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Brent
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Is there such a thing as a pastoral zine? Many zines have aesthetic roots in the Hairy Who, the artists (also known as the Chicago Imagists) whose own publications perfected a proto-punk vocabulary of demented cartoons. Later, Queer Punk zines like JDs invented a whole subculture by stylishly exploiting the... Continue reading
Posted Mar 22, 2019 at Arts & Culture
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Summer is almost upon us, so we've very pleased to announce "She Must Be Seeing Things: Celebrating Women Filmmakers." Throughout June all of the films will be LGBTQ+ themed to help celebrate Pride Month. July starts with Julie Taymor's Frida (just three days away from the artist's birthday.) All films... Continue reading
Posted Mar 8, 2019 at Arts & Culture
Thanks so much for your kind comments Louise!
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Fashion illustration is a meeting place of clothing, costume design, pattern-making, art, drawing, illustration and graphic design. About half of the books in this article are available exclusively at the Toronto Reference Library and cannot be borrowed, but are great resources for fashion illustration. Finding materials on fashion illustration is... Continue reading
Posted Feb 11, 2019 at Arts & Culture
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The previous blog post was about perspective as a means of representing space and dimensions. But perspective is also a word used to denote both individual subjectivity and larger interpersonal issues of identity. Collage is a great medium to address misrepresentations and transforming the imagery that’s already within the mass... Continue reading
Posted Nov 2, 2018 at Arts & Culture
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Every year the Toronto Reference Library hosts classes from OCADU researching aspects of perspective, found imagery and collage. It's a great way to show off some of the resources available through our Picture Collection, as well as some of the books available through the Toronto Reference Library Arts Department. This... Continue reading
Posted Nov 2, 2018 at Arts & Culture
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This piece was written four years ago on the occasion of Pratt's career retrospective at the McMichael Canadian Art Collection. The best comment on her work however comes at the end of her long interview with Mireille Eagan at the bottom of the page. "Yes I like the idea that... Continue reading
Posted Aug 15, 2018 at Arts & Culture
Thanks for such a nice comment ! Just in case it's useful, here's a quick link to over a hundred circulating materials on Islamic Art: https://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/search.jsp?Ntt=islamic+art&N=37751
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June is Pride Month Special events happen throughout the month leading to the 38th annual Pride Festival which runs from June 22 to 24. Toronto Public Library has all sorts LGBTQ programs as well. As I was putting books together, it became clear that the last five years has produced... Continue reading
Posted Jun 11, 2018 at Arts & Culture
Thanks so much! Had a great time with this series, especially hearing everyone's reactions. I'll be around to help out on some of the upcoming series, so hope to see you there!
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Thanks for your comments! [For everyone else I should mention SPOILERS!]: For me the film is about bigotry and how it isn’t restricted to one class or another. In each of the segments, the characters who are acting out in a bigoted way are usually reacting to something else that’s going on in their lives. The other theme was how everyone is connected and (under the right circumstances) capable of doing someone else a good turn. So the young hood, hawking stolen goods at the beginning, is the fast food worker who lets the family know about the "thieves." Appearances in this film are often *very* deceiving. So the smallest gesture can end up causing major reversals in someone else’s life. If you’re in for the next screening, I’ll look forward to discussing it with you. In the meantime, IMDB has some good capsule reviews: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0401488/reviews?ref_=tt_urv Hope to see you next week!
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Warm up with these free Czech movies, Monday afternoons, at Toronto Reference Library. Monday, January 8th Vratne Lahve = Empties (2007) Josef, a literature teacher, is pushed into retirement. But instead of a peaceful family life, he chooses a part-time job in a supermarket at the bottle-return counter. The exciting... Continue reading
Posted Jan 2, 2018 at Arts & Culture
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The Arts Department at Toronto Reference Library continues its Monday afternoon screenings of international cinema with a festival of Portuguese and Brazilian films. Think warm thoughts, see the best recent and contemporary titles and then help welcome back the sun with an old classic. Mondays through November to December at... Continue reading
Posted Oct 31, 2017 at Arts & Culture
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Join us for A Summer of French Films every Monday afternoon at two at the Hinton Learning Theatre at Toronto Reference Library. Note: all films have English subtitles. Here is the schedule: Monday, July 3: 3 Coeurs/3 Hearts (2015) A man misses his train in a small provincial town and... Continue reading
Posted Jun 26, 2017 at Arts & Culture
Thank you for your comments. The 10 x 10 catalogs are independently published and do not have an ISBN. We will ask our Cataloging department to look at making it easier to place holds on individual years.
Toggle Commented Oct 25, 2016 on 10 x 10 x 5 (+1) = XXX OOO at Arts & Culture
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Mystical Landscapes: Masterpieces from Monet, Van Gogh and more opens at the Art Gallery of Ontario this week. The exhibition featuring works from European, Scandinavian and North American artists focuses on transcendent or mystical experiences in landscape painting from the years 1880 and 1930. It was organized by senior curator... Continue reading
Posted Oct 21, 2016 at Arts & Culture
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Toronto Public Library is excited to announce that five years of the book 10 x 10: 100 Portraits Celebrating Queers in the Arts are now available at Toronto Reference Library and Yorkville branches. The annual exhibit, held during Pride Month, showcases the work of ten queer photographers who each in... Continue reading
Posted Oct 17, 2016 at Arts & Culture
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Andrew Hunter, the Fredrik S. Eaton Curator of Canadian Art at the Art Gallery of Ontario, will discuss the upcoming exhibition of iconic Canadian painter Lawren Harris. The event will take place on Thursday June 2, from 1-2 PM in the Hinton Learning Theatre of the Toronto Reference Library. The... Continue reading
Posted Apr 28, 2016 at Arts & Culture
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The Arts Department on the 5th floor of Toronto Reference Library has just had its fall books delivered. We've been lucky to be able to get books on a wide range of topics. We've been especially lucky to have great selection of books by women artists (as well as an... Continue reading
Posted Nov 25, 2015 at Arts & Culture
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On Monday October 26th ground-breaking artist, performer and photographer Suzy Lake will discuss her five-decade long career as well as her new book "Performing an Archive" with Canadian art writer and critic Bill Clarke. The program begins at 7 PM and takes place at the Hinton Learning Theatre on the... Continue reading
Posted Oct 13, 2015 at Arts & Culture
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Gay Nerds, JP Larocque's award winning web series, will be coming to Toronto Reference Library in the Beeton auditorium on Monday September 28th. Fans of MTV's "1 Girl: 5 Gays" will know JP as a series regular. He's also been busy as a columnist in Xtra, hosting the TO Webfest... Continue reading
Posted Sep 7, 2015 at Arts & Culture
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It's hard to believe the CONTACT Photography Festival -- which runs throughout the month of May--is almost half over. There are still dozens of exhibitions and events taking place throughout the city; Our own exhibition at Toronto Reference Library, Exposed features highlights from the Toronto Star archive. On May 28... Continue reading
Posted May 14, 2015 at Arts & Culture
Glad to help Sarah. Just come up to the fifth floor Arts Department and we will be glad to show them to you. Hopefully this will raise the profile of the collection all over.
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Earlier in the year, Toronto Reference library received a major donation of zines, most of them documenting the punk and new wave music scene of the 1980s. We’ve just added them to our online PDF Zine Catalogue which documents the collection on the Arts Department on the fifth floor. It’s... Continue reading
Posted Mar 25, 2015 at Arts & Culture
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The 28th Annual Toronto St Patrick's Day Parade is on this Sunday, March 15. Happily the parade coincides with the arrival of an amazing series of books at Toronto Reference Library: The Art and Architecture of Ireland. The five volume series is published by Yale University Press for the Royal... Continue reading
Posted Mar 11, 2015 at Arts & Culture