Every year ARTSFILE asks Sean Wilson, the artistic director of the Ottawa International Writers Festival, to pick some books to read for the new year and he always comes through with an intriguing list. Here's his lineup for 2019: It’s early enough in the new year
The 11th hour on the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918 did not end the impact of the First World War. That impact was felt not just in Europe but around the world and Canada was not immune. The country was emerging from its
What do you do when you’re rehearsing a show that has no set, no props, no costume changes and no miming but does have a storyline that unfolds in multiple locales at different times? Clearly, you head to IKEA. At least that’s what Megan Carty and Matt Hertendy
When Guy Harrison was a lad in Adelaide, Australia he took violin lessons. But it turned out he was more interested in the violin's make-up than he was in learning how to play it. "I wasn't a great student," he admitted in an interview. "I was a
It's probably an understatement to say that the new Ottawa Art Gallery has had a successful start. Certainly it has succeeded just in terms of the number of visits since opening last April. More than 200,000 patrons, many of them repeat visitors, have walked into the
Now into his seventh season as artistic director, has Eric Coates remade the Great Canadian Theatre Company in his own image? GCTC needed, if not a re-making, at least a firm hand when Coates took on the job in 2012. The place often felt aimless and
In an age when attention spans are being digitized to death, Phil Rose uses the same digital technology to make you stop, focus and think. Rose’s video, titled Un(Stills), is part of Kaleidoscope, the exhibition in the City Hall Art Gallery of recent additions to the
Judging by past controversies, public art isn't always to the public taste. The City of Ottawa, which commits one per cent of every civic construction project to art, knows this and is working hard to ensure the art it commissions attempts to fit the neighbourhood in
The Dominion-Chalmers United Church building is evolving into an arm of Carleton University in Centretown and a community arts centre right before our eyes. The first few concerts have taken place on a new and bigger stage and reviews of the changes have been positive. So
When the album Tapestry was released in 1971, the world learned about Carole King. But the legendary singer was an established songwriter long before the release of that generational record. She started young. As a teenager she was a student at James Madison High School in Brooklyn
