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You Are Invited: Words Partners with Embassy Cultural House!

11/2/2022

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Words: The Literary and Creative Arts Festival returns to Museum London for the 9th annual festival, featuring a hybrid program of onsite and online events to build resilience as we confront what divides us. We are very pleased to partner with Words to highlight London's finest artists, performers, and authors.
 
Taking place throughout November of 2022, the festival will host over 40 writers and artists and will revolve around the theme of “Bridging Divides."
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​Words is open to everyone, and most events are either free or pay as you can. In partnership with Words, we're pleased to host 2021 Giller Prize Winner Omar El Akkad at the November 4th kickoff, as well as many more feature authors! We are also pleased to feature a conversation between Omar El Akkad and Salah Hassan. On Saturday afternoon, 5th of November, Words will also host a performance with ECH Contributors Lorraine Klaasen and Frank Ridsdale!
 
Words has an exciting lineup of readings, interviews, talks, and other interactive events with some of Canada’s most recognized thinkers, writers, and artists. While some events are either strictly online or onsite, the majority have a hybrid option for in-person or online participation! Click the appropriate registration links below to join us!

Partnership Events with Words: 

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Embassy Cultural House (ECH) and the Words Festival are pleased to present a visit with award-winning novelist and journalist Omar El Akkad, in conversation with ECH Contributor and Michigan State University Professor Salah Hassan! You can join us FREE on-site or online.
 
Omar El Akkad is an award-winning novelist and journalist. In 2021, he received Canada’s most prestigious literary award, the Scotiabank Giller Prize, for What Strange Paradise. His first novel American War (2017), was also widely acclaimed. What Strange Paradise is the story of a Syrian boy whose family flees the war, seeking refugee first in Egypt than in Europe. The boy’s perilous journey across the Mediterranean, represents the plight of many Arab, Asian, and African refugees.
 
Omar will join Salah to talk about his journalism and fiction.


Register on EventBrite to Attend In-Person Free
Register to Attend Online Free: Zoom Webinars
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Embassy Cultural House (ECH) and the Words Festival are pleased to present an afternoon performance featuring Juno Award-winning singer Lorraine Klaasen and London legend Frank Ridsdale. Register to join us onsite at Museum London!

Lorraine Klaasen is a South African born singer/performer and a 2013 Canadian JUNO Award winner. She is also a member of the ECH Advisory Circle. In 2020, The Forest City London Music Award (FCLMA) was presented to Lorraine in the category of World Music. She has been performing and recording music in Canada for over 30 years and she’s also conducted music workshops in schools all over Canada, the Caribbean and the United States. Her outreach program focuses on South African music, arts and culture with an emphasis on how immigrant cultures have enriched Canada.
 
Frank Ridsdale has been performing and writing songs since he was 14 years old. In 1977, along with Jack Whiteside, he formed Uranus, a rock’n’roll/rock-a-billy band that scored #3 position on some Canadian AM radio charts in 1980 with the title single from their debut album, “You’re So Square." He is the recipient of numerous Jack Richardson Music awards in various categories and was inducted into the London City Music Hall of Fame along with the other members of Uranus in 2017. He now performs regularly with the bands Stetson Brothers and Slugfest and also does solo work.


Register on EventBrite to Attend In-Person Free

Events featuring ECH Contributors and Friends:

​Featuring ECH Advisory Circle Members Dan and Mary Lou Smoke:
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Register on EventBrite to Attend In-Person Free
Register to Attend Online Free: Zoom Webinars
Featuring ECH Contributor Lewis Williams:
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Register on EventBrite to Attend In-Person Free
Register to Attend Online Free: Zoom Webinars
Featuring ECH Contributor Diana Tamblyn:
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Register to Attend Online Free: Zoom Webinars
​Featuring ECH Contributor Matthew Dawkins:
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Are you a poetry aficionado in London? Would you like to read your poetry at Words? Join us for Poetry Live!, an evening of open mic poetry at Words, with host and moderator Matthew Dawkins!
 
Everyone is welcome to join us for an evening of poetry, literary trivia, food and drinks as part of the Words Festival! Over the course of the evening, our host extraordinaire, Matthew Dawkins, will open the floor to poets of all shapes, sizes, and varieties!
 
Please register on EventBrite to let us know you're interested in reading and attending.

Register here to reserve your spot

We hope to see you this November at Museum London!
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Canadian artist Tom Benner leaves behind legacy of iconic work, including London's beloved “White Rhino"

9/25/2022

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Tom Benner (left) in his studio with his brother Ron Benner in front of Tom's recent sculpture, "Polar Bear," 2019 (in progress in Tom’s studio). Photo Credit Tariq Hassan Gordon, January 2019.
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Tom Benner's “White Rhino" (1986) sculpture with a black armband in honour of his passing. Photo Credit: Jamelie Hassan on Wednesday, September 21, 2022.
With great sadness, we share the news of the passing of Canadian artist Tom Benner, who died at home in London, Ontario, on September 21, 2022, at age 72. 
 
Tom is well known in London for his iconic White Rhino, from 1985-86, a metal sculpture installed on the grounds of Museum London. His work often signaled the tension between humans, non-humans, and the environment. While using a range of materials and processes, he presciently created large-scale sculptures of endangered species that engaged with a broad public and raised awareness of the climate crisis we presently face. It is no exaggeration that Tom Benner's White Rhino is this city's most beloved public artwork.

In 1990, Tom Benner presented a solo exhibition at the ECH. The exhibition was a series of works titled “The Coves" and was organized by Doug Mitchell. Among other works in the collection of Museum London is the powerful Hanging Fin (Whale) sculpture from 1983.

In honour of Tom, Embassy Cultural House co-founder and artist Ron Benner (brother of Tom Benner) has placed a black armband on the White Rhino to commemorate Tom's passing. 
 
ECH joins with many individuals and institutions to commemorate Tom and to celebrate his life and work and the many important connections he made within our communities in Canada and internationally.
 
In memory of Tom, the Embassy Cultural House has made a donation to the recently inaugurated New School of the Anthropocene based in London, UK. 
 
For recent news on the passing of Tom, please visit these articles.

CBC: Canadian artist Tom Benner, known for eye-catching animal sculptures, dead at 72
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Museum London: Tom Benner (1950-2022)
 
We have set up a tribute page here.
 
With love and solidarity, 
The ECH Team
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Tariq Hassan Gordon receives the Governor-General’s Operational Service Medal

7/6/2022

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The Embassy Cultural House is pleased to share this outstanding news!

Congratulations to Tariq Hassan Gordon on receiving the Governor-General’s Operational Service Medal on July 1, 2022, for his sup
port to the Canadian Armed Forces. He received the medal from Brigadier-General Wade Rutland, Commander of Joint Task Force – OP IMPACT, during the Canada Day celebrations at the Camp Canada base in Kuwait.
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Brigadier-General Wade Rutland presenting the Operational Service Medal (OSA) to Tariq Hassan Gordon, Kuwait, July 1, 2022
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The Operational Service Medal (OSM)
This expeditionary medal recognizes Canadian public servants who have supported the CAF in dangerous operations overseas. Approximately 30 civilians received this award for service in Iraq between 2014 and 2022. It was particularly special to receive the medal with Canada's Ambassador to Kuwait, Aliya Mawani, in attendance at the award ceremony. Ambassador Mawani was with Tariq on his first trip to Iraq in December 2009.
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Tariq Hassan Gordon and Canadian Ambassador to Kuwait, Aliya Mawani, July 1, 2022
Tariq is the founder and coordinating editor of the Embassy Cultural House's online project and launched this cultural community-based initiative in 2020 at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. He is a Canadian career diplomat, and as First Secretary (Political), Tariq was most recently posted to Kuwait and to Iraq. His career at Global Affairs Canada began in 2004, and he has served in many countries around the world.

Tariq, we are all so happy that you are coming home safely. We look forward to seeing you soon.
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From the Archives: “War, Media and The New World Order" by David Tomas, 1991

5/18/2022

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War, Media, and The New World Order ​poster by David Tomas (1950 - 2019) for the fax and photocopy exhibition at The Centre International d’Art Contemporain de Montréal (CIAC), 1991. Image Courtesy of the Estate of David Tomas.

This poster is from an anti-war exhibition held in Montréal in 1991, which David Tomas and Jamelie Hassan organized together with scholars Jody Berland and Will Straw in response to the the first Gulf War - Operation Desert Storm. Dave was a Montreal-based artist and had strong connections with London artists including Kim Moodie, Jamelie Hassan and Ron Benner throughout the 1980's and early 1990's. He also was included in the international project Travelling Theory co-curated by Fern Bayer and Jamelie Hassan, which was held at the Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts in Amman, Jordan and the McIntosh Gallery at Western University in London, Ontario, Canada in 1991.

David Tomas’ poster was inspired by the iconic painting, “The Scream” by Norwegian artist Edvard Munch, 1893.

Response from the ECH community:

Thanks for sharing this image. I remember that exhibit so well. There was a lot of political mobilization in Montréal in 1990-1991. The siege of Kanesatake happened in summer 1990. Caravans of activists traveled to Oka daily to support the Mohawk resistance. Dave had done a video piece that addressed “the Oka crisis.” Less than a year later, protests against Operation Desert Storm filled Boulevard René-Lévesque in Montréal in Spring 1991. The post-cold war era began with those acts of state violence. The conditions set in motion in those years have continued over the last 30 years, with what seems to be ever-increasing death and destruction. 
 
Even as his work looked back to the 19th and early 20th century, Dave was very much aware of the historical moment of the late 20th century and early 21st century. He was attentive to nuance, discerning in his assessment of situations, and a great conversationalist. One of our first talks was in London at your studio  [Jamelie Hassan] in the late 1980s. I don’t know if he was in London for Edward Said’s Tamblyn Lectures at Western, or if he was part of a show in London. 
 
I also recall on a visit to London or Toronto in the late 1980s going to an opening and seeing one of his pieces on exhibit that was a labyrinth of texts, quotations from Foucault and other theorists. We had a good long discussion about the piece that in my memory was cryptic, opaque, and perplexing;  I could not fully grasp what the work was doing, but sensed that Dave wanted to push the limits of signification and perception.
 
He was an erudite scholar as well as an artist, who like you [Jamelie Hassan] and Ron [Benner] read widely across the disciplines. His work tended toward the scientific, theoretical, technical, and in some ways so did his personality. He had a remarkable calmness, even when we disagreed. This drawing for the poster in some ways stands in contrast to how I remember his art, but is evocative of his critical relationship to art history. 
 
He was always very generous and showed a genuine interest in my graduate studies at McGill during the late 1980s, when I think that he was just finishing his PhD.  He also was encouraging when he learned that I was going to the University of Texas to do my PhD with Barbara Harlow. Before leaving Montréal for Austin in August 1992, I visited Dave a few times at his home in the Vieux Port. I never saw him again after that summer. 
 
Warmly,
Salah D. Hassan
Director of Global Studies in the Arts and Humanities Program
​at Michigan State University, Lansing, MI, USA

Received May 19, 2022


Editor's note: David Tomas' video on the 1990 Oka crisis is titled Rum and Coca-Cola, 1992,
​17 minutes, English and French, distributed by V Tape, Toronto

For more information on David Tomas' life and work, please visit his website here. 
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Journalist Sarah Kendzior to release third book “THEY KNEW"

4/27/2022

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On September 13, 2022, award-winning author and journalist Sarah Kendzior's third book They Knew: How a Culture of Conspiracy Keeps America Complacent is set to be released. 
They Knew discusses conspiracy culture in a rapidly declining United States struggling with corruption, climate change, and other crises. As the actions of the powerful remain shrouded in mystery – like the Jeffrey Epstein operation – it is unsurprising that people turn to conspiracy theories to fill the informational void.  (MacMillan Publishers)
Sarah Kendzior's second book, Hiding in Plain Sight: The Invention of Donald Trump and the Erosion of America was the primary inspiration for the Embassy Cultural House's first online group exhibition of the same name, which was programmed and launched at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. On October 30, 2020, Sarah Kendzior attended the launch and participated in celebrating this landmark Embassy Cultural House event. ​
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For more information on the book, please click here. 
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Samer Abdelnour speaks out on LCBO's erasure of Palestine

4/24/2022

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ECH Advisory Circle member, Samer Abdelnour, Professor at the University of Edinburgh Business School, speaks out against the Liquor Control Board of Ontario's recent erasure of the words "Of Palestine" on the original label of Taybeh Winery.

Dear ⁦@LCBO⁩ — can you please explain this incredibly offensive sticker covering “of Palestine” on the bottle of #Taybeh wine I ordered? pic.twitter.com/a5eW1o4d5C

— Samer Abdelnour (@SamerAbdelnour) April 19, 2022

​This statement by Samer, and his comments on CBC are a powerful reminder of the ongoing violence and occupation occurring in Palestine. In the article, he highlights the reason for the fraught relationship between Canada and Palestine:
"It really reflects a deep settler-colonial insecurity when even mentioning Palestine is deemed a threat."
To read more about this issue, and the response from the LCBO and CIFA (Canadian Food Inspection Agency), please read the full CBC article by Sara Jabakhanji. 
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Sheri Cowan's Local Print Series

4/8/2022

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We are delighted to share the work of London artist, Sheri Cowan, who has painted an image of the original Embassy Hotel marquee. The Embassy Cultural House was located in the Embassy Hotel between 1983 and 1990. The original photo print is by Jane Bradley which Sheri has hand-embellished with acrylic paint on archival paper.

This artwork is part of a series that depicts local storefronts, signage and vintage objects. Alongside the Embassy Hotel, Sheri has painted the facades of many other London cultural landmarks, including Call the Office and Prince Albert's Diner (both closed as of 2021). 

Beginning her career with 15 years as a graphic designer, Sheri Cowan has been a practicing artist for over 25 years. Thank you Sheri for this tribute to the legendary Embassy Hotel, a London east landmark and 
an image of a bygone but not forgotten era.

To buy greeting cards and prints from this series, please visit Museum London or shop online, 
here. 
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Lorraine Klaasen is back in concert!

3/19/2022

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Juno award-winning performer and ECH Advisory Circle Member Lorraine Klaasen has returned to in-person, live performances! We are happy to share news of her upcoming concert Sounds of the Township  with Alliance Française Toronto.

The event will be presented in partnership with Batuki Music Society and will take place on April 23 at 9:00 PM at the Spadina Theatre in Toronto. 

For more information about the event, please visit this link: https://www.alliance-francaise.ca/en/art/2021-2022-season/events/concertsen2021/sounds-of-the-township-featuring-lorraine-klaasen-en 
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BUY TICKETS HERE
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“Ask Euan" - Contributor Euan Tait presents a new monthly column on embassyculturalhouse.ca!

3/17/2022

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As the pandemic continues into a third year, in the midst of multiple global, political and social crises, the Embassy Cultural House recognizes the deep importance of mental health and wellness ​at this time. In collaboration with Euan Tait, a candidate in MA Counselling Psychology at Western University, our local international ECH community are encouraged to write to Euan for advice:
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Do you feel like your own harshest critic? Is your artistic practice suffering, sapping you of joy or starting to feel like a friend you’ve lost touch with? Do you have any tricky, complex or simply baffling questions about life, mental health or anything? 
 
Try writing to Ask Euan, a future mental health professional with years of community mental health experience. If your question is selected you can expect a kind and reflective response to appear in the monthly publishing of this column. To ask a question, please send an email to embassyculturalhouse@gmail.com. All emails and questions will remain anonymous. 

The advice offered in this column is intended for informational purposes only. Use of this column not intended to replace or substitute for any professional, financial, medical, legal, or other professional advice. If you have specific concerns or a situation in which you require professional, psychological or medical help, you should consult with an appropriately trained and qualified specialist. The opinions or views expressed in this column are not intended to treat or diagnose; nor are they meant to replace the treatment and care that you may be receiving from a licensed professional, physician or mental health professional. This column, its author, the newspaper and publisher are not responsible for the outcome or results of following any advice in any given situation. You, and only you, are completely responsible for your actions. 

​If you require mental health and wellness support,  Euan recommends the resources below:
 
Reach Out, 519-433-2023 or 1-866-933-2023, or web chat at http://reachout247.ca/ with a mental health and addictions professional who can provide information, resources and crisis support (London, Middlesex, Oxford and Elgin counties)
 
Good 2 Talk (1.866.925.5454)
Post-Secondary Student Helpline—free, professional and anonymous support for students in Ontario—24/7/365
 
For other areas in Ontario, use https://www.connexontario.ca/en-ca/
 
Or use https://togetherall.com/en-ca/ an Online Mental Health Peer Support Community 
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Statement of Support for Ukraine

3/12/2022

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The Embassy Cultural House team expresses our profound grief and anger, joining others in the arts and culture community, in condemning Russian President Vladimir Putin's aggression and war against Ukraine and the Ukrainian people. Putin's invasion and occupation are a denial of the legitimacy of Ukraine's existence as a sovereign state.  Our hearts go out to the families of all, Ukrainians and Russians, who have already been killed, injured or displaced. The United Nations has estimated that approximately 2.5 million people have been uprooted from their homes and fled into neighbouring countries. The calls for a ceasefire and a stop to Putin's war are reverberating around the world. 
 
Larry Towell, an ECH contributor, recently reminded us in an email (received March 10, 2022) that, Florence Nightingale in 1854 travelled to Scutari Hospital in Istanbul, Turkey, the base for the British military 
“due to the news reports of the suffering of wounded and sick soldiers who had no clean bandages, pain killers, nor sanitation… which started the Red Cross. The Crimean War was the first war ever reported on by independent journalism."

We encourage our community to consider a contribution to the international humanitarian response by donating to Doctors Without Borders (MSF) or the Canadian Red Cross’ Ukraine Humanitarian Crisis Appeal. Canadians have already matched the Government of Canada $30 million pledge as of March 4, 2022. 

Please visit the following links for more information:

Statement by CARFAC

Art Canada Institute's recent focus on Canadian artists of Ukrainian background

With Russia pressing on and Ukraine digging in, how will Putin's war actually end? 


“If They Are Crushed, It Will Be Temporary”: What One War Photographer Has Learned From Documenting the Conflict in Ukraine

Holding Russia to Account for War Crimes in Ukraine

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Photo Credit: Larry Towell, Maidan Uprising, February 2014, Kiev, Ukraine
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Carole Condé and Karl Beveridge named 2022 Governor General's Award Winners in Visual and Media Arts

3/4/2022

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The Embassy Cultural House extends our sincere congratulations to Carole Condé and Karl Beveridge, recipients of the 2022 Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts. Since 2020, Carole and Karl have generously contributed to the Embassy Cultural House's projects which have inspired discussions and continue to enrich our community. This 2022 GG Arts Award recognizes their decades of cultural work and activism, and is well-deserved as they continue to create provocative and collaborative work.  
At the core of their artistic practice is a steadfast commitment to represent and give voice to a diversity of class, race, gender, community and labour perspectives. - Nominator Dot Tuer: writer, curator and professor, OCAD University
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Carole’s Garden, 2021, Carole Condé and Karl Beveridge's contribution to ECH's Pandemic Gardens. The creation of this recent work is featured in the GG Arts Portrait Video.  
Click to view the 2022 GG Award Winners in Visual and Media Arts
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Remembering Tony Urquhart (1934 - 2022) CM RCA LL.D

3/1/2022

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The Embassy Cultural House is saddened to share the news of the passing of Tony Urquhart. We celebrate his life and work through a thoughtful contribution by ECH Advisory Member, Judith Rodger. 
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Memories of Tony Urquhart
By Judith Rodger


(Left) Urquhart in his studio, 2007. Unknown photographer, with permission from the Elora Centre for the Arts
One of the most memorable experiences of my career was a day in 1994 that I spent with Tony Urquhart.  We met in his large studio overlooking a pond at his home in Wellesley, Ontario. Our goal was to choose works on paper that would be donated to Museum London. We went through his collection of thousands of drawings from every stage of his career. Urquhart’s practice included daily drawing. Some of these drawings were worked on over days or even years. They often incorporated other media such as watercolour, oil, and collage, but always began with pen and ink.  When we chose the work from 1948, Stage Coach,  Tony showed me a small book, Canada’s Past in Pictures, written and illustrated with ink drawings by C. W. Jefferys. This book, given to him as a child, was the source of his interest in drawing, he explained. Later works showed the influence of his extensive travels through foreign landscapes, but many of the drawings depicted imaginary places. Still others were working drawings for his inimitable box sculptures.
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At the end of the day, we had selected over fifty works from 1948 to 1993.  The conversation was lively, and fascinating. Tony’s passionate approach to drawing was evident as he described each work. However, unassuming as he was, he never mentioned that two of his drawings had been added to the collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1961. Eventually, in 2006, he would see one of these drawings displayed in an exhibition along the same wall as works by Paul Cézanne, Barnet Newman, Gerhard Richter, and André Derain to name a few. I can imagine how happy he must have been to stand in front of these works.  An installation photo is available here. 

Some years later I remember his eyes twinkling as he recalled that when he was artist-in-residence at the McIntosh Gallery at Western University in the 1960s, he had initiated the purchase of drawings for the McIntosh collection. Though the budget was small, over the next few years, there was enough to develop a small, but choice collection of drawings by Alex Colville, L. L. Fitzgerald, A. Y. Jackson, Greg Curnoe, F. H. Varley, Bernice Vincent. Paddy Gunn O’Brien, Horatio Walker, and Christiane Pflug among others. 
I first met Tony in November 1970, when he gave a tour of his retrospective exhibition, Reunion, at the London Art Gallery on Queens Avenue. I remember being captivated by his box sculptures and drawings, as I listened to his tales of the ideas behind the works. Over the years we met many times, encounters with Tony were always delightful and stimulating. I was privileged to have known him.

- Judith Rodger

For more information on his life and work, please visit these links to the websites of Museum London and The McIntosh Gallery.
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Statement on the Occupation of Ottawa

2/21/2022

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The Embassy Cultural House (ECH) applauds and supports Zexi Li, a resident of Centretown, Ottawa, who has courageously brought a court injunction against the actions of the illegal occupiers of downtown Ottawa, over the “suffering and sound torture" caused by the use of truck horns blaring 24/7 and other disruptions and intimidation.

Zexi Li's courage has continued with a $306 million class-action lawsuit against the organizing participants in the “Freedom Convoy" who can only be described as transnational criminals in their illegal occupation of the city of Ottawa.

Please watch this interview with Zexi Li on CBC:

Ottawa resident says locals were 'suffering' under convoy occupation


This ECH statement of support also acknowledges all of the other residents of Ottawa who organized blockades, on Cooper Street and at Bank St. and Riverside Drive, to stop more trucks and vehicles from entering the downtown area.

There is a fund-raising campaign to support the class-action lawsuit: The Ottawa Fund. The ECH urges all those who are able to support Zexi Li and the people of Centretown, Ottawa.

See articles in the Ottawa Citizen on the women organizing to
“Stop the Occupation" of Ottawa and an article by Archana Rampuse on Feb. 14 on rabble.ca: From the frontlines: Ottawa community blocks trucks headed for downtown convoy. Also: ByWard Market, Sandy Hill residents join class-action suit and Meet the 21-year-old Ottawa woman behind the injunction that silenced the honking.

Important statement from Ottawa Cultural Organizations:

https://oaggao.ca/whats-on/news/ottawa-local-arts-organizations-united-statement-on-freedom-convoy/

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From CBC: London Morning with Rebecca Zandbergen

2/6/2022

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Rebecca Zandbergen
The Embassy Cultural House is pleased to share an interview with one of our contributing editors and artists Anahi Gonzalez, from CBC's Rebecca Zandbergen. 

Please click the button bellow to listen. 
Many of our farms wouldn't survive without the help of migrant workers.
​
Anahi Gonzalez is a visual artist at Western University who is exploring themes of Mexican labour using fruit pallets. "
Listen here
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From CBC: New Black Community Library in London, Ontario, will include 600 books

2/2/2022

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The Embassy Cultural House is happy to share the news of a new Black Community Public Library that is set to open in London, Ontario. 

To learn more, please click the link below to read the recent CBC article by Isha Bhargava. 
A new Black Community Public Library is launching in London, Ont., at the end of January, featuring books of various genres written by Black authors from Canada and around the world.  

The Where We Are Now (WEAN) Community Centre is hosting the library and aims to highlight the contributions of Black authors while creating a space for readers from marginalized communities.
 
​WEAN's founder and CEO Pastor Sandie Thomas said that growing up as a Black person, she always wondered why her community's stories weren't displayed in libraries. 

"There's no representation of who we are, and it's always in the back of your head that 'did we not do anything? Where are our stories?'" she said.

Thomas said she was inspired by the work Maya Angelou, the American poet she discovered in adulthood.   
​

"It really inspired me to let me know that we have these spaces, and there are books written about us and stories that need to be told about us," she added.  

This is a collaboration project between WEAN, the London Public Library and Western University."
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE
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Celebrating the ECH Partnership with Brown and Dickson Bookstore

1/28/2022

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The Embassy Cultural House is happy to share this recent testimonial of Brown and Dickson Bookstore written by ECH Co-founder and Curatorial Advisor Jamelie Hassan. Brown and Dickson Bookstore is located in London, ON and has partnered with the ECH through the Cloud to Street program. In addition, both Vanessa Brown and Jason Dickson are also contributing members of the Embassy Cultural House. Check out their lovely bookstore online or in-person! 
​Vanessa Brown and Jason Dickson, the owners of Brown & Dickson Bookstore, have nurtured a sustained relationship with the individuals that make up the communities of London, Ontario. In my independent artist capacity, I have enjoyed their friendship and been witness to their creative endeavours years before the opening of their bookstore.

More recently, Brown & Dickson Bookstore is one of the Embassy Cultural House’s (ECH) community partners and we have had the opportunity to work together building our network of contributors. 

Our collective ECH work extends to the presentation of storefront exhibitions in our "Cloud to Street" program - especially significant during the COVID-19 pandemic - giving artists a safe context for audiences to view their art. Writing and publishing projects have also been a part of our work and made it possible to reach beyond local audiences. With its original emphasis on Canadian writing and art and distributing of artists’ catalogues, the Brown & Dickson Bookstore has a very unique energy and focus. Vanessa and Jason's individual creative practice, combined with their commitments to supporting experimental art and writing, has led to the bookstore being recognized as a cultural hub in the city.  Fondly, I remember my enjoyable walks from our studio to the bookstore on Richmond Street with Karla, our family dog, was a very welcome break from my work routine. There, Karla, a shy Saluki, would be coaxed into the store by Jason or Vanessa and eventually found a relaxed companionship with Snakkers, the bookstore's resident dog. 


For all of our team at the Embassy Cultural House, Brown & Dickson Bookstore represents the best example of a bookstore any city could wish for - welcoming to artists, writers and book lovers and especially for all those who are passionate about the word independent!

- Jamelie Hassan, January 2022

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Photo credit: Ron Benner
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Skinner Architects: Susan Day’s Mosaic Facade House

1/25/2022

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The infill home at 8 Henry Street, South of Horton (SoHo), London, Ontario, celebrates urban renewal with a contemporary design in a distinctive, downtown neighbourhood. The house marks a collaboration between architect, Bradley Skinner and ceramic artist, Susan Day, whose mosaic installations are represented on murals throughout the city. The impulse to live closer to her downtown studio prompted the move. To view more work by Susan Day, please visit her instagram @susandayceramics. 
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Click here for more
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ECH returns with Pandemic Gardens!

1/17/2022

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The Embassy Cultural House presents, Pandemic Gardens: Resilience Through Nature, the first online exhibition of 2022.

Pandemic Gardens is an international and interdisciplinary group exhibition organized by Ron Benner and Rachel MacGillivray, with the assistance of JoAnna Weil,  Jamelie Hassan, and Olivia Mossuto. The exhibition explores artworks, coping mechanisms, community engagements and the resilience of the human spirit during the pandemic, through the ways in which people have engaged with gardens and nature. 
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An online zoom launch scheduled for February 5th at 1 PM EST will celebrate the work of Pandemic Gardens. More details will be announced soon. In the meantime, please enjoy this timely programming by clicking the poster or the link below. 
VIEW THE EXHIBITION
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Embassy Cultural House Winter Break!

12/22/2021

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Dear Embassy Cultural House community,

Please be advised that the team at the Embassy Cultural House will be away for the winter holidays until January 12, 2022. We will return to our regularly scheduled cultural programming in the new year. 

We are happy to share this image of the 2021 winter solstice in London, Ontario by Judith Rodger long-time arts and culture advocate, writer, curator and member of ECH's advisory circle. 

Wishing everyone at home and abroad, a safe, healthy, and happy holiday season! 

The Team at Embassy Cultural House 
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Embassy Cultural House partners with Wordsfest: The Creative and Literary Arts Festival

11/14/2021

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In partnership with Wordsfest is the fourth installment of Sleepwalking: Embassy Cultural House stands with Hong Kong. In-conversation is ECH members Bob Black and Yam Lau with esteemed guests Wu'er Kaixi and Scott Savitt on November 20, 2021 at 7PM. 
Free Zoom Registration
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In addition, The Embassy Cultural House and the Words Festival is pleased to welcome acclaimed author Shani Mootoo, who will join artist Richard Fung to talk about her work and recent novel Polar Vortex. The conversation will take place on November 25, 2021 at 7PM on Zoom. To sign up for the talk, please hit the link below! 
FREE ZOOM REGISTRATION
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Queer Cinema for Palestine has launched!

11/12/2021

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Queer Cinema for Palestine (QCP) will open its virtual and physical doors for a collectively-curated 10-day film festival celebrating global queer realities and standing in solidarity with Palestinians.

QCP will run from 11-20 November and host more than a dozen events across five continents, both online and in person. QCP is a first-time global queer solidarity initiative that offers a vibrant space using art and culture to oppose the ongoing violence of Israeli apartheid.

LAND/TRUST:
​A Conversation across Turtle Island and Palestine

Presented by Embassy Cultural House in co-operation with Dar Jacir; grunt gallery; Queer Caucus at Western University, London Ontario; Woodland Cultural Centre
In this powerful screening and panel, filmmakers Indigenous to Turtle Island and filmmakers from Palestine share how they negotiate complex and intersecting relationships to land, home, queerness, labour, art-making, and representation. This program features a land acknowledgement presented by Layla Black and a panel with filmmakers Qais Assali, Justin Ducharme, Whess Harman, and Rana Nazzal, moderated by Wanda Nanibush.
WATCH NOW
Videos in English or Arabic with English subtitles. Land acknowledgement in Mohawk with English subtitles. Closed captioned for deaf and hard-of-hearing audiences in English. 
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TO DISSENT opens at ECH/Support Project Space!

11/7/2021

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The Embassy Cultural House is happy to announce the third installment of Sleepwalking: Embassy Cultural House stands with Hong Kong. The exhibition marks the first in-person event of the series. Please email embassyculturalhouse@gmail.com to book an appointment. 
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不應有恨,何事長向別時圓?

Bearing no grudge,
Why does the moon tend to be full when people are apart?


Su Shi 蘇軾 / Dongpo 東坡(1037-1101)

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Dissent can be (and has been) expressed in the form of unlawful gatherings, attendance of banned vigils, smuggling of illicit literature, overt acts of sedition and encouraging subversion amongst youth. Dissent can be (and has been) expressed through the fight for political and cultural sovereignty, gathering and mourning for lives lost, selling books, exercising freedom of speech and the intentioned fight for democracy. 

In this group exhibition, objects and gestures seek to enact the possibility of alternatives - to differ in feeling and sentiment from powerful minorities and elites. The works interrogate a status quo that exists in environments bound by both red tape and white cubes. The works explore un-official currency and an end to capital, visual dissent within art and the art historical, quiet performances in place of national vigils and the rendering of identity by autonomous participation. Within the space, the public is invited to contribute to a Lennon Wall - once conceived in Prague, and adopted by Hong Kong as a way of anonymously sharing overt political messages. 

The idea for this physical exhibition began with Andy Patton’s 2011 painting entitled “Dissent”, which he emailed to me as a response to the event series Sleepwalking: Embassy Cultural House stands with Hong Kong in which the show To Dissent takes place. Through his act of solidarity, the support of recognized and anonymous artists in Canada and Hong Kong, and the support of the broader Embassy Cultural House community, this project would not have been possible. Exhibiting artists include Bob Black, Chun Hua Catherine Dong, Jamelie Hassan, Yam Lau, Petrina Ng, Andy Patton, and two very important, anonymous artists/organizers. 
Singer-songwriter Frank Ridsdale will also be performing his single “Hold on Hong Kong” live at Support Project Space on November 17, 2021. 

It is across boundary lines and fraught political spheres that we have all come together to reflect on Hong Kong - to consider its past, present and future. 

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The poster for the show acknowledges the great efforts of a few famous dissent-ers. The use of the sign is an homage to the Causeway Bay booksellers, who were arrested and disappeared for selling books. 



Thank you to all of the contributing artists and writers in this exhibition. A special thanks to angel investors Ron Benner, Jamelie Hassan and Franca Mossuto who have supported this curatorial initiative. 
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Sowing Clay opens up at Support Project Space!

10/22/2021

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Following Embassy Cultural House's international exhibition Intercambio, is Sowing Clay - curated and led by ECH and GardenShip members Paul Chartrand and Michelle Wilson from October 20th to November 6th, 2021. 

Sowing Clay brings together communities to create a memorial to land and water defenders killed protecting the more-than-human. Paul Chartrand and Michelle Wilson lead this collaborative project, which calls on participants from across Turtle Island to create a monumental installation. When completed, this memorial will comprise a chain of over 700 open links formed from unfired, locally gathered clay. Each link in the chain will carry one etched name and native seeds mixed into the clay body. When joined together, the links resemble intertwined arms, harkening to non-violent resistance movements and protests.


Sowing Clay's organizers Paul and Michelle view gathering and making sessions as opportunities for critical cross-cultural conversations while honouring those who've given everything to defend the Land. Please sign up at the link below to join one of their workshops at Support Gallery between October 20th – November 6th.  Groups will be small in order to ensure masking, social distancing, and vaccination regulations are complied with by all participants.

To sign-up: https://www.gardenship.ca/sowing-clay
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Embassy Cultural House and Edna Press Link-Up at the 2021 Vancouver Art Book Fair!

10/20/2021

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The Embassy Cultural House is ecstatic to announce that it has partnered up with Edna Press (PhD candidate Ruth Skinner) to participate in the 2021 Vancouver Art Book Fair. This virtual event runs from Oct 18 - 26, and our virtual table features ECH and Edna Press titles from ECH members and partners. Highlights include: a recent artists' multiple by PhD candidates Anahí González and Andreas Buchwaldt for The Other Neighbour of El Otro Lado; Sheila Butler - Other Circumstances, the exhibition catalogue organized with Patrick Mahon and Department alum Sarah Charette; Hiding In Plain Sight, edited by PhD candidate Shelley Kopp for artist and adjunct faculty member Ron Benner's compelling virtual exhibition of the same name. View the ECH/Edna table here and be sure to check out the VABF's excellent program of talks and workshops.


ECH/Edna Press Virtual Table from October 18 - 26, 2021


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"Intercambio/Exchange" Opens at Support Project Space

9/23/2021

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The Embassy Cultural House is happy to announce the opening of Intercambio/Exchange - our first in-person and material exhibition - at Support Project Space! 

Intercambio/Exchange recognizes the long history of cultural workers in London who, since the 1950's, have had connections with locations in Mexico. Some of the artworks presented conceptually relate to urgent issues of our time, including indigenous issues, the environment and the traditional cultures that are reflected in the arts and culture in both our countries. 

Intercambio features artworks and texts by artists working in various formats, including painting, drawing, photography & artist multiples. Research in the communities in London and Mexico and in the ECH's own archives informs this project. Intercambio raises awareness of the international scope of connections made by artists in London, Ontario. In this case, the focus is Mexico, including locations such as Oaxaca, Mexico City, Merida, San Miguel de Allende, and Saltillo, which are important locations to many involved in this project.

Exhibiting artists include Ron Benner, Patricia Deadman, Duncan DeKergommeaux, Mireya Folch-Serra, Anahí González, Gildo Gonzalez, Jamelie Hassan, Carlos Lores, Kim Moodie, Oscar Ortiz, Jenna Rose Sands, and Jean Spence. 

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​
​Support is located at 260B Clarence Street in London, Ontario. 

​The exhibition is open  12 - 5 from Wednesday, September 22 to Saturday, September 25.

The exhibition is open by appointment only Monday, September 27 to Friday, October 17.

​A closing event will take place October 18 - details to follow. 

The Embassy Cultural House would also like to recognize the support of the London Arts Council in the programming of this project. 
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EDITORIAL TEAM

ONLINE FOUNDER
Tariq Hassan Gordon

COFOUNDERS & CURATORIAL ADVISORS 
 
Jamelie Hassan 
& Ron Benner

ADVISORY CIRCLE
Samer Abdelnour, Marnie Fleming, Wyn Geleynse, Fern Helfand, S F Ho, Lorraine Klaasen, Judith Rodger, Ruth Skinner, Mary Lou and Dan Smoke,  and Lucas Stenning 

COORDINATING EDITORS
Tariq Hassan Gordon & 
Olivia Mossuto

WEB DESIGN & SOCIAL MEDIA 
Tariq Hassan Gordon, Ira Kazi, Olivia Mossuto, Niloufar Salimi,  JoAnna Weil 

VIRTUAL TOUR
Andreas Buchwaldt

PRINT PUBLICATIONS
Blessy Augustine, Shelley Kopp, 
Olivia Mossuto

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS
Andreas Buchwaldt, Blessy Augustine, Anahí González, Ira Kazi, ​Shelley Kopp, Ashar Mobeen, Niloufar Salimi,  Jenna Rose Sands, JoAnna Weil & Michelle Wilson. 

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OUR STORY
Artists Jamelie Hassan and Ron Benner and jazz musician Eric Stach founded the Embassy Cultural House (1983-1990) located in the restaurant portion of the Embassy Hotel at 732 Dundas Street in East London. Other former members of the board were: Debrann Eastabrook, Henry Eastabrook, Sharron Forrest, Wyn Geleynse, Janice Gurney, Jean Hay (1929 - 2008), Doug Mitchell, Kim Moodie, Gerard Pas, Peter Rist, Wanda Sawicki, Jean Spence and Jennie White. In 2020, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Embassy Cultural House was re-envisioned as a virtual artist-run space and website. 

This project is supported by the Ontario Arts Council and the London Arts Council through the City of London's Community Arts Investment Program.
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Thank you to our partners

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E M B A S S Y  C U L T U R A L  H O U S E . C A

​London, Ontario is on the traditional lands of the Anishinaabeg, Haudenosaunee, Lenape, Attawandaron and Huron-Wendat peoples, at the forks of Deshkan Ziibi (Antler River), an area subject to the Dish with One Spoon Wampum and other treaties.

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