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Get ready to stay up all night for Nuit Blanche 2017

Nuit Blanche is back for the 12th annual city wide art show. On Sept. 30 from sunset to sunrise, Toronto’s downtown core is transformed into an artistic wonderland, with installations, exhibits, and live performances being carried out throughout the city. This year, the festival will Celebrate Canada’s 150th birthday under the theme entitled: “Many Possible Futures.”

This is the first time there is a specific theme at Nuit Blanche. The festival will host 35 art immersive projects, with four set to run from dusk till dawn. Over all there will be 300-plus independent artists and 90 different art projects to experience in the city.

Here are five exhibitions to look out for at this year’s festival:


Monument to the Century of Revolutions- Nathan Phillips Square ( all night)
Curated by Nato Thompson

This exhibition features 21 different showcases within one project. The installation is a reflection of Russian history and the Bolshevik Revolution, which led to the rise of the Soviet Union. The display will feature an array of different shipping containers that essentially form a village. In this village, different shipping containers will display moments throughout history from the Mexican Revolution to the French Revolution. One section will address issues of indigenous peoples, sex workers, queer activism and African diaspora. In all, this village is a social space that represents history and the narrative of global justice.


Calculating Upon The Unforeseen- AGO (6:58PM- 2:00AM) Indoors
The Forest- Curated by Clara Halpern

This performance at the AGO will feature Canadian artist Will Kwan, and addresses how inequality is created through economics and cultural discussions.The performance will address the “force and fragility” of the human voice through words. These spoken words will reflect on human history and poetic stories, and will only be conveyed through human and voice connection.


Taking To The Streets- Wellesley Street West & Queen’s Park Crescent West
Automobile- Curated by Barbara Fischer

Artist Joseph Namy will feature a translation of sound using the bass system of various cars. Clusters of cars will be parked under a bridge near Wellesley St., featuring an amplified sound that can be heard even before the display is seen. The goal of this installation is to see how people listen to music versus how they feel when they hear music. The loud bass is powerful and is meant to transmit this power to a large audience.


Netflix’s Red Forest- Spadina Courthouse Rotunda

For the first time, Netflix will be creating the “Upside Down” world that is featured in the popular Netflix series, Stranger Things. Expected to be one of the most popular attractions, explorers have a chance to explore the ‘Red Forest’ that reflects the upside down world. Guests even wear a hazmat when entering the forest to reflect the nature of the show. This is a big promotional effort for the show Stranger Things, but understandably is very appealing.

Fly By Night- The Gladstone Hotel
Curated by Lukus Toane

This celebration at the Gladstone Hotel on Queen Street Wes, is an all-night event that will showcase this hotel as one of Toronto’s oldest cultural hubs. The Gladstone is already known for their unique and artistic rooms, but the celebration will take place on the second floor public space and will feature live performances and a visual transformation of the environment. There will also be karaoke at the Melody Bar on the first floor.

As per usual the TTC will be operating all night to ensure the easy transport of persons around the city. For more information visit nbto.com


Hope you have an enjoyable Nuit Blanche 2017!

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News

Look out for the new Canada 150 glow-in-the-dark toonie

The toonie has always been an emblem of Canadian pride, from its odd nickname to the polar bear that is crested on the heavy coin.

To celebrate Canada’s 150 year festivities, the Royal Canadian Mint hosted a competition where Canadians across the country were invited to submit designs for the toonie that would celebrate the historic occasion. The winner shocked all.

A glow-in-the-dark toonie featuring the northern lights. That’s right, glow-in-the-dark. Keep your eyes peeled because the coin is already in circulation. 

Named “Dance of the Spirits”, the design was created by Dr. Timothy Hsia, a family doctor and his brother Stephen Hsia, a lawyer who are both from Richmond B.C. The two business professionals are both artists are the side and have been working on art projects together since they were children. Timothy came up with the northern lights design and Stephen helped translate it to the computer to make it a piece of digital art.

The Royal Canadian Mint will be releasing three million of these special edition coins and is excited to get to use new and never-used-before technology that will create the world’s first glow-in-the-dark coin. The coin uses a pad-printed process and ink that creates a luminescent coin. In the factory, each toonie is painted with glow-in-the-dark purple and blue paint to imitate the Aurora Borealis, one of Canada’s proudest natural wonders.

The two brothers received $2000 prize money, two tickets to Ottawa for the big reveal, and a special edition of the coins. The two artists are dedicating their win to their grandfather who was a coin collector and often gave them special edition coins as they were growing up. It is also giving the brothers further incentive to go see the Northern Lights, one of the majestic wonders of Canadian nature.

Whether you find out you have one of these deluxe coins in a bar when it suddenly glows-in-the-dark, or you seek out a special edition set, definitely hang on to this toonie to give to your own grandchildren one day — it’s bound to inspire a sense of nostalgic tradition and Canadian pride. 

Have you seen the toonie? Let us know in the comments below!

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One Love Manchester
Entertainment

The true meaning of One Love Manchester

The day after a terrorist attack claimed the lives of seven people on London Bridge and in Borough Market, 60,000 people crammed into Manchester’s Old Trafford cricket ground for Ariana Grande’s One Love Manchester concert. The message: we will not be afraid and we will not be deterred.

The concert was a response to a separate incident that took place two weeks ago at Ariana Grande’s Manchester concert. After the concert was over, a suicide bomber ended up killing 22 people and injuring many more. The victims were a mixture of parents, children, and teens. For many artists, this was the ultimate tragedy. And for Grande, it was heartbreaking.

The youngest victim was eight years old.

Sunday’s benefit concert, titled One Love Manchester, was incredibly powerful. People of all ages pushed their fear aside and came together to embrace this idea of love, tolerance, and acceptance. With 60,000 people in the audience, the silence was deafening. And when they all sang in unison — even the artists on stage started to cry.

British singer and frontman for band Mumford & Sons, Marcus Mumford, kicked off the concert with a moment of silence before singing a touching rendition of his song “Timshel”. Other musicians included Katy Perry, Justin Bieber, Miley Cyrus, Pharrell Williams, Robbie Williams, Coldplay, and Black Eyed Peas, among many others.

Of course, Ariana Grande sang some fan-favourites, as well as duets with some of the performers. One of the most touching moments was when the Parrs Wood High School Choir sang Grande’s My Everything. The choir posted their rendition of the song to Youtube after the bombing, and was invited to perform it on stage during the benefit concert. Grande came out to sing with the 12-year-old soloist, holding her hand as she was overwhelmed with emotion.

Grande ended with an emotional “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”.

The benefit concert raised over 2.6 million euros for the victims of the Manchester bombing, with part of those funds also going towards an emergency fund set up by the city of Manchester and the British Red Cross. But, more importantly, it proved to the world the U.K. is not “reeling” from these terrorist attacks, as some in the media have claimed.

When tragedy hit, the people of Manchester and London didn’t blame a religion. They didn’t react in hate. They didn’t close their borders or put up a wall. What did they do?

They opened their hearts. They opened their minds. And they sang.

 

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