New Fall/Winter/Spring Season Announced!

We are super excited at the Koffler this week – we’ve officially announced & launched our new season!

Our 2011-12 Program + Classes Guide is hot off the presses…. swing by and pick up a copy, or keep your eyes on your mailbox. You can also download a digital version on our website here. This is the guide to keep and refer to all year long – it comprises the full range of our off-site exhibitions, literary, music, dance and visual arts programs and classes. As always, full details on all of our classes and programs are on our website at www.kofflerarts.org.

The 2011-12 Fall/Winter Spring season is packed full of exciting programs, events and classes all over the city and at our home base on the Sherman Campus. A big change this new season is that the Toronto Jewish Book Fair – which is entering its 36th year – has been moved from its usual October time slot to June 2012 and has been renamed the 1st Annual Toronto Jewish Book Festival. The Festival, from June 4 to June 7, 2012, will now be downtown at the Bram and Bluma Appel Salon (Toronto Reference Library) and will include the same great author talks and programs and hundreds of books for sale as other years. The Festival will culminate in the Helen and Stan Vine Canadian Jewish Book Awards on June 7, 2012.

Other highlights this season:

Spin Off: Contemporary Art Circling the Mandala, September 22 to December 4, 2010 – A multimedia exhibition featuring six artists that meld mysticism and popular culture, offering alternative portals to escape the world of the everyday. With Aya Ben Ron (Israel), Mircea Cantor (France/Romania), Vandana Jain (USA), Gary James Joynes/Clinker (Canada), Melissa Shiff (Canada), Jennifer Zackin (USA). Koffler Gallery Off-Site at 80 Spadina Ave., Suite 501.

The Koffler @ IFOA, October 23, 2011 – one full day of author talks focused on Russian-Jewish stories presented by the Koffler at the International Festival of Authors at Harbourfront Centre. Authors include Gary Shteyngart, David Bezmozgis, Irwin Cotler, Gal Beckerman and Michal Govrin.

Yair Dalal and Frank London, March 28, 2012 – the world premiere of international music greats Yair Dalal and Frank London together, playing a one night concert featuring Middle Eastern/Eastern European music with guest musicians at the St. Lawrence Centre for the Performing Arts.

Adi Nes, April 26 to June 2, 2012 – the first major Canadian survey of Adi Nes, the acclaimed (and often controversial) Israeli photographer who interprets Biblical, mythological and literary subjects while exploring notions of masculinity, sexual and cultural identity.

Plus, we’ve partnered with the Art Gallery of Ontario for their major fall exhibition on Chagall and the Russian avant-garde. Past Present, on December 14, is an evening of music, dance, performance, spoken word and more with Toronto’s brightest avant-garde artists; and the Koffler Chamber Orchestra opens its season on November 20 with Chagall’s Musical World in Walker Court at the AGO.

Hope to see you out at Koffler events this new season!

[Images from top: Gary James Joynes/Clinker, Ouroboros 4.06 kHz, 2011; Gary Shteyngart; Yair Dalal and Frank London; Adi Nes, Untitled (soldiers in water), 1999. Courtesy of Jack Shainman Gallery; Adi Nes, The Last Supper.]

Google Art Project

Famous works of art, located all over the world, have just become a lot more accessible. Seventeen of the world’s most prestigious art museums can now be explored by anyone, from almost anywhere in the world, for free.

Google Art Project doesn’t just show photos of paintings and other works of art, it provides a truly interactive experience. It uses Street View technology so not only can users view the artwork, but they can literally navigate through the museum as if they with there--without all the walking, of course! Once users do focus in on a piece an art, they have an advantage over museum visitors. From their computer they are able to zoom in on a work, view other works by the same artist, and even watch related YouTube content. Lastly, like so many new and successful technologies, Google Art Project allows users to customize their experience. Users can choose their favourite pieces and create their own collection. In their collection they are able to add comments, and even share the whole thing with friends and family.

An even more exciting possibility are the pedagogical applications of the project. Art teachers could create collections relevant to their lesson plan and send a copy to all of their students. They could include their notes on the works, allow students to comment and discuss online, and it could be accessed by everyone from home or the library without all the photocopying.

I spent some time in Italy this summer and was lucky enough to tour Florence’s Uffizi Gallery in person; however, if you haven’t been to the Uffizi, you can now see a close-up of Carvaggio’s Sacrifice of Isaac. If you haven’t been to Madrid’s Thyssen-Bornemisza like me, you can now view the paint-strokes in Degas’s Swaying Dancer. And if despite living a few hours away you haven’t gotten to Ottawa’s National Gallery of Canada you can even get a close-up of all the figures in Wertinger’s Summer.

On a similar note, Israel’s Holocaust museum in Yad Vashem, recently worked with Google to create an online archive of some of their collection. Much like Google Art Project, this archive has made thousands of photos and documents a lot more accessible. It’s possible that in the future Yad Vashem’s entire museum could be available online in the same way.

Casandra Campbell