From:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servl...ry/TPNational/
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Bringing in the masses: What's on after the ribbon-cutting
JENNIE PUNTER
Special to The Globe and Mail
If you superbuild it, will they come? The Toronto arts district may be a field of dreams these days, but bold new spaces and state-of-the-art acoustics won't keep turnstiles perpetually spinning.
Most of the city's "culture centres in transition" are taking a two-stage approach, offering ambitious opening events or blockbuster shows to lure sidewalk gawkers inside and developing programs to turn local first-time visitors into regulars.
In the early days, the emphasis is on the talent in our own backyard -- or, in the case of museums, the treasures from the back shelves.
The first performance in the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts is a gala fundraising dinner concert (June 14) featuring the Canadian Opera Company orchestra, chorus and stars. The inaugural season begins in September with the COC's production of opera's colossus, Wagner's Ring cycle, while the National Ballet's 06/07 season at the Four Seasons Centre begins in November with Sleeping Beauty.
As part of a new initiative, the Centre's Aerial Amphitheatre will host a series of 90 free concerts (Tuesdays and Thursdays at noon, the first Wednesday of each month at 5:30 p.m.), beginning in October. Director of programming Nina Draganic promises "everything from electronic music, to tin-whistle orchestras, Ghanaian drumming, jazz and exciting collaborations."
The Gardiner Museum reopens its expanded gallery space June 23, christening its new special exhibition hall with a commissioned solo show of sculpture and drawings by the renowned Quebec ceramic artist Jean-Pierre Larocque (June 23 to Oct. 9).
Months before new permanent galleries in the Michael A. Lee-Chin Crystal are installed with old favourites, new acquisitions and whole collections never before displayed, the Royal Ontario Museum opens the Crystal's blockbuster space, the Garfield Weston Exhibition Hall, with Italian Arts and Design: The 20th Century (Oct. 26 to Jan. 7, 2007).
Introducing the public to new ways of seeing and to its new collections, in particular Kenneth Thomson's gift of Canadian works and European art, is the focus of the Art Gallery of
Ontario as it moves towards the 2008 opening of its expanded spaces. "Who we are and what we do is changing," says reinstallation director Linda Milrod. As an example, the AGO's photography collection has grown from 2,000 to 37,000 works over the past five years.
For the Royal Conservatory of
Music, the three new halls in the Telus Centre will be alive with more than just classical music, reflecting the new areas of teaching (jazz, world music, DJ skills and pop-song crafting) with an international artist series scheduled to kick off in 2008.