Stage Door News

Toronto: What’s happening on the Bloor Street Culture Corridor in January

Friday, January 1, 2021

What’s happening in January along the Bloor St. Culture Corridor?

Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema

Returning for a fifth year in a star-studded virtual experience, the Hot Docs Podcast Festival headlines the winter streaming slate on Hot Docs at Home from January 27-29. Curated for podcast lovers and makers alike, the signature audio celebration will feature three days and nights of inspiring live conversations and creative deep dives with chart-topping shows, including 99% Invisible, Radiolab, the New York Times’ 1619 Project, and many more. Get guaranteed access to the festival’s 25+ events, including exclusive daytime sessions and extended streaming access, with a festival pass. Also playing this January, a new guided tour of the Italian Renaissance with Curious Minds; a wondrous screen adaptation of the bestselling memoir, The Reason I Jump; a cinematic look at the creative process of English singer-songwriter, PJ Harvey, and many more. For more information, visit hotdocscinema.ca.

Women’s Art Association of Canada

From January 14-February 9, WAAC presents Connections: New Members’ Show in the Dignam Gallery, featuring new WAAC artists and their living connection to the art world. WAAC photographer Ted Scott's solo exhibition will take place in the Ruth Upjohn Gallery from January 14-February 6 (Artist present Tuesdays & Saturdays 12-4pm). On January 21 at 1pm, WAAC presents the Artist Voice, a lecture with Bonnie Devine, installation artist, video maker, curator, and writer. Her work emerges from the storytelling and image-making traditions that are central to Anishinaabe culture. Using cross-disciplinary approaches and iterations of written, visual, and performative practice, Devine explores issues of land, environment, treaty, history, and narrative. Early-bird registration available until January 14. Contact waac@womensartofcanada.ca to register. WAAC will re-open on January 5, from Tuesdays to Saturdays. Please visit their website for more information.

Bata Shoe Museum

Keep up to date with the BSM as they announce exciting events and programs in 2021. They will be releasing a colouring book that is available to purchase on their online shop. Limited copies will be available so pre-order now to get yours! On January 20, their popular Salon series returns with guest speaker, Hilary Davidson, Dress Historian and Curator at the University of Sydney. Tune in for their Off the Shelf series to learn more about their incredible collection in under 30 seconds. Follow their social platforms for behind the scenes content, storytime reads, blog articles and more. For more information, visit their website.

Toronto Reference Library

Toronto Reference Library continues presenting virtual Live & Online programs that you can enjoy from the comfort of home. TPL’s signature series, The Appel Salon, offers live and on-demand virtual events featuring local and international authors in conversation about their latest books and big ideas. On January 19, fiction writer and artist Kristyn Dunnion discusses her story collection, Stoop City, selected as a Globe & Mail best Fall book from an independent publisher, in conversation with arts journalist and producer, Aparita Bhandari. On January 27, Kerry Claretalks about her latest novel, Waiting for a Star to Fall, a story about love, the things we choose to believe, and how sometimes the path to happily ever after has to start with ourselves, with best-selling author and journalist, Elizabeth Renzetti. Watch upcoming live events and replays of all of the virtual Appel Salon programs on the TPL Cultural channel on Crowdcast.

Miles Nadal Jewish Community Centre

Miles Nadal JCC launches their Hebrew and Yiddish winter session courses on January 4! They offer seven levels of Hebrew and two specialty Yiddish classes with Sharon Power. Join them for the next session of their Showtunes Daytime Virtual Choir directed by Asher Farber starting on January 5. Join Artistic Director of the Ashkenaz Festival Eric Stein as he shares his knowledge and passion for Klezmer Music in their new guided listening series, Now Hear This, starting on January 19. Three levels of ukulele class taught by Susan Baskin start on January 19. Celebrated ceramics artist Célia Z Brandão is displaying her works in their Virtual Gallery throughout the month of January. Join an interactive book club as Beverley Fingerhut spotlights The Unfinished Palazzo: Life, Love and Art in Venice by Judith Mackrell on January 31. For more outstanding Arts & Culture programs, visit www.mnjcc.org.

Randolph Centre for the Arts

Randolph College For The Performing Arts is currently accepting applications for the September 2021 term! Study acting, dance and singing in an intensive 2-year Triple Threat training program taught by experienced industry professionals in the heart of Canada’s cultural capital. Applications are due February 22 and video audition submissions must be received by March 1. Connect with RCPA’s recruiter by email, or set up a phone call or video chat here.

Alliance Française de Toronto

This month, enjoy two virtual guided tours: The Rodin museum (January 15 at 1pm and January 16 at 1pm) and discover the artist Paul Gauguin on January 30 at 2pm. On January 20, join them online for the Scotiabank Contact Photography Festival and discover young emerging photographers and their art. On January 21 at 7:30pm, make some popcorn and enjoy the movie La Bonne épouse (How to Be a Good Wife) directly from your couch! At 6pm on January 27, join the Société d'Histoire de Toronto for a talk in French on Les métis de l'est (The Eastern Metis). Visit their website for more information.

Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra and Chamber Choir

Tafelmusik kicks off the New Year with Close Encounters: Divertimento, an intimate and pleasant chamber virtual concert on January 28, 2021. The divertimento is light and liberated music making. The structured forms of the classical sonata and symphony are set aside in music that offers simple, tuneful delight to players and listeners alike. Single ticket buyers are able to access the concert for 48 hours from the original broadcast time. Subscriptions for Tafelmusik’s Winter Digital Season are now available, featuring three virtual concerts. Standard and Standard+ packages offer access to subscriber benefits and extended viewing for the concerts. Take part in an intriguing mix of performances, discussions, videos, and more as a partner in an innovative evolution that will help secure Tafelmusik’s future. Visit their website for more information.

Royal Ontario Museum

There are two events at the ROM in the new year! Whether you're an amateur or professional photographer, the ROM invites you to share your captivating images of the natural world for a chance to win some amazing prizes, including a Nikon Z611 DSLR Kit courtesy of Henry's, as part of the ROM Photography Contest. Contest closes March 21, 2021. And on January 13 at 4pm, join them for Egyptian Mummies: Technological Research at the ROM and the Hospital for Sick Children. Explore the long history of interdisciplinary research into ancient Egyptian lives with Stephanie Holowka from the Hospital for Sick Children. Learn more of the first ever CT scans undertaken on an Egyptian mummy - by scientists at the ROM and SickKids - as they sought to unlock the mysteries of Nakht and Djedmaatesankh, two ancient individuals in the ROM's collections. Free on Zoom, RSVP required. Visit their website for more information.

University of Toronto Faculty of Music

The University of Toronto Faculty of Music welcomes 2021 with Bach in the Time of COVID, a Thursdays at Noon presentation featuring pre-recorded performances of Bach cantatas by their student ensembles from the Historical Performance Area. This concert will be broadcast Thursday, January 14, 2021 from 12:10-1pm. Link to register will be available 24 hours before the broadcast date. Registration is now open for the seventh annual Digital Media at the Crossroads (DM@X) conference. This national 2-day conference on Zoom examines the future of content in digital media featuring expert panels, short digital media performances, and more. Open to students, faculty, industry, creators, and the general public. All events are online only. Please visit music.utoronto.ca for details.

Museum of Estonians Abroad/VEMU

In January 2021 the Museum of Estonians Abroad/VEMU provides you an opportunity to learn how to bake the delicious and healthy dark rye bread at the Baking with Ene online workshop on January 13 at 7pm. On January 21 at 4pm, VEMU and the Chair of Estonian Studies at the University of Toronto offer you an interesting online-lecture by Gabriel Doherty from University College Cork (Ireland) about the journey of the refugee ship 'Victory' from Sweden to Canada in 1949 and its unforeseen stop-over in Ireland. January 29 at 8pm, VEMU launches the online concert series Estonian Music Week presents: Memories of Home. This first concert is a virtual collaboration between accordionists: Canada's Tiina Kiik and Estonia's Tuulikki Bartosik. All events at VEMU YouTube Channel.

The Music Gallery

On Friday, January 15 at 7pm, The Music Gallery presents EMERGENTS II: Yaz Lancaster + Kris Kuldkepp + Émilie Girard-Charest curated by Sara Constant and part of the Emergents Series. Across three solo sets, the artists will delve into new sonic explorations of classical string instruments—blending backgrounds in composition, improvisation, performance and interdisciplinary art. Visit their website for more information.

The Bloor St. Culture Corridor, Toronto’s most diverse arts and culture district, is a true creative cluster, an arts and culture destination, and a collaboration between some of Toronto's most dynamic arts and culture organizations.

The Bloor St. Culture Corridor offers the public a wide variety of arts genres, from museum experiences to films, art exhibitions to music concerts, and opportunities to experience some of Toronto's cultural diversity, including Aboriginal, French, Jewish, Italian, Japanese, Estonian, African and Caribbean arts and culture.All Bloor St. Culture Corridor organizations present arts and cultural events for the public year-round in destination venues located in a cluster along a vibrant stretch of Bloor Street West. Each year more than three million members of the public go to Bloor St. Culture Corridor arts and culture destinations, and attend exhibitions, performances, and events. Together, the Bloor St. Culture Corridor organizations employ more than 5,500 culture workers and generate more than $629,500,000 in economic impact each year. In 2016, The Bloor St. Culture Corridor was successful in working with the City of Toronto to have the Bloor St. Culture corridor section of Bloor St. West designated an official City of Toronto cultural corridor.

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