choir hosts a Sing-Along Messiah Workshop at 1pm on November 8, and presents Theatre of Magic: Music of the English Baroque, led by violinist Pavlo Beznosiukof the Academy of Ancient Music, November 19 – 23, at Trinity-St. Paul’s Centre. Featuring selections from Purcell’s The Fairy Queen, Locke’s The Tempest, and arias for the sorceress Armida from Handel’s Rinaldo, the evening will enchant listeners.
The University of Toronto Faculty of Music presents two concerts in Walter Hall this November. On Monday, November 10, at 7pm, Cecilia String Quartet and Lydia Wong perform pieces by Beethoven, Webern, and Shostakovich. Two weeks later, on Monday, November 24, at 7 pm, the University of Toronto Faculty of Music presents an evening of innovative artistic collaborations with Shauna Rolston and Friends. The program features music by Chan Ka Nin and Heather Schmidt with choreography by Peggy Baker.
As well, The Royal Conservatory of Music presents 19 different concerts that offer a wide array of music by international stars of classical, jazz, pop, soul, and world music. Classical performances taking place feature pianist Jeremy Denk on November 9; Lu Jia conducting the China NCPA Orchestra and Wiaoyu Liu on November 11; pianist Richard Goode on November 16; and Zukerman Chamber Players on November 30.
There will also be two jazz performances, Idan Raichel & Vieux Farka Touré: The Touré-Raichel Collective on November 21 and the Count Basie Orchestra with Musical DirectorScotty Barnhart on November 22. Angélique Kidjo and special guest H’Sao will dazzle the crowd with their Afro-funk fusion on November 8. And Diego El Cigala will transport listeners to Argentina with his powerful flamenco music on November 15. All of these concerts take place at Koerner Hall this month.
Alliance Française de Toronto has six musical performances throughout the month. A mixture of jazz, opera, classical and world music artists will grace the Alliance Française de Toronto’s new stage, including Albin de la Simone on November 8, Gerineldo on November 25, and many more.
Culture Talks/Lectures
The ROM presents many fascinating lectures in November, including Love and Treasure with Ayelet Waldman, Power Textiles from Islamic Lands; The Importance of Insect Conservation, a talk by Georges Brossard, Host of The Bug Man on the Discovery Channel, and more.
The final two installments of the Gardiner Museum’s 30th Anniversary Lecture Series takes place in November. The first, The World of Style: Ancient Maya Ceramics and Power features guest speaker Dr. Dorie Reents-Budet, Curator of Art of the Ancient Americas at Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, and occurs on November 12.
The Importance of Being Kakiemon: The Origin and International Impact of Japanese Kakiemon Style Porcelain, delivered by Nicole Coolidge Rousmaniere, Curator of the Japanese Collections in the Department of Asia at the British Museum, finishes off the series on November 26.
The Istituto Italiano di Cultura presents, on November 19, Michelangelo: His Poetry and His World, a talk by Sarah Rolfe Prodan. Through an examination of Michelangelo’s poetic activity – his verses, the pages on which they were composed, and their fortune – the talk will shed light on the artist, his work and his world.
The Miles Nadal Jewish Community Centre continues its series Kevin Courrier Spins the Beatles throughout the month. Each lecture will examine how the Beatles’ music created both dreams and nightmares in their pursuit of an artificial paradise, ‘Nowhere Land’, built on the principles of pleasure and fulfillment. The lectures take place every Monday night, 7pm, until December 8.
Special Events
Every Wednesday night in November, starting at 6pm, the Native Centre of Toronto hosts a free Regalia Making Class. The evenings bring together people of all ages and provide everyone with the skills to make and sew their own traditional powwow garment.
The Bata Shoe Museum presents a 19th Century Pastimes with a 21st Century Twist – Embroidery Workshop, 1pm – 4pm, on November 9. Lead by embroiders from Toronto’s The Make Den, the class will learn the basics of this intricate craft. The workshop is inspired by the Bata Shoe Museum’s current exhibition Fashion Victims.
The ROM continues its extremely popular Friday Night Live events throughout November. With eclectic eats, drinks, DJs, dancing, live music and unexpected gallery experiences, the evenings are non-stop fun! The themes November’s Friday Night Live are Dinos, Dodos, and Discos (November 7); Heroes (November 14); Get Wild! (November 21); and Celestial Blast (November 28).
Having lived in this part of the city, I can assure you there is always something to see, hear, and experience around the Corridor. Personally, I recommend Diego El Cigala for live music that will take you far away. As well, take advantage of the FREE lectures and Pay-What-You-Can admission Thursdays from 5-8pm at the Bata Shoe Museum.
With this vast list of events, there is no reason to stay indoors this month. More information about the Bloor St. Culture Corridor and upcoming events can be found at bloorstculturecorridor.com.
