Arts

Famous People Players Needs Support For New Home. Slapped with huge bill by City of Toronto.   
July 2009

En-vi-sion: To picture in the mind; imagine what’s possible. Over the past two years, women living with disabilities and physical differences have taken part in “Envisioning New Meanings of Disability and Difference,” a series of arts-based workshops across Ontario that use the power of image and story to transform the way people see difference.   
May 2009

Photography is about communication. When I started shooting pictures, it was to ease my sense of homesickness. It was the mid-1990s, a few years after I’d left my studies at St. Xavier University and followed my older brother from our home province of Nova Scotia to Toronto to pursue a career in music. (I’d begun playing the bass guitar at age 12.)   
By Paul Vienneau
May 2008

Would you pay to watch a movie about homeless men who race stolen shopping carts? It may sound like an unlikely premise for a film, but it’s the focus of Carts of Darkness, a documentary that’s wowed critics and audiences in Vancouver and Toronto, and is poised to become an international hit. It’s also director Murray Siple’s first film since he sustained a spinal cord injury in a car accident in 1996.  
By Jaclyn Law
May 2008

All her life, Jayne Dinsmore harboured a secret desire that even some of her closest friends didn't suspect. “Ever since I was a little kid,” she says, “I’d wanted to be a singer. But I was so shy, I couldn’t even do karaoke!”  
By Ron Forbes-Roberts
March 2008

One snowy Saturday in February, visitors to The Back Nine Club, a restaurant and bar in downtown Fredericton, New Brunswick, were in for a real treat – an old-fashioned kitchen party complete with live bands, fiddlers and highland dancing. It was all part of Music Nova Scotia’s three-day showcase of acclaimed local talent, and this afternoon of Celtic music was one of the hottest tickets in town during the 2008 East Coast Music Awards.  
By Stephen Pate
March 2008

Acting is a tough line of work to get into, but for actors with disabilities, breaking into the business is fraught with even more challenges. Although 4.4 million Canadians – one in seven people – has a disability, we’re conspicuously absent from popular media. When we do appear, it’s often in roles that are stereotypical or degrading.  
By Scott Bremner
March 2008

Artists and art lovers converged at The Abilities Arts Festival: A Celebration of Disability Arts and Culture, held from October 25 to November 4 in Toronto. The 10- day showcase of dance, theatre, photography and visual art was a smashing success, and it gave artists with disabilities an opportunity to share their unique perspective.  
December 2007

Since before the beginning of recorded history, people have made useful and beautiful articles out of wood using simple tools. Woodworking is enjoyable, creative and (sometimes) profitable. I’ve taught woodworking for over 30 years. I’m always sad when a fellow woodworker gives up after an accident or illness, and I’m even sadder when I meet people who won’t try woodworking because they think their physical disabilities make it impossible.   
By Joshua Brown
September 2007

It's a special night at the legendary Yuk Yuk's comedy club in Toronto. In a bid to win cash prizes, dozens of comedians take turns entertaining the audience, trying to outdo each other. The competition is fierce, and every punch line fills the crowded room with bursts of laughter.  
By Aaron Broverman
April 2007

A key focus of the CulturAll project is to explore the common challenges of individuals and groups who have been left out of the Canadian cultural exchange, and to find promising solutions and best practices. Perhaps you've been to a concert or watched a video online. Did you hear it all? See it all? Understand it all? Can we really have it all? What is that "all" exactly? When the lyrics, whispers and visual moments are not as open to us as we'd like them to be, what do we do? We want more than just a partial experience we want the full impact of art, drama, music and culture.   
By Vera Roberts and Charles Silverman
November 2006

The Marsha Forest Centre (MFC) collaborates to build a society where contribution, membership and belonging bring meaning and quality to each of our lives. By pursuing questions of community, social justice, family and inclusion, the Centre creates, develops and researches resources that make a difference in nurturing full lives, without isolation, for all citizens. This past year, four new resources were added to our materials — strategies for teachers, students and families that make a difference.   
By Lynda D. Khan and Jack Pearpoint
September 2006

  
August 2006

  
By Lisa Bendall
August 2006

  
By Sharon Wachsler
August 2006

  
By Charles Silverman
August 2006

  
By Samhhavi Chandrashekar and Leesa Levinson
August 2006

  
By Miguel A. Zapata
May 2006

  
By Lynne Swanson
February 2006

  
By Jaclyn Law and Jutta Treviranus
February 2006