Whether you call them resolutions or aspirations, most of us go into the new year intending to make this one better, do more of some things and less of others. We want to be inspired, reduce stress, learn something new, pursue our interests, meet people, and share more quality time with friends and family members. Did you know that there are more than 200 arts events - exhibitions, concerts, films, talks, and more - here on the Bloor St. Culture Corridor every month, all year year long? Here are some ideas for starting your 2019 with inspiring arts and culture.

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Alliance Française Toronto

January gets off to a good start at Alliance Française Toronto on Jan. 9 with the grand opening of both the New Art Gallery and the exhibition Our Photos from Film Shoots documenting the history of Quebecois cinema (on display until Feb. 7). On Jan. 25, enter the work of French author Albert Camus with a theatrical adaptation of his autobiographical book The First Man by actor Jean-Paul Schintu, and a talk about Albert Camus, his youth in Algeria: 1930-1940 on Jan. 23. The Movie Thursday series starts with Orderers, a Québécois movie on Jan. 10, followed by a broadcast of an Part 2 of Four operas from the Verdi Festival on Jan. 17, a Franco-Japanese movie Karakara on Jan. 24 and ends with Cinéast(e)s on Jan. 31. Finally, a movie for the young audience, Long way north, will play on Jan. 27. For more information please visit alliance-francaise.ca.

Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema

Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema has everything you need to feed your imagination in 2019. The popular Curious Minds Speaker Series returns with new courses on Italy, global Starchitects,

Toronto's international food scene, and Hollywood's leading ladies. On screen, get inspired by the next generation of young scientists in Inventing Tomorrow, or the story of a teen culinary

prodigy in the 2018 festival delight, Chef Flynn. Travel to the world's most stunning peaks in Free Solo and This Mountain Life. Get your '60s music fix with the pioneering concert doc Festival and Let Freedom Sing: a look at how the civil rights movement drew power through song, screening as part of Music on Film, in partnership with The Royal Conservatory of Music. Get an insider's look at the ROM's ambitious 2007 renovation and the ongoing legacy of its iconic Crystal in the latest installment of Our Beautiful City: TheMuseum. For more information, visit hotdocscinema.ca.

The Royal Conservatory

The 10th anniversary concert season continues at Koerner Hall! The new year kicks off with We Shall Overcome, A Celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. with Damien Sneed and Toronto Mass Choir on Sunday, January 13. Then the 21C Music Festival brings eight concerts January 16 to 20. This sixth edition of the festival will celebrate the American minimalist composer Terry Riley. More than a half of the music presented during the festival will be premieres: 6 world, 1 North American, 9 Canadian, 4 Ontario, and 1 Toronto premiere, by 13 Canadian composers. Highlights include Stewart Goodyear appearing in two entirely different programs: first with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra playing the world premiere of his own new piano concerto and the second - a world premiere performance of his own compositions and his take on rock songs; the return of Sō Percussion; concerts with Continuum and Esprit Orchestra, and more. For more information and tickets, please visit rcmusic.com/performance.

The Japan Foundation, Toronto

Bring in the new year by learning something new and interesting about Japanese culture at The Japan Foundation, Toronto. Starting with Japanese Movies at Hot Docs Cinema free

screenings. On January 13, join for the family friendly film, When the Curtain Rises, about a high school girls theatre club followed by Survival Family, a drama about the adventures of a Tokyo family caught up in the chaos after a sudden worldwide power shortage. On January 19, they will screen Close-Knit, a moving story about a neglected 11 year old and her caring uncle, who happens to have a transgender girlfriend with a heart of gold. Also this month, a new intermediate Japanese language class is starting up January 19: "Climbing Mount Fuji". In the gallery, the calligraphy exhibition, Noriko Maeda: Foundations, is wrapping up January 11. Next up from January 18 is the Ukiyoe print exhibition, Landmarks From Before It Was Called Tokyo: Hiroshige's One Hundred Views of Edo. More details available at jftor.org.

The Music Gallery

The Music Gallery starts 2019 a bit slowly with just one show this month on January 2019. Nevertheless, it's an ambitious audiovisual experience. The second edition of our season’s Emergents series features two former participants of EQ: Women in Electronic Music. EQ, developed at the Canadian Music Centre by composer Rose Bolton, is a space for education, mentorship and community-building for women and non-binary folks who create electronic music and new forms of experimentation with electronics and sound. The concert features Sun Sun of electronic/dub/grunge/hip hop mash-up group Above Top Secret, and April Aliermo (from rock band Hooded Fang and electronic duo Phèdre). Expect meditative, electroacoustic

soundscapes around themes of women's empowerment. For more information please visitmusicgallery.org.

Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra and Chamber Choir

Hear the period musicians of tomorrow in a free concert with Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra and Chamber Choir, proudly training musicians in the art of period performance. 2019 is the

seventh annual Tafelmusik Winter Institute, ending with a free public concert on January 10, 2019 at Jeanne Lamon Hall, Trinity-St. Paul's Centre. From January 16-20, 2019 at Jeanne Lamon Hall, you're invited to The Harlequin Salon, a dazzling Roman soirée, complete with mischievous servant, famous prima donna, and a composer or two! In this multimedia production, you will

meet Pier Leone Ghezzi - caricaturist, painter, and host of some of 18th-century Rome's most popular salon parties. Tafelmusik is delighted to invite you to one of his famous soirées, where you will encounter the famous prima donna Faustina Bordoni, and discover whether Ghezzi's mischievous Harlequin servant can thwart his master and pursue his own love interests! For tickets call (416) 964-6337 or visit tafelmusik.org.

University of Toronto Faculty of Music

It's a new year and that means it's time for new music. January 16-27 the Faculty of Music is thrilled to welcome composer Toshio Hosokawa, this year's Roger D. Moore Distinguished Visitor in Composition, to the New Music Festival! For just over 10 days the Edward Johnson Building at 80 Queen's Park will host Canada's first songSLAM, three operas, concerts, masterclasses and much more. Many events are free. The Faculty’s signature free concert series Thursdays at Noon resumes January 10 with percussionist Aiyun Huang and violinist Mark Fewer. On January 24, during the New Music Festival, the Contemporary Music Ensemble performs Japanese music, and on January 31 Nora Shulman and Judy Loman present a program of music for flute and harp. The Faculty's chamber music series kicks off 2019 with a concert featuring Joseph Johnson, Principal Cellist of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and pianist Philip Chiu on January 28. Visit music.utoronto.ca for complete festival and event listings.

Istituto Italiano di Cultura

Opening January 22, for "Design TO Festival" the IIC, in collaboration with Studio Zaven and MUSE Factory of Projects present From A to Zaven, the first solo show in Canada, portraying Zaven's peculiar approach towards the world of design. The space at IIC Toronto had been a source of inspiration for displaying a variety of works, able to pass the overall way of a solid profession and a distinguished methodology of work. On the occasion of the Holocaust Remembrance Day, on January 29 at Spadina Theatre, 24 Spadina Rd, the II Cand the International Primo Levi Studies Center present: From Treblinka to Auschwitz: a dialogue between witnesses. This theatrical reading of extracts from "Auschwitz Testimonies" by Primo Levi and Leonardo De Benedetti and "The Hell of Treblinka", by Vasily Grossman. Performance by Michael Miranda, and Martin Julien. Live music by Robbie Grunwald, and Drew Jurecka. For more information, please visit iictoronto.esteri.it.

Royal Ontario Museum

Come face to face with Zuul, the gnarly-faced, horned armoured dinosaur with a sledgehammer-like tail in the ROM original exhibition Zuul: Life of an Armoured Dinosaur. On January 29, join palaeontologists Tom Holtz and Victoria Arbour as they discuss the co-evolution of tyrannosaurs and armoured dinosaurs such as Zuul in the lively debate-style presentation Dinosaur Fight Club. On January 31, explore the making of the Zuul exhibition with Peter May of Research Casting International at the free ROM Daytime presentation titled Unearthing a Giant: TheMaking of Zuul. Opening on January 26, the exhibition Gods in My Home brings together Chinese ancestral paintings and traditional popular prints, and examines the unexplored connection between these two seemingly separate genres in the context of Chinese Lunar New Year. Formore information please visit rom.on.ca.

Museum of Estonians Abroad (VEMU)

In January at the Museum of Estonians Abroad/VEMU the photography exhibit Estonia Through 100 Pairs of Eyes is available to view until the end of January. January 20 at 4pm, TCFS presents "Best of EstDocs: Ahto - Chasing a Dream.” In Estonian with English subtitles. January 23 at 7pm, University ofToronto E. Tampõld Chair of Estonian Studies Professor Andres Kasekamp will be giving a lecture on the Vaps Movement (the Union of Participants in the Estonian War of Independence). In Estonian. Admission by donation. For more information please visit vemu.ca.

Toronto Reference Library

Discover- or rediscover- the enduring literary classic Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, the book that opened the door to reading for generations of children. Learn about the "real” Alice and her role in bringing this story to the world. This joyful exhibition featuring highlights from the Osborne Collection of Early Children's Books invites visitors "down the rabbit hole" to view unforgettable and beloved scenes and characters in books, costume designs, art, games and ephemera. TD Gallery's Alice Opens the Door exhibition runs until January 27. For more information visit torontopubliclibrary.ca.

918 Bathurst Centre for Culture, Arts,Media + Education

918 Bathurst starts off the new year with dance and clowning! Mondays from 7:30-9:30 until May, join the Hogtown Clown Collective for weekly drop-in clown classes. Social Growl Dance's Winter Workshop and Creation Lab runs January 28-February 1, and is open to professional dancers. Get more information and register now at 918bathurst.com.

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