For more on the Artscape Wychwood Barns visit http://www.torontoartscape.on.ca/places-spaces/artscape-wychwood-barns
Artscape has transformed the historic Wychwood TTC streetcar repair barns located in Torontos St. Clair and Christie neighbourhood into the Artscape Wychwood Barns a 60,000 sq. ft. multifaceted community centre where arts and culture, environmental leadership, heritage preservation, urban agriculture and affordable housing are brought together to foster a strong sense of community. The Artscape Wychwood Barns is surrounded by a 127,000 sq. ft. new City park.
After seven years of passionate commitment, vision and planning by thousands of individuals and organizations, construction began in March 2007 and was completed in October 2008. The Official Public Opening took place on November 20, 2008.
Video features (in order of appearance):
Tim Jones, President & CEO, Artscape
Councillor Joe Mihevc, Ward 21 St. Pauls, City of Toronto
Jackie Richardson and the Regent Park School of Music Choir
Mayor David Miller, City of Toronto
Kathleen Sharpe, President, Artscape Board of Directors
Ruth Baumann, Chair, Wychwood Barns Community Association
Glen Murray, President & CEO, Canadian Urban Institute
Billie Bridgman, Senior Associate, Artscape
Nick Saul, Executive Director, The Stop Community Food Centre
Lynda Hill, Artistic Director, Theatre Direct
Joe Lobko, Lead Architect, du Toit Architects Ltd.
Elizabeth Cinello, Steering Committee, Friends of a New Park
Peter MacKendrick, President, Taddlewood Heritage Association
Produced for Artscape by Stephen Knifton of popstream.ca
Duration : 0:8:13
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The Puppetry Arts Theatre performs through out the City of New York with original songs and puppets as part of its mission to engage the community in the visual and performance arts through puppetry.
Duration : 0:10:25
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Apollo Theater to Remember A King and Celebrate A Queen At 2010 Annual Spring Benefit Concert and Awards Ceremony
Historic Theater to Induct King of Pop Michael Jackson and Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin into the Apollo Legends Hall of Fame and Honor Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony with the Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis Arts & Humanitarian Award
Hosted by Comedian and Actor Jamie Foxx
HARLEM, NY — March 30, 2010 — The Apollo Theater, one of the nation’s greatest cultural treasures, has announced plans for its 2010 Benefit Concert and Awards Ceremony, to be held at the historic Theater on Monday, June 14, 2010. The Gala celebration will bring together the best and brightest in business and entertainment to raise funds in support of the non-profit theater’s remarkable legacy and its current initiatives for emerging artists and community and educational programs in New York City and beyond. The evening will begin at 6:30 p.m. with a star-studded red carpet, followed by the Gala concert and awards ceremony at 7:00 p.m. and culminating with a grand tented after-party, the Apollo Supper Club.
Hosted by comedian and Oscar-award winning actor Jamie Foxx, the Benefit will feature the induction of two royal new honorees into the Apollo Legends Hall of Fame: the undisputed King of Pop Michael Jackson, and the one and only Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin. Mr. Jackson, who will be posthumously inducted, first performed at the Apollo in the late 1960s with his brothers and won Amateur Night, catapulting their career as the Jackson 5. Jackson went on to become perhaps the world’s biggest star, stretching boundaries in his artistry as a singer, dancer, songwriter, video artist, and the consummate entertainer. Michael Jackson revolutionized popular music and the impact of his music is to this day felt all over the world.
No one epitomizes the definition of an Apollo legend more than Ms. Aretha Franklin. Her name alone commands R-E-S-P-E-C-T. A giant of soul music and an institution of American culture, the Queen will be on hand as she is inducted in grand style into the Legends Hall of Fame. Past inductees into the Apollo Legends Hall of Fame include Quincy Jones, Patti Labelle, Smokey Robinson, James Brown, Gladys Knight and the Pips, Little Richard and Ella Fitzgerald.
The awards ceremony will continue with the Ruby Dee & Ossie Davis Arts and Humanitarian Award presented to Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony. This award, named after the late Ossie Davis and his wife, Ruby Dee, is given annually to a couple who embody the powerful beliefs of this unique pair: a rarified command of their craft, a deep commitment to their community, and an unshakeable connection to each other and their family. Previous award recipients have included Bill and Camille Cosby; Pauletta and Denzel Washington; Kyra Sedgwick and Kevin Bacon; Angela Bassett and Courtney B. Vance; and Tonya Lewis Lee and Spike Lee. The Theater’s annual corporate award recognizing superior corporate leadership will be presented to JP Morgan Chase for its ongoing commitment to the Apollo and the Harlem community.
for more goto www.goodnewsbroadcast.com
Duration : 0:5:47
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James Kalm is honored by the WAGMAG for his years of contributing insights and comments about the local scene. In response, he decides to pay tribute to the Williamsburg arts community and take on the current recession at the same time. James and Kate came up with this conceptual performance piece titled The James Kalm Artists Economic Stimulus Grant.
Duration : 0:10:7
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King Achilla Orru Apaa-Idomo (Arts)
King Achilla Orru Apaa-Idomos blindness has not deterred him from pursuing his passions. From the age of six, when he lost his sight to measles, he learned to find ways around obstacles. His life of achievement in music and community involvement is a testament to his success at moving forward with his dreams, despite the difficulties.
After arriving in Canada in 1989, King Achilla needed to acquire the skills to function independently in a highly organized society. He had spent the previous four years in a refugee camp in Kenya – a way of life completely different from what he found in Canada.
King Achillas scholastic record from Uganda qualified him for acceptance to Dalhousie University in the International Development program, from which he graduated in 1994. Despite the heavy academic load, he was able to start a band, Baana Afrique, in his second year of university.
King Achillas music has received considerable critical acclaim for its unique blend of the African lokombe sound with rhythms and sounds of Western instruments.
Since arriving in Toronto in 1995, he has toured with Baana Afrique all across Canada. In Toronto the band has played at Roy Thompson Hall, CBC Glen Gould Studio, Harbourfront, major festivals and the International Youth celebrations for the Papal visit in 2003.
In January 2008 King Achilla was featured as the soloist of the year with the Royal Dutch Wind Ensemble in Amsterdam at the Concertgebouw, one of the most prestigious concert halls in Europe.
With the support of government grants, King Achilla has produced three CDs, which have received international acknowledgment, including the FIATTE Memorial Award for best traditional performer in 1996, recognition from the World Music Symposium in Germany twice, and a Juno nomination in 2005 for Best World Music of the Year.
King Achilla has also given back to the community by serving on a number of boards and through benefit concerts. He has lent his musical talents to many charities, including Amnesty International, Crossroads Canada, YMCA, UNESCO, Canada World Youth, Human Rights Canada, CNIB, AMREF, Stepping Stones, and the Jane Goodall Institute. He is regularly called upon by federal and provincial political parties to sing O Canada to open various functions.
What to many of us, would seem to be an obvious barrier, has been turned by King Achilla into a positive force to strengthen his considerable resolve, determination and resourcefulness. King Achillas talent has enriched his adopted community of Toronto, the world venues that have enjoyed his music and his native Uganda. Achilla is truly a global citizen for Toronto to be proud of.
Duration : 0:5:32
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This self-styled “Hilarious Asian”will put you “in stitches” as she reenacts her childhood in Indonesia where she worked (for Cathy Lee) as a Sweatshop Girl in a “small town” in Northern Sumatra. After winning the USA Immigration Visa Lottery, she moved (on the same day) to America where she became very rich working as an adviser to Donna Karan at DKNY. Filmed at a Costume Shop and a Dry Cleaning establishment on the West Side of Manhattan, New York City, she “channels” the plight of her youth.
From Indonesia to Canada, Australia and DKNY, Kate’s comedy career began after she graduated with an acting degree from The Juilliard School. The “club scene” drew her to Caroline’s Comedy Club, NYC, where she quickly was “slotted” for a series of appearances and features showcasing her particular brand of character based comedy. She has brought her funky urban Asian sensibility to The Kennedy Center, The Smithsonian Institute, Chicago Museum of Modern Art, and The Public Theater.
She has preformed at the Montreal Just for Laughs Festival, the Toyota Comedy Festival, The Marshalls Women in Comedy Festival, and developed her first comedy and music revue for NBC’s PSNBC in New York, and the HBO Time Warner workspace in Los Angeles. Kate’s Chink-O-Rama: featuring the chinkorama dancers is a New York city favorite at Joe’s Pub at the Public Theater. Her follow up “Birth of a nASIAN” played at the Mark Taper Forum’s Summerfest (developed at La Mama ETC, New York City), MACLA in San Jose, the New World Theater in Massachusetts, the Vancouver Comedy Festival, Women in Theater Conference Toronto, ConWorks Seattle, OutNorth Alaska, MACLA, CCE Portland and the Comedy Central Theater L.A as part of their 2007 season.
Kate has appeared on NBC Late Friday, CTV Women of The Night, NPR, CBC Radio, Sirius Radio, STAR TV, National Lampoon’s International Comedy DVD, Comedy Central, SEX TV, PBS, Latin American TV, vH1, as well as being profiled in the film Race is the Place Alongside Amiri Baraka and Danny Hoch (aired at festivals and on PBS). She has produced numerous comedy shows for RIPE TV and Time Warner on demand, and The Naughty Show Bad Girls of Comedy Show, which is in international release on DVD by Eagle Rock Entertainment.
Her Hip Hop band, Slanty Eyed Mama has toured the US, Canada and Australia, notably at the Perth International Arts Festival in Australia, the Eurasian Nation Festival, the Asian Film Festival at University of Michigan, the A/PI heritage fest in Union Square NYC, LA’s GRAND Performances at City Center, The Asian American Jazz Festival in Chicago, Girl Fest Hawaii, Soundfest NYC, The Philadelphia Fringe Fest and the Women in Performance Conference and the Smithsonian Institutes’ keynote 2007 Asian Heritage Month Performance.
Kate was a 2004 New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) fellow as well as a 2005 NEA grant recipient to develop new work. In 2006 she won the Urban Arts Initiative Grant through the Asian American Arts Alliance, the Ludwig Vogelstein Award to develop new work and one of the Asian Women’s Giving Circle’s Inaugural Grants to Artists for her work in the Asian American community. She has been awarded grants and prizes by The Toronto Arts Council, The Canada Council, The PatsyLu Fund for Women in Music, Dixon Place, The Australia Council for the Arts, The Norma Epstein Foundation, The Juilliard School Interarts Program, and the University of Melbourne.
She recurs on Law and Order, Fox’s Family Guy, and starred in the New York premieres of Dogeaters at the Public Theater, and BFE at Playwright’s Horizons. Off Broadway she was in the Vagina Monologues at the Westside Theater, The Most Fabulous Story Every Told, at Minetta Lane and Sez She, at the Mark Taper Forum. She frequently hosts events, some of which include: The Coalition of Asian Children and Families Benefit (NYC), The Asian Women’s Giving Circle Awards (NY), The Asian American Recovery Services Mentor Luncheon (San Francisco), The Sistering Shelter for Homeless Women Benefit (Toronto), Eurasian Nation’s Launch Party (NY), Queen’s Pride, The Dinah Shore Weekend VIP Pool Party, The Heritage of Pride NYC Rally, Bryant Park, The NYU Asian Heritage Month Fashion and Arts Show, the A/PI Heritage Month Conference Smith College, A/PI Heritage Month New York in Union Square Park. She has appeared on Damages, QVC, Hey Paula, TOP CHEF, Flavor of Love, Big Love, Reaper, Three’s Company and Arrested Development. She has spoken or/written about Asian American culture and representation in: Time Magazine, The Globe and Mail, On and Off Magazine, BUST, The San Francisco Examiner, THIS Magazine, NOW Magazine, CBC Radio and A Magazine.
Beware; Kate could bring mayhem and the curse of laughter on your “small town” if she comes there.
Sincerely,
Richard Currier
Produced & Directed by Richard Currier. (Excerpt/Clips)
©2008 richardcurrier
Discover Kate @:
http://www.katerigg.com/
Duration : 0:1:5
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THEATER HISTORY and WHY this RADIO GALS (DEAR MISTER GERSHWIN) video is significant: Founder of the Blowing Rock Stage Company, Producing Director Mark Wilson had the great joy and fortune of being introduced in 1990 to the award-winning writing team of Mark Hardwick and Mike Craver. Mark Hardwick was one of the creators of PUMP BOYS & DINETTES and originated the role of LM on Broadway. Hardwick & Craver were co-creators of OIL CITY SYMPHONY, which played Off-Broadway for a year, and then at Mark Wilson’s theater in co-production with his colleague Robin Farquhar of Flat Rock Playhouse.
Wilson was the first person privileged in the Hardwick/Craver creative cycle to read an early draft of RADIO GALS, sitting alone in a country restaurant high in the North Carolina Blue Ridge Mountains. He told the writers it was like gazing into some antique Christmas tree ornament as a child, only to find an entire world magically at play in miniature. The sweet innocence of the concept, neighbors gathered daily around a radio transmitter live on the air (WGAL) in the early 1900s, was overwhelming. Wilson pled his case humbly to produce the show.
Cliff Baker, the legendary director of Arkansas Rep was to have the honor of the world premiere, and Wilson traveled out to Little Rock to see it. The production was a triumph, and Wilson believed it should have gone straight from that stage to Off-Broadway, so enchanting was Baker’s realization of its spirit.
The play continued in development, and Blowing Rock Stage Company in Blowing Rock, North Carolina was destined to be the second production. This time, writer Mark Hardwick was both to direct the production, and play the piano as one of the Swindle Sisters (one of the show’s charming gags). Some of the choreography came directly from the writing team watching old black and white Follies movies of the 30s at Wilson’s home, where they camped out tweaking the script. That is Mike Craver as Azilee Swindle that you see on upright bass in this show, which requires the actors to play a variety of instruments, providing all of the live musical accompaniment from the stage.
Very few of the theater family knew that Hardwick was terminally ill. He completed staging the show – his last public performance was at dress rehearsal – and his understudy went on for him opening night and completed the run. As you watch this video, Mark Hardwick is watching with you, in the back row of the theater, huddled under a blanket as the theater’s eccentric air conditioning unit rained frigid air down the back wall, icing all who had those back row tickets each performance. And they did – every performance was sold-out. Handing out Blowing Rock blankets for those ticket-buyers was standard procedure for the House Manager. Show business…
The Blowing Rock production of RADIO GALS was to be Mark Hardwick’s final earthly artistic endeavor. It was the greatest honor of Mark Wilson’s twelve years’ leadership to be of service to the legacy of these brilliant writer/performers. RADIO GALS made its way to Off-Broadway, and is often performed at both professional and community theaters worldwide. It included many of Wilson’s favorites: Egyptology, early radio, spiritualism, flying saucers, time travel, exotic women, and talent beyond comprehension.
The Blowing Rock Theatre production cast included Klea Blackhurst, Candyce Hinkle, Emily Mikesell, Vivian Morrison, Joel Spineti, Bob Birdsong and Mike Craver. Direction, Choreography and Musical Direction by Mark Hardwick. Designer: Jennifer OKelly. Costume Designer: Yslan Hicks. Properties: Patricia Quinn. Technical Director: Curt Hardison.
Klea Blackhurst, the great New York cabaret performer, premiered the performance of DEAR MISTER GERSHWIN heard here. She is the standard by which all others are measured. That song has become one of the most frequently heard tunes performed by young auditioning actresses (ask any theatrical producer – it should be in the Guinness Book of Records!)
Dear Mister Gershwin,
Why were you staring out into space …
That look on your face was ever so odd to me.
Was it hunger or grief … Or just plain relief …
Mister Gershwin, what did you see?
Another world so free …
…A flying saucer?
or a prettier girl than me.
…And that’s how I met Mister G.
- MARK HARDWICK & MIKE CRAVER
http://www.mikecraver.com/gershwin.html
(Sheet Music and much more available here.)
It all makes sense, from this old video tape, lovingly restored 16 years later for archival joy. Everything in life is allegory in the hands of artists. What a gift.
Mark Hardwick on Tony Awards 1982: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SG6LA9UsJQ4
Duration : 0:4:3
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ref-use/ refuge is a village made of plastics.
installation location: Prairie Center of the Arts (Peoria, IL)
collaborators: Manual High School’s Drawing I & II and Painting I & II and Richwood High School’s Art Club with artist and community arts choreographer, Jennifer Van Winkle
This project is part of Van Winkle’s collaborative series:
sustainable creativity: new experiences/ reused materials.
Duration : 0:5:24
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Documentation of an interactive art project shown at St. VIncent’s Public Hospital, in Darlinghurst, Sydney, Australia, presented in collaboration with the St.Vincents Campus Arts Committee and d/Lux/Media/Arts.
This was the first presentation of The Heart Library Project in a hospital, and was a produced with funding from an Australia Council, Inter-Arts Office “Research & Development Project grant”.
The exhibition was presented on Level 4 of the Xavier building, in a large waiting room area adjascent to the main escalators and elevators, and just down the corridor from the Heart and Lung Centre.
Visitors to the exhibition came from across the hospital community, from patients and their families, to nurses, pastoral care workers and cleaning staff.
We recorded more than fifty experience-maps over the twelve days of the exhibition, and you can hear some of the interviews we recorded in this video clip.
Duration : 0:5:0
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The Arts Council of New Orleanss Community Arts Awards recognizes individuals, organizations, and corporations that have made outstanding contributions to the arts in New Orleans. Recipients include living artists, arts patrons, volunteers, nonprofit arts and cultural organizations, and corporate patrons. Award nominations are based on artistic excellence, sustained contributions, unusual achievements, perseverance, and a deep commitment to the arts and the cultural community.
Duration : 0:7:17
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