Leon Bacardi Award of Excellence

LAST YEAR’S WINNER: Atileo Tedoldi proudly accepts his award from Audrey Shine.

DEADLINE: August 29, 2013. Do you have an exceptional youth under 18 years of age who is a member of your organization and has been for at least one year? If so, The Leon Bacardi Award of Excellence gives you the opportunity to recognize their efforts and contributions. Send in your submission now. Contact the BAC offices and speak to Marnie Richards, Executive Director, with any questions, or obtain an application form. For more information and to see eligibility visit: http://www.artsbrampton.ca/leon_awards_excellence.asp

THE SUMMIT NEXT WEEK! HAVE YOU REGISTERED YET?

April 23, 8 AM – 5 PM. BRAMPTON CREATIVE ECONOMY SUMMIT. HAVE YOU REGISTERED YET? Back for its 2^nd year this City of Brampton event, partners with the BAC and other community groups to plan, inspire, and network with various industry, education and community members. You can register at http://www.brampton.ca/en/Business/edo/Pages/CreativeEconomySummit.aspx

Thank you!

BAC thanks the public, members and groups who shared the Sister Cities International (SCI) Showcase link in and around Facebook. We appreciate you spreading the word to Brampton’s youth. Don’t forget to promote to young artists you know as the deadline for artist projects is next week Monday!

UPCOMING YOUTH OPPORTUNITY

25th Annual Young Artist Showcase and The 25th Annual Young Author Showcase

The City of Brampton is a Sister City to Miami Beach. Sister City relationships foster partnerships within the community and between international cities. An opportunity has been made available where the young artists and authors may have their work entered in the Sister Cities International Showcases. The theme for both 2013 showcases is THE POWER OF EXCHANGE.

The BAC is going to conduct 2 competitions for its young individual members or young members of our groups (participants must be between 13 and 18 years of age at the time of the Sister Cities International deadline of May 1, 2013.)

Brampton Arts Council’s Deadline:
Young Authors - Deadline February 4, 2013
Young Artists- Deadline February 18, 2013

The submission guidelines (criteria, eligibility, etc.) are in the final stage of completion and will be available on- line at the Brampton Arts Council October 31. 2012.

UPDATE:
Find out more on the Author Showcase application and information here:
http://www.artsbrampton.ca/pdf/SCIauthor2012.pdf

The Artist Showcase information and application is here:
http://www.artsbrampton.ca/pdf/SCIartist2012.pdf

Deadline Approaching: Leon Argamasilla Bacardi Award for Excellence

 

(Pictured: Left to Right ED Marnie Richards,
2011 recipient Jendayi Dyer and President Licia Vreugde)



NOMINATION DEADLINE: AUGUST 30, 2012. Leon Argamasilla Bacardi Award for Excellence. It’s the time of the year for the award that recognizes the arts excellence of our Brampton youth. BAC group members show your support for those 18 and under. More details can be found on the website: http://www.artsbrampton.ca/leon_awards_excellence.asp

March 26th 2011

At 8:30 PM Saturday March 26th, 2011, a sudden hush descended on the crowded audience in the near darkness of Rose Theatre. Guest conducter Sabatino Vacca stepped onto stage with confidence and coat tails as he greeted the audience and began the business of music. The Brampton Arts Council Board and staff were on hand at Brampton Symphony Orchestra’s annual Earth Hour concert at the Rose Theatre to present this year’s Leon Argamasilla Bacardi Award of Excellence and enjoy the BSO’s musical talents. The Brampton Arts Council is also a sponsor of the Earth Hour concerts. Drawing young and old, the BSO commemorates Tschaikowsky while also celebrating the importance of the international Earth Hour phenomenon by turning off Rose Theatre’s lights for the first half of their concert. After intermission, the Brampton Arts Council formally presented hip hop dancer Jendayi Dyer with the Bacardi award. You can find out more about her here.

From 2011 Leon Bacardi Award/BSO Earth Hour Album

Teen Author Readings

CALLING ALL TEENS TO SHOWCASE YOUR WRITING!
Share your original stories, poems, writings, and musical compositions with the Brampton community.

Teen Author Readings
Thursday, February 17, 2011
at Four Corners Branch
6:00 to 8:00 pm

Teen Author Readings encourage and inspire published and budding teen authors to share their work. The evening promises magnificent presentations from aspiring and talented young writers and music composers, as they share their original poems, short stories, essays, skits, songs and musical compositions. Writers are encouraged to not only present in English but also other languages of their preference and proficiency.

Please contact Surita Dey at 905-793-4636 x4354 or email at sdey@bramlib.on.ca by January 31, 2011

What are you doing on Michael Cera day?

Only two more days before the awesomeness of Scott Pilgrim and Michael Cera collide into epicness! :D In case you’ve lived under a rock for the past 5 years, this is Michael Cera. He’s not only Canadian but a Bramptonian who broke out in ‘the little show that could’ called Arrested Development. He’s currently best known as the poster boy for awkward geeky adultdom and will put a distinct butt-kicking edge to that persona this Friday in the Edgar Wright epic of epic epicness “Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World”. For those who have lived under a rock for the past 3 months, this_{(close the picture to see the article)} is Stadium: a Brampton comic book store that has promoted the heck out of openly inviting Michael Cera to join in the impromptu day celebrating him. See more about it here or here or here.

If geek culture references, shiny effects and gravity-defying fight scenes aren’t enough to entice you, consider the sound track and music score. The eclectic talents of Beck fuel the sound of Pilgrim’s band, which by the way was coached on how to play their instruments by another Canadian, Chris Murphy of iconic band Sloan. Other awesome Canadiana lending their talents in some way or another is Plumtree, Metric, Broken Social Scene and Kid Koala. Not Canadian but still awesome? I mention you now Black Lips, Cornelius, Dan the Automator.

So again, I ask: What are you doing August 13th, 2010 on Michael Cera Day?

This Friday I plan to sit down and begin my Scott Pilgrim journey in a rather puritanical fashion - with the comics by Bryan Lee O’Malley, also Canadian. Movie will come quite quickly after I assume. :) So exciting!

For a quick synopisis of Michael Cera and other successful (and/or famous) Bramptionians, visit the BAC’s success stories.
_{Tee hee. Me as a Scott Pilgrim character. (Check out the gloves!)}

Rock Against Cancer...

Yeah, no creative title this time. I went to Rock Against Cancer this weekend. Brampton Arts Council was one of the sponsors of the event so I went there to collect some props. I could sit here and tell you all about it but I think pictures and video could tell the story much better. Words will just be the accent to colour the visuals this time but before I begin let's talk a little about what Rock Against Cancer is.

It's an event that Brampton's Rock School and Express Your Music Foundation hosts to fundraise for the cause, provide their students an opportunity to perform while recognizing peers for their musicianship, and “learn[ing] about the power of positive social change, how the small acts of a few can change the lives of many”1 according to co-owner Andrea Gavrilovic, which to me makes it compelling. You can't help but do good just by attending the event, but by attending the event you also get to have fun and enjoy some music and a community. Win win? Woot! :)

Okay, so this entry I decided to try something a little different. I posted all my pictures, some artsy, most pretty “normal” on the Picasa album and I've identified whoever I could from the event. Hopefully by the end of the week. Everyone who wants to be identified will be done.

Props:

The Karaoke Tent (donated by Pace Marathon) at the other end of the parking lot from the main stage. I'm a sucker for karaoke. It's oodles of fun no matter what fuddy duddys say! :) Clever idea: charging singers a $1 a song. :) Just the right amount.

Vendors: Tamami ko bag. Not only are the bags and note books pretty to look at – made from old kimono cloth, chic – but the lady who sells them is pretty sweet and awesome. How do I know this? Kelly, are you just plugging random people? No, I know that when I fell she came over to make sure I was okay. That doesn't sound like much, but it is.

Music: Everything was enjoyable. I think it's just good that there was, in this instance, a place for youth to perform and it wasn't all rock for the haters. :) Music is music is music.

EVERybody: for being patient, composed and toughing it out in the rain for an hour halfway through the event.

Enjoy the pictures, comments and videos! :)

1. http://rockagainstcancer.therockschool.ca/about.html

Listening to: Regina Spektor – Edit; Louis XIV - Finding out True Love is Blind; Joel Plaskett - Nowhere with You

Brampton's Best Kept Secret?

Brampton has a lot of “best kept secrets” and I'm not sure if it works out as well as it should. A woman asked me at the Street Festival last week if there were any local galleries to take her niece to. She asked me if! A little pain went through my heart because she was going to head down to the Royal Ontario Museum or the Art Gallery of Ontario.

There are at least three galleries I could list off the top of my head running around in Brampton. Immediately the Peel Heritage Complex sprang to mind. Only because that's one of the first cultural spaces I remember visiting in my life. The Complex is a gallery, museum and archives with history framing and supporting it all since the public building is a former jail house. If you're not into history, the arts or archaeology, visit the Complex simply because of its architecture. I don't think I've seen buildings with this thick, heavy stone and how that stone is used in the building creates new spaces out of the old.

I was lucky enough yesterday to be led on a tour by one Diane Allengame, the current curator of the triple threat complex, to learn about changes and tidbits of Complex information. The most surprising face to me was that Complex is currently showing .03 % of their gallery collection and 1% of their museum collection. For those not in the know most museums usually present 10 % of their collections at a time allowing for material they can cycle and freshen displays with. Thankfully, the Complex is pursuing a much-needed expansion for more display and storage space. It will be closing its door sometime in the future in order to phase into this. Hopefully, I'll remember to remind everyone to pop in before they well, can't for a bit.

Another thing the expansion is looking to do is make the side of the complex that faces Gage Park a little more inviting, inclusive. Who can't enjoy that? No one. :)

The thing I liked about the tour was midpoint when I got to hear bursts of kids acting in the Museum from the Complex's summer program. There are young artists running amuck around this city of ours. I just gotta find 'em.

Peel Heritage Complex
9 Wellington Street East
Brampton, Ontario L6W 1Y1
Phone: 905-791-4055 Fax: 905-451-4931

Other galleries you can enjoy around town are:

Visual Arts Brampton
1 Bartley Bull Parkway, Suite 10
Brampton ON L6W 3T7
Phone: (905) 453-9142
E-mail: visualartsbrampton@gmail.com

and

Beaux Arts Brampton (which is just down the street from the Heritage Complex in Downtown Brampton)
70-74 Main Street North
Brampton, ON L6V 1N7
Tel: (905) 454-5677
Toll Free: 1-866-339-7779
Email: beauxart1@bellnet.ca

Last but not least there are a couple of Visual Arts groups you can check with that I haven't listed here but are on our website at: http://www.artsbrampton.ca/directory.htm

All of the galleries connect to the youth in different ways, whether through tours, lessons or courses. Check 'em out.

Have you ever been to the Peel Heritage Complex or any of our little galleries around town? What did you love? Do you want to go? Make plans!

Picture used with permission of Diane Allengame.

Currently listening to Hawsley Workman - Silent Night; Blue October - She's My Ride Home; Balkan Beat Box – Balcasio; Ella Fitzgerald's – A Night in Tunisa