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Home > Royal Ontario Museum

Royal Ontario Museum

Contact Photography Festival Daily Pick: Sebastião Salgado

Where Toronto brings you a new image for each day of the 2013 Scotiabank Contact Photography Festival, which runs throughout May with exhibitions at more than 175 venues across the city.

Today’s top Contact Photography Festival pick:

Photo © Sebastião Salgado / Amazonas Images

© Sebastião Salgado / Amazonas Images

Photo: The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in northeastern Alaska, 2009
Artist: Sebastião Salgado
Exhibition: From May 4 to September 2, Brazilian photographer Salgado brings to the Royal Ontario Museum his “Genesis” series, which collects more than 200 images of rarely glimpsed environments and people that have managed to avoid the potentially corrupting encroach of modern society.

Check back daily for more Contact Photography Festival coverage, and visit scotiabankcontactphoto.com for more information about this exhibition!

Where Loves: the AGO’s 1st Thursdays and Toronto’s Emerging Art Parties

BY ANNA MARSZALEK

AGO 1st Thursdays

Art gallery or party space? The AGO becomes both on the first Thursday of each month (photo courtesy of the Art Gallery of Ontario)

Picture an art gallery: paintings in gilded frames, a sculpture or two sitting on pedestals, a couple strolling slowly from piece to piece, footfalls echoing off the hardwood. How long has that stereotype endured? How long has it been utterly inaccurate?

Instead, you ought to imagine perusing masterpieces with your friends, cocktails in hand. You ought to see yourself dancing the night away while surrounded all manner of art and art lovers. At least, that’s the scene at the Art Gallery of Ontario. On the first Thursday of every month, the venerable institution transforms to host an evening soiree of the highest order, bringing together young Toronto trendsetters with food, drinks, live music, dancing and art-making experiences. Running since last October, the events have proven so popular that tickets regularly sell out well in advance. This month’s edition is already full, but admission for March goes on sale February 8. (more…)

Weekend Roundup: February 1 to 3

These weekend events and concerts are guaranteed to make your time in Toronto even more memorable!

Toronto Weekend Events

An incendiary production of Tristan und Isolde is now on stage at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts (photo: Michael Cooper)

Dramatic Duo
A weekend of operatic bliss begins on Saturday with the Canadian Opera Company’s staging of Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde, a story of passion about a knight and maiden who are unwittingly share a love potion—with tragic consequences. Sunday sees Mozart’s La Clemenza di Tito tell of an emperor who chooses to forgive a betrayal rather than seek revenge. Both productions unite their classical scores with modern production elements to impressive effect.

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Where Loves: Peruvian Art and Artifacts at the University of Toronto

BY ANNA MARSZALEK

Peruvian Art Toronto

Richard Mamani and Hugo Champi’s 2002 sculpture, Madre Spondylus, gleams alongside more than 100 other silver artworks and artifacts at the UTAC’s Silver of Peru exhibition

Can silver imbue objects with a soul, with a life all their own? The ancient peoples of Peru believed it could. It’s hard not to share that belief when faced with the dazzling artifacts collected in Luminescence: the Silver of Peru, on now until March 9 at the University of Toronto Art Centre.

Curated by Anthony Shelton, director of the UBC’s Museum of Anthropology, the exhibition spans 2,000 years of Peruvian art and culture through the likes of pre-Columbian crowns, jewels and tunics, plus paintings and sculptures from the 16th century to today. All told, it’s the largest collection of silver relics currently residing in Canada. Most of the assembled artifacts have never before left Peru.

(more…)

Weekend Roundup: November 16 to 18

The Gourmet Food and Wine Expo is an epicurean’s dream

Friday, November 16
Nothing warms a cold November day quite like good food and a stiff drink. With more than 1,500 wines, beers and spirits to sample, as well as a selection of gourmet food tastings from Toronto’s top chefs, the Gourmet Food and Wine Expo delivers. The weekend-long event offers access to top winemakers and craft brewers, cooking demos, tasting workshops and much more.

The Design Exchange relaunches as “Canada’s Design Museum” while celebrating the work of cultural “game changer” Douglas Coupland tonight at DX Intersection, its annual fundraiser. Multiple DJs, performers and a silent auction of artist-reimagined Ikea products provide entertainment, while the Food Dudes food truck keeps mouths and stomachs full well into the night.

The Royal Ontario Museum’s Friday Night Live event series brings you good eats, good tunes, and, tonight, a screening of the 1972 Summit Series hockey final in honour of the 40th anniversary of this legendary game. Bite into a sandwich care of Fidel Gastro’s Matt Basile or savour delicious treats by Waffle Bar’s Valerie Bain while you toast the T-Rex skeleton to your left. Don’t miss this chance to enjoy the hockey action you’ve been missing, all while exploring the ROM’s hallowed halls after hours.

The Cavalcade of Lights kicks off the holiday season with music and more

Saturday, November 17
Ring in the holiday season with Toronto’s annual Cavalcade of Lights at Nathan Phillips Square. Dragonette and Suzie McNeil are just two of the performers who will grace the stage as City Hall is illuminated and fireworks mark the lighting of Toronto’s official Christmas tree.

Festivities for the 100th Grey Cup have also taken over Nathan Phillips Square. The event’s Adrenaline Zone dares you to take a leap with North America’s tallest urban zip line while Yonge-Dundas Square’s Nissan Family Zone gives you an opportunity to teach your little one how to throw a ball. Later, gather everyone together and check out a screening of Jerry McGuire at the Rushes Football Film Festival at Scotiabank Theatre. How’s that for a touchdown celebration?

To locals, a trip on the 501 Queen streetcar can sometimes feel unbearably long. But for visitors, a trip on North America’s longest surface public transit route is a great way to see the city. Today it’s also a great way to get some grub. Sign up for Foodies On Foot’s Streetcar Food Tour, a six-neighbourhood restaurant-hopping taste-a-thon that’s will help you travel the path from Toronto-dining neophyte to expert in just one night.

Santa makes his triumphant return to downtown Toronto (photo: Gabriel Perez)

Sunday, November 18
Bundle up the kids and head on down to the Santa Claus Parade for an afternoon of elves, upside-down clowns, marching bands, floats and more. Be on the lookout for a Grey Cup float with a four-metre replica of the trophy and Mike “Pinball” Clemons at the helm, as well as a One Direction float inspired by the popular British Boy Band.

Christmas comes early for the canine in your life with Winter Woofstock at the Direct Energy Centre. Lavish your pooch with fashion, food, furnishings and accessories and get their picture taken with Santa. Dog pageants, races and a dating soirees are just some of the fun events that are sure to keep tails wagging.

Matinee and evening shows today offer one last chance to catch the pre-Broadway run of Jekyll and Hyde. The intriguing and dark story of a man fighting multiple identities stars former American Idol contestant Constantine Maroulis and R&B diva Deborah Cox, who deliver performances that are not to be missed.

Big Things are on Display at the ROM

By EVA VOINIGESCU

Earlier this week we told you about the Royal Ontario Museum‘s massive new exhibition. Literally titled “Big,” the show—opening November 3—draws from the ROM’s permanent collection of 50,000 textiles and costumes to demonstrate the huge impact that simple cloth can have. Dozens of historically important artifacts were chosen for their relations to big fashion (such as couture by John Galliano for Dior, Yves St. Laurent and Alexander McQueen), big events (textile innovations that inspired the Industrial Revolution), big messages and much more. Check out the gallery below to get a glimpse of some of the ROM’s most prominent pieces, then visit the museum to see for yourself how big they really are.

All images courtesy of the Royal Ontario Museum

Hot Art: Bigger is Better at the ROM’s Textile and Costume Gallery

André Édouard Marty’s La Vie en grand air wall hanging (photo: Royal Ontario Museum)

STARTS NOVEMBER 3  The Royal Ontario Museum dips into its enormous collection of artifacts to bring a “big” new display to its Patricia Harris Gallery of Costume and Textiles. Uniting pieces from across time and around the globe, the exhibition features among its many eye-catching visuals a Christian Dior coat-dress that took more than 500 hours to produce, and a 1925 woodblock-printed wall hanging (pictured above) that beautifully emulates the style of historic woven tapestries. In all, it comprises a major showcase of large sizes, huge events, massive scope and grand-scale innovation.  —Eva Voinigescu

Weekend Roundup: July 27 to 29

Friday: Anandam Dancetheatre offers contemporary choreography at the Bata Shoe Museum

Friday, July 27
Don’t miss the final performances (today and tomorrow) of Anandam Dancetheatre’s Divergent Dances for Windows and Walls at the Bata Shoe Museum. The independent dance company joins forces with choreographer Brandy Leary to create image-based theatre through aerial arts and contemporary dance.

Get ready for a hilarious—and uncensored—evening as funnyman Kevin Hart takes the stage at Sony Centre as part of his Let Me Explain tour. Fresh off his Teen Choice Awards appearance, the actor and stand-up comic performs back-to-back shows tonight.

Lovers of lagers flock to the weekend-long Toronto’s Festival of Beer at Exhibition Place. Starting today, more than 200 international beer brands are on hand for sampling, while brewing sessions, seminars, live concerts and food trucks make the event complete. (more…)

Hot Art: Discover New Dinos at the ROM

Murals by Julius Csotonyi add a colourful dimension to the ROM's Ultimate Dinosaurs exhibition

OPENS JUNE 23 Admit it: at some point in your childhood you were fascinated by dinosaurs. Perhaps you even fancied yourself an expert, having stared at so many tyrannosaurs, triceratops and velociraptors. The Royal Ontario Museum, however, thinks it’s a safe bet that you’ve never seen anything like the terrible lizards in Ultimate Dinosaurs: Giants from Gondwana. This world-premiere exhibition, created by the ROM and its associate curator of vertebrate palaeontology, David Evans, reveals bizarre beasts that evolved on the prehistoric supercontinent comprising South America, Africa and Madagascar. Featuring fossils, bones, and 17 full-scale skeletal casts displayed against environmental murals and enhanced by augmented reality technology, the exhibition is an exciting introduction to the likes of the 110-foot-long Futalognkosaurus, the fearsome Giganotosaurus, the crocodilian Suchomimus and many others.

Weekend Roundup: May 11 to 13

Friday: The Berkeley Street Theatre hosts the Festival of Ideas and Creation

Friday, May 11
Support the development of the contemporary theatrical arts this weekend as the Canadian Stage Company hosts its 2012 Festival of Ideas and Creation. The focus of this year’s free events, workshops and readings is “Music in Performance”—partake in all the sound and vision at the Berkeley Street Theatre.

Indigenous traditions mix with modern dance when Kaha:wi Dance Theatre brings its latest work, TransMigration, to Harbourfront Centre. Choreographed by Santee Smith, the fusion piece is inspired by the life and paintings of the “Picasso of the North,” Ojibwe artist Norval Morrisseau.

Young filmmakers and movie junkies flock to the TIFF Next Wave Festival, which began yesterday and continues through Saturday. Focused on exposing youth to the cinematic arts, the event showcases films made for and by the next generation of cinephiles. In addition to screenings, there are also special-guest lectures, director Q&A sessions and more. (more…)

Hot Art: Deborah Samuel Gets Down to the Bone

Deborah Samuel's Barred Owl I

TO JULY 2 Science and art converge at the Royal Ontario Museum, which this month offers an intimate look at life and death courtesy of Deborah Samuel. For her Contact Festival feature exhibition, entitled Elegy, the photographic artist scanned the skeletons of birds reptiles and other animals to create poetically minimal, x-ray-like images. Reminiscent of photos in an anatomy textbook, Samuel’s works seem to offer an objective, unmediated look at their subjects. And yet, the pieces transcend simple documentation, inviting the viewer to contemplate each specimen’s fate, and the fragility of our own existence.

Weekend Roundup: April 6 to 8

Friday: See Hudson the polar bear, then enjoy some Easter-themed family fun (photo courtesy of the Toronto Zoo)

Friday, April 6
Treat the kids this long weekend with a trip to the Toronto Zoo. In addition to admiring animals from around the world, including a brand new baby polar bear named Hudson, kids can take part in the annual Easter Egg-Stravaganza, which offers a lineup of fun activities as well as the Beary-Bunny Easter Parade at noon and 2 p.m.

Hilarious comedy troupe The National Theatre of the World brings back its side-splitting Carnegie Hall Show to The Second City. The award-winning improv production features four of Toronto’s best comics acting out scenes based on mundane everyday activities. Also enjoy special performances of dance, Burlesque and even acrobatics.

Calling all music lovers! Grammy-nominated British duo The Ting Tings are set to rock the Phoenix Concert Theatre tonight, in promotion of their latest album, Sounds from Nowheresville. Perhaps you’ve heard of their hit, “Shut Up and Let Me Go”?

Saturday: Examine the patterned works of Marlis Saunders at the Design Exchange

Saturday, April 7
There are more than 100 colourful works to view in Marlis Saunders’ exhibition, entitled Stop, Drop, Repeat, at the Design Exchange. The German-Canadian artist is recognized as a pioneer of the Bauhaus school, and her patterned works are exemplars of that style.

A response to the classic play A Raisin in the Sun, Clybourne Park is a story of race and real estate set in a Chicago neighbourhood and spanning two generations. The dark comedy starts out in 1959, as a black family looks to move into an all-white neighbourhood, then fast-forwards to 2009, when a white family moves into the same house in what has become an all-black area.

Enjoy homegrown drama as renowned Canadian playwright Daniel MacIvor brings Was Spring to the Tarragon Theatre. It’s a story of three generations of women who confront each other about a tragic event from their past.

Sunday: Ajax and Little Iliad is on stage at Harbourfront Centre

Sunday, April 8
The latest production in Harbourfront Centre‘s popular World Stage series, Ajax & Little Iliad sets out to define the “theatre of war” for civilian audiences. Only 30 seats are available for each performance of this intimate show; each audience member listens through a pair of headphones for a truly personal experience.

The end is near! The end of the Royal Ontario Museum’s Maya exhibition, that is. After calling the institution home for the past four months, the Maya: Secrets of Their Ancient World mega-show moves on Monday. Take advantage of your last chance to discover priceless Mayan artifacts, learn about their sophisticated rituals and explore the mysterious end-of-days legend.

And if you don’t feel like venturing into the kitchen this Easter weekend, Toronto has plenty o’ places that’ll do the work for you, especially for that most comforting of meals—brunch. Check out some of the restaurants offering a holiday-Sunday repast here.

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