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. 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!
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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: |
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. |
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
ECH/Edna Press Virtual Table from October 18 - 26, 2021
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.
For her 40th anniversary, Lorraine will be performing in concert in Montreal, on October 5th at the Cabaret Lion d'Or. For those who are unable to see her concert in person, the event will also be live-streamed and accessible to all.
For virtual tickets, please visit this link: https://lepointdevente.com/tickets/clo211005002
In the generous spirit of Lorraine, the event will also feature nine other musicians on stage alongside her. These musicians include Musical Director Mongezi Ntaka, Assane Seck, Noel Mpiaza, Andre Whiteman, Medad Ernest, Rob Christian, Nadia Theobal, Carine Agboton, and Noam Guerrier brought together for this celebratory event.
ECH SUMMER BREAK
August 9 - September 8
Stay tuned for the fall season as we continue with our extensive programming! Here is a sneak peak of what is to come...
- Another installment of Sleepwalking: 7,000 steps in solidarity with Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor
- Intercambio launches new projects in October
- Partnership with Support Project Space to host in-person exhibitions from September - November
- Partnership with Edna Press for the Vancouver Art Book Fair
- Palestine + The Environment with TPFF (Toronto Palestine Film Festival)
In the meantime, best wishes from the Embassy Cultural House.
Enjoy the warm weather and stay safe!
Organized by Rachel A. MacGillivray and Ron Benner with the assistance of
Jamelie Hassan, Olivia Mossuto and JoAnna Weil
Deadline: Tuesday, September 7, 2021
Live: January 2022
When the world went into lockdown last March, so did my creative brain. I hit a wall in my studio practice that was so thick and heavy I couldn’t even pick up my materials, and nothing I had been making felt important anymore. The only place I came alive was in my garden. Planting gave me purpose, seeds shooting up gave me hope, pulling weeds and clearing land helped me step outside of my worries. We spent 5 months in isolation with our toddler son and most of that time was spent together, planning and tending our gardens – it’s how we survived the separation, anxiety, and pressure. It’s the thing that got us through and we’re not the only ones. Now, it’s time to share our gardens.
Whether your experience was painting fantasy gardens while in lockdown, visiting public green spaces, taking care of a beloved house plant, containers on your balcony, or working in your own garden - tending vegetables, flowers, or weeds - we want to share your experience. Let’s recognize and acknowledge these connections with the natural world.
- Rachel A. MacGillivray, July 28, 2021
I am reminded of an exhibition that Jamelie and I did in Oaxaca, Mexico in 2013 about the Ethnobotanical Garden of Oaxaca, titled The World is a Garden Whose Walls are the State. The title was inspired by a quote from Ibn Khaldun's The Muqaddimah (1377 AD) which was one of the first universal histories of the world…now, the world is a garden whose walls are the pandemic.
- Ron Benner, July 28, 2021
Please submit an image of your pandemic garden experience and include a short statement about the location, date, and your relationship/connection/experience to and with the “garden” during the pandemic.
Deadline for your contribution: September 7, 2021
Image size: 300 dpi, no smaller than 800 pixels on the shortest side.
An artist fee of $30.00 will be paid for each digital contribution.
For questions about the exhibition, email:
embassyculturalhouse@gmail.com
Photo Credit: Rachel A. MacGillivray, In the Garden, 2020
Holubizky has conceptualized this multi-layered project and has written that it " is a tribute to Robert McKaskell and his professional facets as art historian, curator and educator. Rather than memorialize what he did, it is better to channel the spirit and active intelligence, and embody how he thought. Marcel Duchamp is the armature for this exhibition-orchestration. Robert was a Duchampist, although he and I never spoke of Duchamp directly—and perhaps because one never knows who’s listening. In the mid-1980s he devised an “Homage to Marcel Duchamp on the occasion of the centennial of his birth,” mounted at the McIntosh, Forest City and (then) London Regional galleries."
Special thanks to Hugh Barrett, Kelowna Art Gallery, Museum London, and the Art Gallery of Windsor. We also thank all the artist-contributors. All works are courtesy and copyright of the artists, with exceptions and additional credits as noted.
- Lois Andison (Canadian)
- Dianne Bos (Canadian)
- Lynn Dreese Breslin (American)
- Hyang Cho (Canadian, b. Republic of Korea)
- Paul Collins (Canadian, French)
- Christos Dikeakos (Canadian, b. Greece)
- Aganetha Dyck (Canadian)
- Wyn Geleynse (Canadian, b. Netherlands)
- Dave Gordon (Canadian)
- Richard Grayson (British)
- Brad Isaacs (Mohawk and mixed heritage)
- Suzy Lake (Canadian, b. U.S.A.)
- David Merritt (Canadian)
- Ken Nicol (Canadian)
- Gary Pearson (Canadian)
- Alexander Pilis (Canadian, b. Brazil)
- Eric Robertson (Metis/Gitxsan)
- Michael Snow (Canadian)
- Gary Spearin (Canadian)
- Christine Walde (Canadian)
- Jinny Yu (Canadian, b. Republic of Korea)
Before he passed, Bob was living between Port Dover, Ontario and Oaxaca, Mexico. While in Oaxaca he decided to study Spanish and he had just initiated a program of curating exhibits of Oaxacan artists in his apartment located in the centro historico of Oaxaca. We have created a page that highlights the work Bob had begun in Oaxaca within our project called Intercambio/Exchange with Oaxacan artist Lissette Jiménez Díaz, and text written by Marnie Fleming.
Bob taught Contemporary Art History for many years at Western University. He was a huge supporter of both Canadian and international artists and had a commitment to challenging art practices which included conceptual art, performance works and independent artists' projects. While in London, he was involved in programming at the Embassy Cultural House, the Forest City Gallery, Museum London and the McIntosh Gallery. He also worked at the Art Gallery of Windsor, the Winnipeg Art Gallery and and the Glenbow Museum in Calgary where he built strong friendships and made contributions to the arts community across Canada. We have so many fond memories of Bob - especially close to our hearts is the survey exhibition he curated Embassy Cultural House - 1983 - 1990 at Museum London in 2012.
Conversation with Freda Guttman, artist & activist in support of Palestine: May 23, 2021 @ 16:00 EDT
5/18/2021
![]() Freda Guttman, The Earth is Closing in on Us, 2005, this work was included in the March 8, 2021, ECH International Women's Day exhibit: Go; Rise and Strike. From her artist statement: This work fuses archival images of the Nakba with lines of text in red from the poetry of Mahmoud Darwish, the great Palestinian poet (1941- 2008). The Nakba of 1948, (‘catastrophe’ in Arabic), created three quarters of a million Palestinian refugees who fled to Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The haunting, iconic photographic images of the Nakba evoke the suffering they experienced and still do – imprinted forever are the forlorn lines of forsaken people moving over the horizon into the unknown, at the beginning of their long journey into dispossession and statelessness. Mahmoud Darwish himself shared that journey, having experienced imprisonment, statelessness and exile himself. | The ECH is appalled by the ongoing violence, rising tensions, and the devastating loss of life in Palestine and Israel. The toll —particularly on civilians, including women and children — has already been far too great. Please join us for a conversation with Freda Guttman, Montreal-based artist/activist and Professor Salah D. Hassan, Director of Global Studies in the Arts and Humanities, Michigan State University, Lansing, Michigan on Sunday, May 23 at 4 pm EDT. Freda has been a constant voice of solidarity to Palestinian people over a lifetime of activism. She lives in Montreal and has worked as a printmaker, photographer and laterally, as an installation artist. She has been a longtime supporter of the Embassy Cultural House, participating in the 1984 International Women's Day exhibit, as well as our most recent online IWD exhibit: Go; Rise and Strike in March 2021. Her work has been featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions in Canada, the United States and internationally. Guttman has made her art practice and her political activism come together in a series of installations. Among her installations that focus on Palestine/Israel are Diminish Your Cup and Two Family Albums: Canada Park, from 1994 to 2004. Join us in solidarity with all those who support a just peace in the Middle East. We are calling for an immediate ceasefire. As an artist-run project, the ECH condemns the May 15th unjustified ransacking and raid by Israeli Defense Force soldiers on Dar Yusuf Nasri Jacir for Art & Research, an independent art centre in Bethlehem. The raid, which destroyed computers and other office equipment, follows the burning of their urban farm earlier in the week. Attacks against cultural centres and other civil society organizations, including the media, are against international law. |
ECH partner's with the Undergraduate Summer Research Internship Program at Western University
5/15/2021
The Embassy Cultural House welcomes two new contributors to our community: Matthew Dawkins and Mary Helen McMurran. Matthew Dawkins is an undergraduate studying English and Writing, with a double major in the interdisciplinary School for the Advanced Studies in the Arts & Humanities (SASAH) program at Western University. He is also the recipient of Western's Undergraduate Summer Research Internship (USRI). He has joined the ECH as a contributing editor. Mary Helen McMurran is the faculty supervisor for the internship and Associate Professor in Western's Department of English and Writing Studies. Their collaboration with ECH highlights the public humanities and its aim of connecting the university with the city of London as well as a national and international audiences. As part of the internship, Matthew is creating new projects on anti-Black racism for Embassy Cultural House. His George Floyd Project features local Black communities and artists in a commemoration of one-year since Floyd's killing by Minneapolis police. The occasion prompts reflection on the dramatic and far-reaching impact of the Black Lives Matter movement. The ECH is grateful for Western University's continued support. Established in 1983, the ECH was a community-driven gallery and hosted interdisciplinary programs. It closed its physical doors in 1990. In 2020, the ECH was re-envisioned as a virtual artist-run space and community website. |
The Embassy Cultural House (ECH) and the Old East Village Business Improvement Area (OEV BIA) are pleased to announce a collaboration to support and promote local arts and culture in the historic Old East neighbourhood in London, Ontario. The ECH, an online community arts and cultural space, has physical roots and history in east London going back to its original founding as the Embassy Cultural House in 1983, formerly located in the old Embassy Hotel on Dundas St. The site of the hotel is currently being developed by Indwell as the future Embassy Commons, an affordable housing project, to open in the spring of 2022. The Old East Village BIA works to support businesses and cultural programming, alongside citizens of the area. Through the Old East Village Community Improvement Plan, they are a part of the continued development of a vibrant and much-loved part of London. These two organizations have ambitious plans for a community arts program that will both engage local artists as well as future residents of the Embassy Commons, adding to the cultural life of Old East Village. A number of exciting projects are in the planning stages: from storefront displays of art linked to QR codes (#cloudtostreet), to an online exhibition of the art murals of OEV on the ECH website. There are also discussions for a potential arts festival, linked to the reopening of Dundas St., in spring 2022. Stay tuned for updates. Please contact us for more information. |
The old Embassy Hotel was located at 732 Dundas Street East at the heart of the Old East Village. The Embassy Cultural House was established in 1983, as a community-driven gallery and hosted interdisciplinary programs. It closed its physical doors in 1990. In 2020 the Embassy Cultural House was re-envisioned as a virtual artist-run space and community website.
On Oct 13, 2020, Susanna Heller wrote to ECH editor Tariq Hassan Gordon: | The Embassy Cultural House is deeply saddened to learn of the death of the remarkable painter Susanna Heller, who passed away on May 5, 2021. Many of Susanna’s paintings involved elaborate installations made up of assemblages of smaller paintings on paper and were based on her walks around the city. Her love of painting and her love of walking were intricately connected. Her sketch books were the notes that reflected her curiosity and intense observation of her surroundings, whether walking around the metropolis of NYC or the cities of Europe. ECH co-founder Jamelie Hassan first met Susanna in 1984 when they were both living at La Cité internationale des arts in Paris through the Canada Council for the Arts. Jamelie remembers her time with Susanna: "Over the months that we overlapped, we enjoyed many conversations about culture and numerous wanderings around the city, so conscious of the way the city and its abundant museums and galleries, parks and gardens, kept us outside walking, rather than working inside our respective studios. "Our group in Paris at the time included my young son Tariq, age 11, Ron Benner, Wyn Geleynse and his daughter Mara, age 11. The Paris Vision ECH tabloid issue from Sept./Oct./ Nov. 1984 records this unusal collection of creative people in dialogue with Susanna over that period. In 1986, Susanna came to London to present a solo exhibition of her recent works at the Embassy Cultural House. Her connections with the London community of artists, writers and curators deepened at that time. "Recently, in October 2020, she reconnected with us and the ECH, presenting one of her startling paintings, Eyes in a Bleak World, 2020 for the open call online exhibition Hiding in Plain Sight coordinated by Ron Benner. In her communications to us she expressed her pleasure to be involved with our reinvigorated collective. Susanna was an inspiring artist, a generous colleague, and a warm and supportive friend. Her death leaves an enormous gap in the arts community both in Canada and the United States, where she had made her home and studio in Brooklyn, NYC." Here is a revealing conversation from Feb. 6, 2020 with her longtime friend Medrie MacPhee that conveys the genuine spirit, humour, intelligence and beauty of our friend and artist Susanna. May she rest in peace. Her website is online here. |
Artist Statement for the work by Susanna Heller "Eyes in a Bleak World" for the ECH's inaugural online exhibit Hiding in Plain Sight launched on October 30, 2020: “Eyes in a Bleak World “ is a recent painting completed in 2020. The sky and earth in this oil painting are dominated by the intensity of two eyeballs wrenched from some creature and which soar comet-like through a scorched and haunted landscape. The power of sight in this painting is menacing and speaks to the destructive state of the world which we are witnessing.
Join Embassy Cultural House Advisory Circle Member Judith Rodger for a conversation with Duncan deKergommeaux on May 16, 2021 @ 1:30 pm EST. Painter Duncan deKergommeaux has had a distinguished career that spans seventy years. Judith is a former student of Duncan’s, colleague and friend for fifty years, and their conversation is sure to bring back many memories. For twenty-three of those years—1970 to 1993—Duncan taught drawing and painting at Western University in London, Ontario, with sabbaticals and leave spent in New York City and Paris. Since 1953 deKergommeaux has had over fifty solo exhibitions from Victoria, British Columbia to St John’s, Newfoundland. His works have been included in over one hundred group exhibitions. During his time in London, his work was exhibited in many different venues, from the McIntosh Gallery and Museum London to alternative spaces such as Trajectory Gallery, Forest City Gallery and the Embassy Cultural House, where his paintings were exhibited in 1983, its first year of operation. He currently lives in Ottawa where he is still making his marks in his home studio. For further information see Duncan's website. |
We are pleased to welcome Ira Kazi as our newest contributing editor to the Embassy Cultural House. Iraboty (Ira) Kazi (she/her) is a PhD candidate at the University of Western Ontario, studying Art History and Visual Culture. She is the current editor of Western’s Visual Arts Department’s graduate students' journal, tba: Journal of Art, Media, & Visual Culture. Ira divides her time between London and Hamilton and works part-time at the Hamilton Public Library Ira is currently leading a project to celebrate and feature Asian Canadian artists in our community. Ira joins the ECH's growing team of contributing editors including; Andreas Buchwaldt, Matthew Dawkins, Charlotte Egan, Shelley Kopp, Olivia Mossuto, Niloufar Salimi, Mackenzie Smith, Michelle Wilson, and Jade Williamson. |
Virtual Tour of “Hiding in Plain Sight” for Scotiabank Contact Photography Festival: NOW LIVE!
5/6/2021
The virtual tour re-imagines the Embassy Cultural House in the present, where it was originally located at the Embassy Hotel on 723 Dundas Street. Andreas Buchwaldt visualizes an alternate future for the ECH by inserting an archival image of the building’s facade into its original location with an online panoramic mapping tool. In actuality, the Embassy Hotel was destroyed in 2009 following a large fire. In addition to the sympathetic treatment of the facade, the inside of the building has been mapped to match the original interior of the Embassy Cultural House. The expresso bar and booths remain fixed in their same orientation, surrounded by works of art.
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In October 2020, the Embassy Cultural House presented its inaugural virtual exhibition Hiding in Plain Sight, organized by Ron Benner, inspired by the 2020 book of the same name by St. Louis-based journalist Sarah Kendzior. In her book, Kendzior describes the former US President Donald Trump’s administration as “a transnational crime syndicate masquerading as a government.”
View the ECH's Scotiabank Contact page here.
The Embassy Cultural House is saddened to learn of the sudden passing of Steve Mavers, their colleague and friend at Museum London. We extend our sincere condolences to his family, friends and numerous colleagues in the cultural and educational community. He will be greatly missed by all who had the pleasure of knowing and working with him. The last exhibit that Steve curated at Museum London is on display and is an exhibit of public and high school student art on the environment titled Our World of Nature: A Student Exhibition which opened on March 13, 2021. Please see Museum London's tribute to Steve Mavers here. |
We are pleased to welcome Michelle Wilson as our newest contributing editor to the Embassy Cultural House. Michelle Wilson is an artist and mother of French/British descent. In her current work she makes palpable the presence and absence of bison, as well as their inseparability from the land and its people. In the Euro-American archive, bison bodies have been used to convey colonial knowledge systems, and their story of survival has been used to perpetuate myths of 'settler saviours.' This is the legacy that Wilson, as a feminist of settler descent, studying in colonial institutions, has inherited and is confronting. She is currently a Ph.D. candidate in Art and Visual Culture at the University of Western Ontario. She is participating in the GardenShip & State project curated by Jeff Thomas and Patrick Mahon which will be presented in September 2021 at Museum London. An in-progress version of Michelle's multi-media (non-linear) dissertation can be viewed here. Michelle is one of the exhibiting artists and a contributing editor assisting in the coordination with the upcoming Earth Day 2021: Stop Extinction! Restore the Earth online exhibit live April 22, 2021. She also participated in the International Women's Day Exhibit: Go; Rise and Strike. Michelle’s new role as a contributing editor will strengthen the ECH’s already strong community partnership with Gardenship and State. |
London, ON
Join us Sunday, May 2, at 1:30 p.m. for A Virtual Exhibition Opening and Video Presentation. The event will begin with a Land Acknowledgment and welcoming by Mary Lou and Dan Smoke.
The Embassy Cultural House (ECH) and GardenShip and State are pleased to present a virtual group exhibition Stop Extinction! Restore the Earth to celebrate Earth Day, April 22, 2021. Works in the exhibition are by artists from within the ECH community and Gardenship and State participating artists. The 50 artworks that make up this ambitious project take on a broad range of issues related to the climate crisis and other threats to our ecology, emphasizing decolonial practices as central to addressing this urgent moment.
A concise animation, “Up in Smoke,” by the youngest presenter in the exhibition, 15-year-old Kian Saadani-Gordon, portrays the blue planet with a giant, billowing smokestack protruding from its body. It is a poignant yet frightening reminder of our predicament. Equally caustic in its critique of human culpability regarding the plight of gaia are the ‘earthly non-delights’ portrayed by Carole Conde and Karl Beveridge in their photo-triptych, “Futures.”
Numerous other artists in the exhibition, including Jessie Amery, Stephen Cruise, and Jamelie Hassan, also allude to the garden – as by turns a troubled sanctuary and a site of potential regeneration and possibility. In works by Sharmistha Kar, Roland Schubert, Jean Spence, and Christine Walde, rivers, lakes, and waterways feature as emblems of devastation, but also as reminders of human and more than human indebtedness to the earth’s water sources as central to survival.
GardenShip and State co-curator Jeff Thomas invokes colonization and decolonization, reminding us of the inseparable linkage between stewardship of the planet and the legitimacy of Indigenous land claims. Perhaps nowhere in the exhibition is the spectrum of human experience, aspiration, and often failure as fully pronounced as in the juxtaposition of Ron Benner’s digital photograph of seeds, grains, beans and pottery shards, labelled, “Remains in Association with cultural deposits: 10,000 years before present era,” and Mark Kasumovic’s stirring black and white image of a vast, florescent-lit cavern, entitled, “Vault #3 [from the series, A Human Laboratory,”2015]. Benner’s colourful, living archive, and Kasumovic’s frozen image of an empty Svalbard Global Seed Vault, are the exhibition’s alpha and omega moments.
Stop Extinction! Restore the Earth contributors include: Jessie Amery, Tariq Amery, Ron Benner, Paul Chartrand & Michelle Wilson, Carole Condé & Karl Beveridge, Stephen Cruise, Tom Cull, Susan Day, Holly English & Olivia Mossuto, Mike Farnan, Michael Fernandes, kerry ferris (1949 - 2016), Jan Figurski, Mireya Folch-Serra,Fatima Garzan, Joan Greer, Dave Gordon, Tariq Hassan Gordon, Jamelie Hassan, Fern Helfand, Lisa Hirmer, Sharmistha, Kar, Mark Kasumovic, Brian Lambert, Patrick Mahon, Kim Moodie, Catherine Morrisey, Troy Ouellette, Jill Price, Judith Rodger, Kian Saadani-Gordon, Niloufar Salimi & Mohammad Tabesh, Jayce Salloum, Jenna Rose Sands, Roland Schubert, Sandra Semchuk, Carolyn Simmons, Mary Lou & Dan Smoke, Ashley Snook, Jean Spence, Diana Tamblyn, Jeff Thomas, Bernice Vincent (1934 - 2016), Esther Vincent, Christine Walde, Paul Walde, and Jade Williamson.
Collaborating Organizations
www.embassyculturalhouse.ca is a volunteer digital project originally launched in July 2020 to recognize the contributions of the arts and culture community which came of age in London in the 1960s-1970s. 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.
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. ECH emphasizes activism, community engagement, and diverse and intergenerational collaboration. As a not-for-profit collective, the ECH has quickly grown into a network of 100 contributors from across Canada and around the world.
GardenShip and State is an artistic research project conceived at the intersection of environmental critique, decolonial theory, and artistic practice. Involving a diverse group of twenty Canadian-based and international artists and thinkers, the project examines urgent issues confronting us today: climate change and global warming and the measures states and non-state actors can, or should, take to resolve them. These challenges are of global concern because local actions and global effects are intertwined, as shown by the destructiveness of the environmental crisis on humans and more than humans experiencing colonialism.
Co-curated by Patrick Mahon and Jeff Thomas, an on-site exhibition planned for Museum London (Sept.2021 – Jan. 2022) will play an important role in promoting regional discussions about the consequences of living in the Anthropocene. The project began with a Launch Workshop held in Fall 2019 at Museum London and Western University. Since then, some of its participants were featured presenters in a panel for this year’s Words Festival (Nov. 2020), and a slide show of works by seventeen of the project’s collaborators was projected on the giant screens overlooking the Deshkan Ziibi (Antler River, also known as Thames River) from Museum London’s Centre at the Forks.
The GardenShip and State exhibition in Fall, 2021, will be a multi-sensory experience that inhabits the Ivey Galleries at Museum London, and spills into other areas of the Museum, inside and out. Comprising textiles, photography, sculpture, video, and installation, the exhibition emphasises environmental critique and decolonization through projects that are aesthetically rich and culturally complex. (
For further information, please contact embassyculturalhouse@gmail.com
Mary Lou is also well-known for her performances and was recognized by the London Music Hall receiving an award in 2019 for her traditional and contemporary singing. She is a member of the Ojibway Nation, from Batchawana, on Lake Superior, and Dan is Seneca Nation from the Six Nations Grand River Territory. They met in 1972/3 and were married in the Onondaga Longhouse in a traditional Indigenous Haudenosaunee Wedding Ceremony in 1977. They have been happily married for 43years.
Working together they have hosted "The Smoke Signals Aboriginal Radio Program," since 1990 and continue with this Western University campus-based radio program offering interviews with Indigenous cultural workers and advocates from across Turtle Island. They have collected an extensive archive and books over the years related to their decades of working as journalists and advocates. From 1999-2019 they worked with the London CTV Station.
ECH co-founders Ron Benner and Jamelie Hassan said, “Dan and Mary Lou Smoke have dedicated their lives to building bridges between the peoples of Turtle Island. We are honoured to have Dan and Mary Lou’s friendship over the years and look forward to collaborating with them on future ECH projects.”
Dan and Mary Lou Smoke said, “Ron and Jamelie have stood in solidarity with Indigenous communities through their art work and activism for decades, and we are pleased to join the ECH Advisory Circle and contribute to this innovative digital arts and cultural project.”
You can visit their page on the ECH website here.
Other members of the ECH Advisory Circle include: Samer Abdelnour, Wyn Geleynse, Fern Helfand, S F Ho, Lorraine Klaasen, Judith Rodger, Ruth Skinner and Lucas Stenning.
We are pleased to welcome Niloufar Salimi as our newest contributing editor to the Embassy Cultural House. Niloufar is a visual artist based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. She primarily uses drawing and minimal mixed media to form a narrative between certainty and ambiguity. Salimi completed her MFA at Western University and received a BFA from OCAD University. Salimi is a multiple recipient of Ontario Arts Council Grants. She currently resides in Toronto. In addition to her studio practice, she works as a Gallery Assistant and Teaching Artist at the Power Plant Contemporary Gallery. Niloufar is one of the artists exhibiting and also assisting in the coordination with the upcoming Earth Day 2021: Stop Extinction! Restore the Earth online exhibit live April 22, 2021. She also participated in the International Women's Day Exhibit: Go; Rise and Strike. |
The Embassy Cultural House and the Toronto Palestine Film Festival are pleased to announce a new partnership to collaborate on arts and cultural programming. The Embassy Cultural House (ECH) is looking forward to develop an online art program to coincide with the 2021 Toronto Palestine Film Festival program. "We are thrilled to partner with the Embassy Cultural House to include a visual arts online exhibition in the 2021 program of the festival. This will add a wonderful new dimension to our activities” said Dania Majid, programmer with the TPFF. Jamelie Hassan, 2001 Governor General Award Laureate for Visual and Media Arts and co-founder of the ECH said, “Celebrating Palestinian culture and supporting the work of Palestinian artists has been a longstanding commitment for many artists connected to the ECH community. It is with great pleasure that we look forward to future cultural projects with the TPFF.” Established in 1983, the Embassy Cultural House was a community-driven gallery and hosted interdisciplinary programs. It closed its physical doors in 1990. In 2020 the Embassy Cultural House was re-envisioned as a virtual artist-run space and community website. The Toronto Palestine Film Festival (TPFF) is a volunteer-run, non-profit organization dedicated to bringing Palestinian cinema, music, cuisine and art to GTA audiences. TPFF was conceived in 2008 to commemorate the 60th anniversary of Al-Nakba. The TPFF launched its 14th year with a powerful and futuristic new design by Sama Al Zanoon. Sama is a graphic designer and illustrator based in Hamilton, Ontario. The design is an imagined journey to reclaim Palestinian destinies. This is a fictional space where Palestinians have limitless ability to explore their identity through film, art, and activism. |
Tyson's parents Helen and Egon owned the Embassy Hotel from the late 1970s until it was sold in 2001. He was a huge part of the running of the hotel and organized the music program in the hotel bars. Tyson went on to study film at Ryerson University in Toronto. Our heart goes out to his family and all his friends in London, Toronto and Ottawa and around the world who are mourning his untimely death.
Please visit Tyson's page to see some of his film work and photos.
The Embassy Hotel I grew up here Always chasing what's possible Ya I grew up here With the old men The ladies and escorts The 1st Peoples The bands Social Distortion, DOA, No Means No, Rancid, SNFU, Face To Face The Art The Art exhibits The Embassy Cultural House Remember Polish your Eyes Greg Curnoe, Tom Benner, Ron Benner, Eric Stach They taught me to hum a song Till the feeling is gone It burnt down Now I look at the stars at night Oh the modern world You made my eyes red and raw Lived through it To get to this moment So I close my eyes Click my heels 3 times Embassy Home You had to go I know I know But if you look around You just might feel the ghost Floating around Reminding us That the winds are blowing And we can always choose what is possible than what we see... Tyson Haller, August 2020 |
South African newspaper covers ECH event to celebrate Lorraine Klaasen's FCLMA World Music Award
3/13/2021
The South African newspaper, Sowetan Live, published an article on March 12 on JUNO Award-winner Lorrain Klaasen as part of its International Women's Day coverage. Lorraine, the daughter of the legendary South African performer Thandi Klaasen, remembered all the powerful women who contributed to making her the person she is today. The article also reported on the sold-out Embassy Cultural House online event held on February 13, 2021 to celebrate Lorraine's 2020 Forest City London Music Award (FCLMA) in the category of World Music. ECH Co-Founder, Jamelie Hassan, is quoted in the article as describing Lorraine as a strong advocate and powerful voice for women across the globe. Lorraine recently joined the Advisory Circle of the ECH to help promote education and awareness of African music, culture and heritage. Read the article online here. |
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