June Updates with the Embassy Cultural House!

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View this email in your browser Corn = Life: The Power of Naming Ron Benner and Jeff Thomas at Steelcase Art Projects Zein Saadani-Gordon and Ron Benner working on Corn = Life. Photo credit: Olivia Mossuto Corn = Life: The Power of Naming Ron Benner and Jeff Thomas June 23 - October 26, 2024 Opening Event: June 23, 2024, 2-4 PM 248 Steelcase Road East, Markham, ON   Industrial Arts Sculpture Garden 2024 presents a unique fusion of two artists’ visions that interweaves living native plants with evocative historical imagery. Curated by Yuluo Wei and presented by Steelcase Art Projects, this artwork is a tribute to Indigenous peoples’ agricultural and cultural heritage. At its heart lies a striking white-purple trellis, an homage to the 1613 Two Row Wampum Treaty—a foundational agreement between Dutch settlers and Jeff Thomas’ Haudenosaunee ancestors. Ron Benner plants a rich tapestry of culturally significant native American plants and corn, including varieties Peruvian Purple Maize, Mandan Bride, Assiniboian Flint, and Iroquoian Rainbow, which grow to embrace the structure. These are accompanied by tomatoes, chilli peppers, marigolds, sunflowers and many others, creating a rich flora that honours its Indigenous origins. Jeff Thomas’s photographs connect deeply with Ron Benner’s garden and serve as personal and collective contemplation on the environmental and societal ramifications of broken promises. The Two Row Treaty symbolizes mutual recognition and autonomy. Reflecting this spirit, both artists contribute to the garden with a sense of mutual respect and peaceful coexistence. "The Art of Banksy Without Limits: The Exploitation of an Artist" by Shelley Kopp Facade of The Art of Banksy "Without Limits" exhibition in London, ON. Photo credit: Jamelie Hassan The Art of Banksy "Without Limits": The Exploitation of an Artist Shelley Kopp, ECH Contributing Editor "The Art of Banksy 'Without Limits' debuted in London on April 18 and ran until June 2 at 140 Dundas Street, a vacant space that holds the exhibition comfortably. We went on a Monday, around lunch, and were surprised at the number of people who were also there. The tickets range in price from about $27 for children and seniors on a weekday to $72 for a premium adult ticket on a Saturday, which also gives you a book on Banksy and a 'paint-your-own' t-shirt. The exhibition begins with a video summary of Banksy’s work, especially films and documentaries he has participated in. It is hard to hear but visually interesting. Next up is a hologram room that effectively depicts a life-size Banksy spray painting works, sneaking around back alleys, and running from the police. Indeed, as the voice narrates, 'police response time' is his thematic impulse, like 'Monet had light'... Read More FRAMES: Before Stonewall by Greta Schiller & Robert Rosenberg Friday, June 14 at 7PM  TAP Centre for Creativity, 203 Dundas St., London, ON $10 admission  (no one turned away for lack of funds)  Projected on 16mm film In partnership with Western University's Film Studies Program, FRAMES presents a 16mm screening of Greta Schiller & Robert Rosenberg's landmark 1984 documentary, Before Stonewall, a passionate cultural history of America's Queer activist community and the fight for liberation during the first half of the 20th Century.  Preceded by two short films by the legendary filmmaker, Kenneth Anger (1927-2023). Program:  Kustom Kar Kommandos  Kenneth Anger | 1965 | USA | 3 minutes  Puce Moment  Kenneth Anger | 1949 | USA | 6 minutes  Before Stonewall: The Making of a Gay & Lesbian Community  Greta Schiller & Robert Rosenberg | 1984 | USA | 87 minutes Amnesty International Book Club presents Omar El Akkad Amnesty International Book Club: Omar El Akkad World Refugee Day June 20, 2024, 7:00-8:30PM on Zoom Join award-winning author, Omar El Akkad, in conversation with host, Keosha Love. Don't miss your chance to win one of ten signed copies of his award-winning book, What Strange Paradise. This exclusive event will take place on Zoom on World Refugee Day, June 20 from 7-8:30 PM EDT.   Win Free Signed Books: Enter to win one of ten signed copies of What Strange Paradise! □️ Download the Discussion Guide: Get ready for this event with the Book Club Discussion Guide, available now for download. Register Now Museum London Launch Party: Summer Solstice Edition Ron Benner's photographic garden installation, "As The Crow Flies," summer 2022.  Season Launch Party: Summer Solstice Edition Thursday, June 20, 7-10 PM Museum London, 421 Ridout Street North, London, ON pay-what-you-can at the door!    Museum London is kicking off the summer by celebrating eight new exhibitions, a line-up of fantastic activities, announcing a thrilling new curatorial project and funding partnership, and launching a new artist-designed t-shirt and a book hot off the press…  All three floors will be open to explore, get creative in the studio with a hands-on project, enjoy musical sets by DJ Deem J and special guests Juice Joint, sip on a refreshment, take in the view from the terrace, and connect with hundreds of close friends, including artists and program contributors.  The summer highlight is Christina Battle: Under Metallic Skies, which sets video and multimedia installations made in the last decade in dialogue with ongoing video series, new textile-centered artworks, and web-based, participatory projects. Battle encourages critical thinking, solidarity, and action on the issue of our time: the destruction of the environment and the natural world. With a mix of deep research and social activism, Battle’s work is relevant, urgent, and pushes the boundaries of contemporary art and the role of the artist. A new book designed by Lauren Wickware with texts by Cassandra Getty (ML Curator of Art), Geneviève Wallen, and Scott Miller Berry accompanies the exhibition and will be released at the event! For more information on the event, please visit Museum London's website.  cornfield cosmography: Nick Johnson at the St. Thomas–Elgin Public Art Centre June 22 to August 10, 2024 Opening Event: Saturday, June 22, 2024, 1-3 PM St. Thomas–Elgin Public Art Centre, 301 Talbot St., St Thomas, ON Gallery One & Two   Almost all of Nick Johnson's drawings since the 1980's, not counting the stones, have been done in cornfields, or rather, on the edges of cornfields. That is to say, up until 2007, the perspective represented in the drawings was usually that of someone looking at the cornfield from outside. But beginning in that year he moved fully into the cornfield, looking for openings where he could be surrounded, where there was nothing but the ground to sit on, and the sun, and the corn, in motion from any breeze, growing into the sky on all sides. For more information, please visit the St. Thomas–Elgin Public Art Centre website.  From the Archives of Jamelie Hassan: May 30, 1998 Introduction (excerpt) for Lillian Allen Victoria Park, London, Ontario   A few months ago Barbara MacQuarrie approached me to work with her and the Sexual Assault Centre London on a program called Celebrating Survival. She said she wanted to bring Lillian Allen to London for this year’s 4th annual event. My response to her was that anyone that was trying to bring Lillian Allen to London was someone I would want to work with. Since the first time I witnessed Lillian read/perform at the Forest City Gallery around 1983, I recognized a powerful spirit. Originally from the Caribbean, Lillian has lived in Canada since the mid 70's. She is one of Canada’s most compelling & inspiring artists and is a creative force that has motivated artists, community activists & people of conscious both in Canada and internationally “to recreate and transform ourselves and the values that are part of us”. On another occasion in 1990, Lillian returned to London to be part of the Siting Resistance series of exhibitions & events organized by Ron Benner for the Embassy Cultural House in cooperation with the Cross Cultural Learner Centre & Forest City Gallery. Lillian’s energy and her ability to change communities wherever she goes makes her visit here to London today in this context of the Celebrating Survival program especially significant. Jamelie Hassan (left) and Lillian Allen (right) at Ron Benner's photographic garden installation, "As The Crow Flies" at Museum London, London, ON, fall 2022. Photo credit: Ron Benner In 2024, the Ontario Arts Council (OAC), in partnership with the League of Canadian Poets (LCP), recently announced the creation of the Lillian Allen Prize and the Lillian Allen Emerging Artist Prize, which recognizes and celebrates spoken word poetry artists working in English or French. Two prizes will be awarded annually: one to an established artist and one to an emerging artist, based on their respective bodies of work.  Sheltering as Radical Care: Cleaning, Stitching, and Gathering around the Antler River with Mikaila Stevens and Michelle Wilson Announcing "Sheltering as Radical Care: Cleaning, Stitching, and Gathering around the Antler River," a new Embassy Cultural House project led by Michelle Wilson and Mikaila Stevens. Throughout the summer of 2024, Michelle and Mikaila will offer six two-hour bi-weekly drop-in workshop sessions at Indwell's Embassy Commons building. The Deshkan Ziibi, or Thames River, is an artery that connects communities, human and more than human, in the London area. Unfortunately, the River and its banks have become a site of contention as unhoused community members have made their homes upon its banks. Some organizations, such as Indwell and Antler River Rally, have taken up the responsibility of providing care for the River and those who face housing and mental health challenges. As part of this initiative, Michelle and Mikaila have partnered with these organizations to create artwork that builds connections from these points of contention. They plan to collaboratively generate a gathering shelter using reclaimed plastic collected during river cleanups. At a time when some of this city's leaders are demonizing marginalized people and their structures, this shelter will be a silent protest against their denigration. The partnership intends for the shelter to be hung in Indwell's Embassy Commons building as a tapestry when not in use. We look forward to gathering beneath it for years to come. This project is funded by the Ontario Arts Council's Artists through the Community Project Grant, and we thank the government of Ontario for its support.  Eric Stach Interviewed for Jazz on the Rideau by Ian MacKenzie "On April 23, 1974, four musicians recorded an avant garde classic in a studio in London, Ontario. For many years, the album Invisible Roots, was what vinyl collectors term 'a white whale'—and selling for upwards of 100 dollars. Fortunately for the rest of us, the album was reissued in 2021 and is now also available as a digital download.  The London Experimental Jazz Quartet (LEJQ) was a little known band from London, Ontario. The driving force behind the band was Eric Stach.  Eric Stach came to London in 1966. He reports that he fell under the influence of the Nihilist Spasm Band shortly after arriving and hearing them play at the York Hotel, 'soon to fall hopelessly into the depths of free improvisation music'..." Read More Relevant and Related Links From CBC News London: "Hundreds attend solemn vigil 3 years after London, Ont., truck attack" by Alessio Donnini and Isha Bhargava  From the Bonavista Biennale: "Dr. Heather Igloliorte announced as 2025 Bonavista Biennale Curator"  Light: Visionary Perspectives: July 13, 2024–March 17, 2025 at the Aga Khan Museum From Sarah Kenzior's Substack: "Red Lines"  From The Indigenous Curatorial Collective / Collectif des commissaires autochtones (ICCA): Let Wanda Speak (Update), June 4, 2024 Marlene Creates receives an Honorary Doctorate from Memorial University, St. John's, Newfoundland Don McKay receives The Lifetime Recognition Award from The Griffin Poetry Prize  Madweyàshkà / Like a Wave: June 18, 2024–May 19, 2025 at the Âjagemô Art Space at the Canada Council Art Bank From the Ontario Arts Council: Arts For All Ontarians Visit the ECH Website Embassy Cultural House is located on the traditional lands of the Anishinaabek, Haudenosaunee, Lūnaapéewak, and Chonnonton peoples, at the forks of Deshkan Ziibi (Antler River), an area subject to the Dish with One Spoon Covenant Wampum and other treaties, colonized as London, Ontario. The ECH strives to create meaningful relationships between the Indigenous Peoples of Turtle Island and our contributors. The ECH honours the stewardship of the many Indigenous peoples who have resided on these lands since time immemorial. Copyright © 2024 Embassy Cultural House. All rights reserved. Our mailing address: 514 Pall Mall Street, London, ON, N5Y 2Z6, Canada Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.