Canada's New Government Supports Kitchener's NUMUS Concert Series

KITCHENER, Ontario, May 31, 2007 - On behalf of the Honourable Beverley J. Oda, Minister of Canadian Heritage and Status of Women, Harold Albrecht, Member of Parliament (Kitchener-Conestoga), today announced funding of $20,000 for NUMUS to support the NUMUS Concert Series that will take place at four venues in Kitchener-Waterloo from April 2007 to March 2008. "NUMUS does a wonderful job of promoting the work of new composers and performers and providing audiences with concerts that are innovative and stimulating. This year's concert series includes artists from Nunavut, British Columbia, Quebec, Ontario, Spain and the United States.

In connecting people in the Kitchener-Waterloo region with emerging Canadian and international artists, this organization makes an important cultural contribution to the region, and to the country as a whole," said Minister Oda. "Canada's New Government is committed to ensuring that all Canadians have access to top-quality artistic presentations, and we are pleased to provide this support to NUMUS.""This funding is an excellent example of our Government's commitment to the arts and to youth outreach," said Mr. Albrecht. "NUMUS helps develop emerging artists and provides youth with a meaningful way to spend their time.""NUMUS is thrilled to receive this funding from the Arts Presentation Canada program at Canadian Heritage," said Jennifer O'Connor, NUMUS General Manager. "The support of Canadian Heritage allows us to continue to present the best in innovative and experimental music to Waterloo Region and gives us opportunities to reach out to new audiences and youth with our work."NUMUS works to advance the public's knowledge of new music by providing performances of recently composed music with an emphasis on Canadian composers and musicians. Canada's New Government has provided this funding through the Arts Presentation Canada program of the Department of Canadian Heritage.

This program seeks to give Canadians more access to direct experiences of the diversity and richness of Canada's culture through professional arts festivals, presentations of live professional performances, and other artistic experiences.

Information: Véronique BruneauPress SecretaryOffice of the Minister of Canadian Heritage and Status of Women819 997-7788Jeff ChattertonLegislative Assistant to the Member of Parliament forKitchener-Conestoga613 992-4633Jaime BurkeA/Communications ManagerOntario RegionCanadian Heritage416 973-2050
[ Media Room ] See addition reference blogger .

Harald Thys and Jos de Gruyter in Vancouver

Jos de Gruyter, Harald Thys

[]Opening Friday June 29, 8pm[]
[]Artist talk Thursday June 28, 7:30pm at Emily Carr Institute (Theatre)
Curated by Monika Szewczyk[]
The collaborative work of Belgian artists Harald Thys and Jos de Gruyter is rooted in a folksy, tragicomic sensibility honed into an experimental dramaturgy. Their video and photographic work use simple, symbolic sets, including the paradigmatic spaces of home, battlefield, urban periphery and community hall. They have engaged a recurring cast of non-professional actors as well as invented or adopted personae spanning the forms of puppets, dummies, plush animals, makeshift robots and rejected toys. These characters continually rehearse power dynamics and emotional entanglements, creating worlds not unlike our own, yet more focused, bizarre and bleak. The artists seek ways to confront marginal, incapacitated, lost and alienated subjects without defining these ‘others’ in sociological terms. In this sense, and especially in their novel use of a ghoulish humour, Thys and de Gruyter broaden the scope of reflection on socially produced behaviour.

Their exhibition at Artspeak will include three video works and a photographic series. The exhibition centres on Thys and de Gruyter’s newest and most ambitious narrative film entitled Ten Weyngaert [In the Vineyard]. Adopting the name and setting of a Brussels Community Center that was built as a utopian space (but is now frequented by troubled people and remains isolated from the city’s public life), the action of Ten Weyngaert is transposed into a world ruled by a spider where robots act as intermediaries between the minute monarch and a motley cast of dysfunctional archetypes. The human cast, as is often the case with the artists’ work, is comprised of family members, friends and non-professional actors—all familiar people placed in a radically non-familiar situation. The unfolding action becomes an allegory of human behaviour under social and psychological ‘pressure.’ Accompanying the film, the exhibition will include a series of recent scene studies in the guise of black and white photographic works. The photographs were conceived independently, but comprise a crucial component of the film’s presentation, as it is here that Thys and de Gruyter introduce many of the characters that we meet in Ten Weyngaert. The exhibition also includes the mime-performance video Le Cercle N.1: The Chair in which a white man switches into a black man, then back again and so on. Artspeak’s publications area will be activated through a monitor screening of an early work, The Experiment, as well as a bibliography/library as a means to further engage with the work of Thys and de Gruyter.

Harald Thys and Jos de Gruyter live and work in Brussels and have been working together since the mid-1980s. Their work has been widely exhibited throughout Europe including solo and duo exhibitions at Aliceday, Brussels; MUHKA, Antwerp; SMP, Marseille; Galerie Carlier/Gebauer, Berlin; and Galerie EOF, Paris. Their work has also been included in exhibitions at Galerie Isabella Bortolozzi, Berlin; Bozar, Brussels; and the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, among others. The exhibition at Artspeak is their first exhibition in North America.
Special thanks to Galerie Aliceday for their assistance with this project.

CHRISTIE BOOSTS DIGITAL SCREENINGS AT SHOWCANADA 2007

CHRISTIE BOOSTS DIGITAL SCREENINGS AT SHOWCANADA 2007
Christie Projectors Demonstrate Latest Digital Technology for Theatres


Christie CP2000 Christie, a global leader in visual solutions for entertainment, business and industry, is a major sponsor of ShowCanada Niagara Falls 2007. Christie is providing the world’s most popular DLP Cinema® projector, the Christie CP2000, as well as a Christie Roadster HD18K three-chip DLP projector to demonstrate technological advancements on the digital front. An annual convention of theatre owners, ShowCanada is hosting more than 700 delegates from Canada's Motion Picture Theatre Industry, including representatives from the exhibition, distribution and production sectors, as well as Canada’s major theatre circuits and independent owners/operators.



The event is being held April 24-27 in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada. Digital presentations include previews of upcoming Hollywood features such as the latest movie version of the Broadway smash hit, “Hairspray”, distributed in Canada by Alliance Atlantis* Motion Picture Distribution LP. Director Adam Shankman and principle actors Nikki Blonsky and Elijah Kelley will be present for a live performance with clips from the feature to be released on July 20, 2007. 3D technology will also play a major role at ShowCanada. REAL D will utilize the Christie CP2000 to show footage of new products for cinema screens employing REAL D 3D technology. REAL D is the world's leading digital 3D experience provider, with more than 700 screens worldwide – 67% of which feature Christie DLP Cinema projectors.



The company will show clips from the new Disney 3D animated feature, “Meet the Robinsons”, 3D rock concerts featuring U2, sporting events, and gaming opportunities, all of which offer exhibitors exciting and competitive new revenue streams. Adina Lebo, executive director of the Motion Picture Theatre Associations of Canada, which organizes ShowCanada, noted that the event will welcome such industry leaders as Julian Levin, Twentieth Century Fox EVP of digital exhibition and non-theatrical sales and distribution, who will discuss the opportunities and challenges for theatre owners as Digital Cinema becomes increasingly popular.



National Association of Theater Owners president and CEO John Fithian will participate in a panel on new digital captioning technologies. “ShowCanada offers a unique and exceptional opportunity for theatre owners to learn about the latest industry trends and technological advancements that can help them maximize their revenue streams,” said Lebo. “Christie has always been a strong supporter of ShowCanada. With the brightest and most powerful Digital Cinema projectors on the market, Christie plays an integral role in presentations by digital content and technology providers such as REAL D.” “ShowCanada represents an important vehicle for the best of Canada’s creative cinema leaders and service providers to present their products to a receptive audience, including many of North America’s most influential cinema leaders,” said Craig Sholder, vice-president of Entertainment Solutions at Christie. “It is a fitting place for the Christie CP2000 DLP Cinema projector and Christie Roadster, which are manufactured here in Kitchener. We are proud to be a sponsor of this important industry event.”