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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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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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  • Home
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  • Background
    • Past Programming >
      • Exhibitions 1983-1990 >
        • Index of Curators
        • Index of Photographers
        • Index of Visual Artists
      • Film 1983-1990
      • Music 1983-1990 >
        • Index of Musicians
      • Performances 1983-1990 >
        • Index of Performers
    • Embassy Hotel History
  • About