Volume 27 Issue 8 | July 1 - September 20, 2022
Final print issue of Volume 27 (259th, count 'em!). You'll see us in print again mid-September. Inside: A seat at one table at April's "Mayors Lunch" TAF Awards; RCM's 6th edition "Celebration Series" of piano music -- more than ODWGs; Classical and beyond at two festivals; two lakeshore venues reborn; our summer "Green Pages" festival directory; record reviews, listening room and more. On stands Tuesday July 5 2022.
Final print issue of Volume 27 (259th, count 'em!). You'll see us in print again mid-September. Inside: A seat at one table at April's "Mayors Lunch" TAF Awards; RCM's 6th edition "Celebration Series" of piano music -- more than ODWGs; Classical and beyond at two festivals; two lakeshore venues reborn; our summer "Green Pages" festival directory; record reviews, listening room and more. On stands Tuesday July 5 2022.
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Shelly Grace<br />
change begin to look like? For one thing, succession planning, team<br />
leads, department heads and organization leaders – the benefactors,<br />
as I referred to them earlier – will better reflect the beneficiaries at<br />
the round tables in Arcadian Court back in April. Earlier, Mattimore<br />
mentioned that when nomination numbers are low, staff reach out<br />
personally to former winners to spread the word. Perhaps there is an<br />
opportunity to formalize this work further. Perhaps finalists who do<br />
not win can be pulled further into the fold as paid cultural ambassadors<br />
who can reach out to contacts throughout the year. This would<br />
help ensure co-creation and early inclusion in the process. In that way<br />
the face of systemic change can look more like musician Jesse Ryan,<br />
winner of the Emerging Jazz Artist Award <strong>20</strong><strong>20</strong>, who now sits on the<br />
Foundation’s Board.<br />
There continues to be cultural value in coming together whenever<br />
we can and under any guise. I don’t usually quote politicians, but<br />
this was a good one: “Increasing polarization is resisted via arts and<br />
culture. We can disagree and stand together at a concert or performance,”<br />
said Mayor John Tory. And, as Dwayne Morgan, winner of the<br />
Celebration of Cultural Life Award spoke, I covertly wiped away a<br />
tear or two with the edge of a napkin when he let us know that he<br />
usually invites his daughter to perform with him and he pays her to<br />
do so. This is so that she understands that art is a vocation for which<br />
you should be paid. Art, in addition to art for the sake of beauty and<br />
expression, also has deep economic value to any culture and must be<br />
included as such.<br />
The winner of the Arts for Youth Award, the organization Never<br />
Gallery Ready focuses on media analysis for young people. They<br />
develop a capacity for analysis, to deconstruct and to note what<br />
systems are right in front of our eyes and how they are sustained and<br />
repeated. This is also art. As Dwayne Morgan said in accepting his<br />
Celebration of Cultural Life Award: “You have to build the door that<br />
opportunity knocks on.”<br />
Meanwhile, however much their systems and processes can be<br />
improved, these awards are a crucial affirmation of the power of creativity.<br />
They acknowledge and help fund the deep work of artists in the<br />
act of building and sustaining our hearts. In the jubilant words of the<br />
winner of the Breakthrough Artist Award, Shelly Grace: “Peace, power<br />
and poetry. Off.”<br />
Gloria Blizzard is a non-fiction writer, poet and penner of songs, whose<br />
essays, reviews and articles have appeared in numerous literary<br />
publications, magazines and sound recordings, including Poetry<br />
Canada Review, cbc.ca, The Globe and Mail, Humber Literary Review<br />
and World Literature Today. She is working on her first full-length<br />
book of essays. Instagram: @gloriawrites; Twitter: @gloriablizzard<br />
thewholenote.com <strong>July</strong> 1 - <strong>September</strong> <strong>20</strong>, <strong>20</strong>22 | 11