Archive for the 'art / design' Category

My Favorite Movie Theatre: Bloor Cinema

contact January 28th, 2012

bloor cinema toronto canada
Bloor Cinema rules. It is a real, traditional, old school movie theatre for true movie buffs – showing classic favorite movies. If you’ve never been to an old theater and want to experience what your parents or grandparents experienced, check out Bloor. Its wonderful sticky floors, movie classics as well as more obscure gems, cheap tickets, squeeky seats, more than 800 seats, true movie house smells, gummy worms… will just make you sigh. In a good way. What is NOT to like about this place!? Tell me.

The Bloor Cinema is a host for gobs of film festivals, movie premieres, special gala events, classic films and Hollywood blockbusters. They showcase a variety of perspectives from across Canada and around the world: independent films, fascinating stories, important documentaries and sometimes just wild, unbridled entertainment.

This historic landmark should be a must-see item on your list when visiting Toronto, whether you go see a movie or not. LOVE this place.

Browsing tonight’s listing, I noticed that Ghost World (with Thora Birch, Scarlett Johansson and Steve Buscemi) is playing. Don’t miss that excellent film!

Bloor Cinema
506 Bloor Street West,
Toronto ON M5S1Y2 Canada
(416) 516-2331

Street Art in Toronto

CN Tower Gets a New Glass Floor Elevator

contact January 1st, 2012

From canoe.ca:

“After losing its 32-year status as the tallest freestanding structure on the planet, Toronto’s iconic CN Tower has something new to brag about: the world’s highest glass-floor elevator that offers visitors a thrilling perspective of the city.

Shooting upwards at 22 kilometres per hour, visitors can now watch the ground below them fall away as the elevator soars 346 metres in just 58 seconds.

For those who dare to stand atop one of the elevator’s two narrow glass floor panels – each a little more than five centimetres thick – the trip is perhaps even more harrowing on the way down.

Plunging down the concrete elevator shaft with a view of some of the…”

Full article

Featured City: Toronto

contact December 26th, 2011

Make sure to head over to concierge where they’ve featured our favorite Canadian city of Toronto. Here’s what they say about Toronto in a nutshell:

“* It’s a chowhound’s paradise, with everything from Nigerian to Laotian, Moroccan to Azerbaijani food

* An architectural renaissance is transforming the skyline with additions by Daniel Libeskind and native son Frank Gehry

* Toronto has become one of the most ethnically diverse cities on the continent, with lively neighborhoods, festivals, and restaurants to match

* The Eaton Centre. It’s a big suburban-style mall with all the wrong kinds of shopping

* When to go to Toronto: May, June, September, October”

More here

Canada Blooms Starts Today / The Toronto Flower & Garden Festival, March 12 – 16, 2008

contact December 18th, 2011

canada blooms
Canada Blooms has grown to be one of Toronto’s most successful events, drawing volunteers, visitors and participants from all across Canada and the United States. Already a popular destination with tour groups, gardeners from Bermuda, France, the United Kingdom and the United States now rank Canada Blooms as being one of the top five shows of its kind.

Canada Blooms
Metro Toronto Convention Centre (MTCC)
South Building
222 Bremner Blvd.
Toronto, Ontario

Design Within Reach – Grand Opening March 13, 6-9pm

contact December 17th, 2011

DWR invites you to stop by and say hello during their Grand Opening Event on Thursday, March 13. Plus, from March 13 through 19, they’ll donate 10% of all Toronto Studio sales to Design Exchange. A museum and cultural center, Design Exchange, like DWR, is committed to raising awareness and understanding of design.

About DWR from their Site
The Toronto Studio – our first international foray – is an anchor to the revitalized King Street West area. Bordering both the city’s entertainment and fashion districts, our light-filled Studio occupies nearly 5,000 square-feet on the ground floor of a heritage building. The interior architecture includes exposed brick, original beams and high ceilings, all of which create an open, airy space for you to experience the best in modern design. The Studio is within walking distance to the Sky Dome and CN Tower, and offers a welcome respite from the pace of downtown life. Proprietor Clay A. Wright leads a dynamic team with diverse backgrounds in the field of design. Visit the Toronto Studio for personalized service and expertise.

Design Within Reach
435 King Street West (at Spadina Avenue)
Toronto, ON M5V 1K4
Phone: 416.977.4003

The Living Wall in Toronto

contact December 2nd, 2011

toronto the living wall“The air-purification system at the new University of Guelph-Humber building in Toronto is anything but industry-standard.

And when visitors spot the four-storey wall of plants dominating one side of a light-filled atrium, the reaction is universally “Wow”, says vice-provost Michael Nightingale.

But while the lush array that includes orchids, ferns, ivy and hibiscus is impressive, the truly innovative part of the biofilter – which has been operating for less than a year – is its capacity to break down hundreds of different kinds of contaminants found in indoor air.

Thanks to the action of microbes that live on the plant roots, common pollutants such as formaldehyde, toluene and benzene are transformed into harmless water and carbon dioxide. While the plants themselves have little impact on contaminants, they provide the environment for the microbes to work efficiently…”

Continue reading

Cupcakes in Toronto!

contact October 28th, 2011

cupcakes toronto
Cupcakes are not the trend right now. They’ve ALWAYS been in fashion! But until recently, cupcake shops were hard to find. Thankfully, more and more are popping up here and there in great cities across North America. Toronto is no exception. The Cupcake Shoppe, situated in a bustling area of Toronto, offers cupcake lovers a total of 17 beautiful, nut-free flavors, with nine of their yummilicious flavors available in-store every single day. YAY. All cupcakes come with cute, unusual names, chosen by the staff, and your favorites will be easy to remember. All the cupcakes, including (my favorite) Yonge ’n’ Eligible featuring vanilla buttercream on a vanilla or chocolate cake, the chocolate buttercream on chocolate cake James Brown, and their marble Frost Me cupcake topped with vanilla frosting – changes color seasonally, and are baked daily from the freshest ingredients. Additionally, The Cupcake Shoppe offers custom cupcakes, mini cupcakes and cakes illustrated by hand to suit your special celebrations. Toronto’s first cupcake bakery, the Cupcake Shoppe knows how much fun a cupcake can be.

The Cupcake Shoppe
2417 Yonge Street
Tel. 416.322.6648
2 blocks north of Eglinton Avenue,
on the east side of Yonge.

Hours
Monday to Friday 10:00 am to 7:00 pm
Saturday 10:00 am to 6:00 pm
Sunday 11:00 am to 6:00 pm

The Power Plant

contact October 22nd, 2011

the power plant museum toronto
Toronto’s contemporary art museum, The Power Plant, is worth a visit and will make for a wonderful day spent perusing modern art. The museum itself has 3 major exhibition galleries and smaller, adjacent indoor and outdoor sites which lend themselves to virtually any presentation circumstance.

The interior of The Power Plant is made up of 3 major gallery spaces. The 2 largest, named the Royal LePage and J. S. McLean Galleries, are designed for maximum flexibility and for the diversity of contemporary art. The ceilings are nine meters high they have an adjustable grid lighting system. The third, named the Canadian Tire Gallery features three-meter high ceilings. In addition to the galleries, which share approximately 650 square meters, the Fleck Clerestory, a central corridor with a glassed roof, lobby and exterior spaces are also designated for exhibition purposes.

The Power Plant is wheelchair accessible. An elevator connects the visitor to both levels.

The Power Plant
231 Queens Quay West
Toronto, Ontario,
Canada M5J 2G8
T: 416.973.4949

Regular Hours

Tuesday to Sunday | 12-6 pm
Wednesday | 12-8 pm
Closed Monday
Open Holiday Monday | 12-6 pm

HOLIDAY 2007-08 HOURS

24, 25, 26, 31 December 2007 | Closed
01 January 2008 | Closed

ADMISSION
$5 | Adults
$3 | Seniors & Students

Painted Toronto Bus

Louis Vuitton Graffiti

contact July 20th, 2011

louis vuitton graffiti
This is from viewonfashion:

The Louis Vuitton ad campaign for the Stephen Sprouse collection is really amazing, and it´s a great branding tool too. All around the world, LV shops are using graffiti to promote this long-awaited collection which is already a big sales hit.

To promote the launch of the Louis Vuitton book that pays tribute to Stephen Sprouse, they´ve got legendary graffiti artist Skam to paint an LV mural in Toronto.

DVDs: The National Ballet of Canada

contact July 12th, 2011

national ballet canada dvd karen kain
This feature-length documentary goes behind the scenes at The National Ballet of Canada to witness the seemingly magical process of creating a major ballet production. MAKING BALLET captures the drama within a drama – the making of “The Actress.” Set to Chopin’s Preludes, this ballet was created by world famous choreographer James Kudelka for prima ballarina Karen Kain. MAKING BALLET will delight film buffs as well as beginners and aficionados of the art form. 88 minutes. Bonus DVD features include a Karen Kain biography, filmmaker Anthony Azzopardi biography, stage director James Kudelka biography and “About the Ballet, ‘The Actress’.”

If you are interested in what goes on behind the scenes of creating a ballet you will be thrilled to get this DVD. You will see that the people involved have so much fun when they are making a new ballet. Karen admits that her life was not as dramatic or sexy or funny every day as it is in this piece, but still, it’s based on a lot of true things about my world and about what I experienced and have experienced. So to create this character she was half inspired by real life and half inspired by her own imagination. She was 43 years old when she did this film and was still very beautiful. She still is today, for that matter.

Get more information

A City Renewal Project

contact July 6th, 2011

city renewal project mr loogie toronto
From jaunted:

“Canadian street artists Fauxreel and Specter have renovated an old warehouse into a dilapidated fake urban wonderland.

Called “A City Renewal Project,” it’s a secret world hidden behind a fake storefront in Toronto. Inside the seedy store is what looks like the workspace of an artist, filled with wood, construction materials and lots of Bell telephones. A back door will transport you into a long warehouse space that looks like an indoor facsimile of a real city street. Life-size black and white reproductions of closed and derelict stores line the walls of the warehouse. Further adding to the reality of the installation are real bus shelters, billboards, garbage cans–and real garbage. And of course, everything is covered in graffiti and tags.

The artists fear that the practice of tearing down old buildings and putting up brand-new condos is destroying their city’s cultural history. Even the building the show is housed in is scheduled to be knocked down to make way for new apartments. A City Renewal Project is up until November 23, at inconsistent hours, so check the website for details. “ [source]

Henna Tattoo Artist in Toronto

contact July 4th, 2011

There’s an amazing henna tattoo artist named **** in Toronto that I wanted to feature but unfortunately for our readers she asked us to remove her free advertising offered on this blog.

Pregnant belly art
Neck tattoo
Painted hand
Just in time for Halloween: Henna Tattoos on Jackolanterns.

Sorry due to copyright issue we can’t give you the website address of the wonderful artist anymore.

For Photographers in TO

contact July 2nd, 2011

From David Brown:

Looking for space to exhibit during the CONTACT 09 Photography Festival? SHOW AND SELL YOUR WORK AT THE GLADSTONE!

The Gladstone Hotel in collaboration with Toronto’s SpeakEasy Event will once again produce a group exhibition entitled EXPOSED for the CONTACT Toronto Photography Festival, which takes place in May 2009.

EXPOSED: Innovation, Transformation, Revolution will showcase the work of contemporary photographers (both established and emerging). In keeping with CONTACT 2009’s thematic focus; STILL REVOLUTION, EXPOSED will showcase photographic works ranging “from reportage to abstraction, documented fact to constructed fiction exploring photography through its many complex and ever evolving manifestations.” The exhibition will be co-produced by the Gladstone Hotel and SpeakEasy and curated by Chris Mitchell and David Brown.

The Gladstone Hotel is renting second floor exhibition rooms and gallery space to individuals or groups of photographers interested in participating in this Marque event. We invite innovative, cutting-edge photographers to submit expressions of interest.

Dates & Details:

Show Date: Thursday May 7 – Sunday May 31, 2009

Gallery Hours: 12pm-5pm Daily

Opening Reception: May 7, 2009 7pm-10pm

Installation Dates: May 6 and 7

Submission Deadline: Sunday Nov 16, 2008

Signed Contract and Deposit: Due Dec 1, 2008

Submission Fee: Free

Show Location: Gladstone Hotel, 1214 Queen Street West Toronto, ON 416-531-4635 www.gladstonehotel.com

Participation Fees & Display Opportunities:
Option #1: EXHIBITION ROOM $1200.00* (Tax Incl)/room
- 1 of 9 Exhibition Rooms which open on to the hotel’s main gallery space.
- includes full month exhibition space rental and CONTACT registration
– No commission on sales.
- Photographers may collaborate to share space and rental costs.

Option #2: ASSIGNED WALL SPACE in Main Reception Gallery $200* + GST/space
- 1 of 12 Assigned Wall Spaces to accommodate individual works or groupings of small pieces.

Why should you participate?

* EXPOSED will be a registered CONTACT Festival exhibition listed in the CONTACT 2009 guide and website

* The Gladstone has become a destination venue for CONTACT visitors, drawing significant crowds for the past 4 years. The hotel will host several CONTACT registered exhibitions during the month long festival.

* Exhibition and individual participants will be promoted in Gladstone Bag e-newsletter and Gladstone website Event Listings as well as featured on Gladstone Hotel website Exhibition Page and Gladstone Exhibition Press Release

* Showcase your work in the bright, beautiful spaces and newly restored Victorian grandeur of the Gladstone
* Gallery hours 7 days a week

The Gladstone is committed to providing participants with a rewarding and fulfilling experience including:

FOCUS – on established and emerging artists with a range of aesthetic sensibilities.

EXCLUSIVITY – In the unique exhibition setting of our historic hotel, the physical size, focus, and mandate of the exhibition will provide the opportunity for every participant to shine.

EXPOSURE – The Gladstone and SpeakEasy Events have successful track records of drawing attendees to exhibitions including Toronto and international press, local and international arts industry professionals, curators, gallery owners, collectors, patrons, and the general public.

CONNECTIONS – The Gladstone and SpeakEasy Events focus on creating networking opportunities for artists with various press and industry professionals as a primary exhibition objective. This focus is seen as a hallmark of success by many past exhibition participants.

These connections are enhanced by advance marketing that includes press releases, personal invitations, and an Opening Evening Reception hosted by the hotel.

ACCESSIBILITY – Participation costs for exhibitors are minimal compared to more commercial events. The Hotel takes no commissions on sales.

Interested in showing your work?

Submitting work for consideration is easy. Show us what you got, and what you want to do.

Email us samples of your work (max. 5 digital files), along with a short bio and a description of the work you will be presenting. Do not send originals!

Please include the following with your submission:

Name or Name of group

Contact information (phone, email)

Website

Email submissions to:

David Brown, david@blttogo.com and Chris Mitchell, chrism@gladstonehotel.com

*Participation Fees are only paid if your work is selected to be part of the show. A 50% deposit is due with signed contract on Dec 1, 2008 Balance of participation fees are due April 1, 2009

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