Music, art, authors and more starts this week

Heading into its 42nd season, the Algoma Fall Festival begins October 2 with an exhibition at the Art Gallery of Algoma, Group of Seven in Algoma.

With a variety of entertainment scheduled throughout the month of October, this year’s Fall Festival features music, visual art, authors and comedy.

For the first time in Northern Ontario, the Algoma Fall Festival presents Nuit Blanche, an outdoor and after hours visual arts experience.

A number of visiting artists, including Sergio Navarretta, are showcased during this free self-guided tour beginning at Clergue Park at 7 p.m. on Saturday, October 4.

“If Nuit Blanche is well attended and received this year, we will definitely have time next year to put some local component into it,” Donna Hilsinger, president of the Algoma Arts Festival Association, told SooToday.com.

With a focus on the visual arts and continuing the celebration of the Group of Seven, the Fall Festival will host a full day with two events featuring Anna Maria Tremonti, host of CBC’s The Current.

At 2 p.m. on October 18, Tremonti will be joined by guest speaker best-selling author Ross King, film producer Nancy Lang, and curator of the McMichael Canadian Art Collection, Tom Smart for Redefining our Defiant Spirits: a new discussion on the Group of Seven and their times.

That evening, Tremonti will host writers Jeanne Becker, Terry Fallis, Ross King and Dr. E. Paul Zehr for A Novel Dinner at 6:30 p.m.

“She’s such an accomplished journalist and we’re lucky to have someone of her calibre here to pull this whole day together, to lead the discussion about the Group of Seven, and to coordinate the eclectic group of writers,” Hilsinger said. “I really want to see the audience get something unique out of this experience, and I think she’s the perfect person to facilitate that.”

The 2014 Algoma Fall Festival line up of entertainment also includes comedian Ron James on October 9, Randy Bachman’s Vinyl Tap Tour on October 14, visits from Chef Michael Smith on October 24 and 25, and much more.

“We’re very proud to be continuing on the tradition in the community,” Hilsinger told us. “We feel that we’re able to bring a lot of things for people within the city and people regionally to see that they might not get a change to see otherwise.”

To hear more about the Fall Festival from Donna Hilsinger and Local2’s Shaylan Spurway, please click here.

For complete Fall Festival details, please visit www.algomafallfestival.com

A news release issued by the Algoma Fall Festival follows.

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Algoma Fall Festival’s Group of Seven Exhibition generates keen interest

SAULT STE. MARIE - As the opening of the Algoma Fall Festival’s Group of Seven in Algoma exhibition nears interest in the collection of paintings continues to grow.

Special guest curator Tom Smart, former CEO and curator of the McMichael Canadian Art Collection and current deputy director and curator of the Art Gallery of Sudbury has assembled a one of a kind exhibition that features original paintings from private collectors and prestigious art institutions.

These loans feature two paintings with significant meaning to the region of Algoma including A.Y. Jackson’s Pic Island and J.E.H. MacDonald’s The Solemn Land.

“The paintings of the Group of Seven are national icons, telling us much about the importance of the landscape in defining who we are as a people,” says Tom Smart. “The paintings on view at the Art Gallery of Algoma show the manner in which this visionary group of artists described the landscape in and around Algoma, in the Killarney and LaCloche regions and in other locations in Northeastern and Central Ontario."

Along with pieces from local collectors the exhibition will feature nearly forty original paintings including generous loans from Toronto’s Arts and Letters Club, the Women’s Art Association of Canada, the Art Gallery of Sudbury and the Art Gallery of Algoma.

The Festival has noted that interest in the exhibition is coming from the local community as well as the entire region.

“We are so pleased to have been given generous support from Celebrate Ontario which has allowed us to create an exhibition that is culturally significant and of benefit to our economy,” says festival President Donna Hilsinger. “We are expecting many visitors to the Sault to see these great works along with our other events and performances.”

Also on exhibit is George Walker’s The Mysterious Death of Tom Thomson which tells a remarkable story in over 100 wood engravings.

The suite of prints show Walker’s astonishing range as a printmaker who finds in the paintings this icon of Canadian art and inspiration for the Group of Seven; abiding values if nationhood and a source of inspiration for his own art.

The Group of Seven in Algoma exhibition is one of a number of themed visual arts events that include a rousing panel discussion about the Group’s life and times, and Northern Ontario’s first Nuit Blanche, a contemporary outdoor art event going deep into the night that will light-up the Sault’s downtown.

These events are generously funded by the Province of Ontario through the Celebrate Ontario program.

The exhibition runs from October 2-26 at the Art Gallery of Algoma in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario.

Admission is $9 (including HST).

For more information visit: www.algomafallfestival.com

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