As the popularity of RMG Fridays–a night of free music and culture at the RMG every first Friday of the month–can attest, Oshawa’s music scene is thriving. The current Thomas Bouckley exhibition, Music to Our Ears: Oshawa’s Music History, looks back at Oshawa’s history of producing both homegrown talent as well as musical instruments.
Included in the exhibition is a bulletin board where visitors can post and share their musical memories of Oshawa. The response has been great! Here are a few examples of memories shared on the bulletin board:
Busker Bros. performance @ RMG blew me away with their talent & use of delay pedals.
I got my first black eye at a Sloan concert at the Moon Room when I was 13.
I have fond memories of both performing and listening to music at the Memorial Park Band Shell.
I saw Mendelson Mainline at the Polish Hall in the 60s.
Oscar Wilde said that “Music was the art which is most nigh to tears and memory.” We invite you to continue to share your music memories of Oshawa either online here in the comments section or in person at the gallery, on our bulletin board.
Join us on Thursday, 7 June at 7pm for a lecture about the history of music in Oshawa, followed by a performance by the Oshawa Civic Band—the earliest musical group in Oshawa’s history (formed in 1870). Free to attend.
Hot Topic posts come from the desk of Jacquie Severs, our Manager, Communications & Social Media.
Last night I went to Whitby to meet with a group of art gallery and museum workers known as the Museum & Art Gallery Educators Collective - Durham, or MAGEC-D. This collective is aimed at those who live and work in Durham Region in the Museum and Art Gallery field, but it is open to all who are interested and includes members from Peterborough as well as recent graduates from programs such as Fleming College's Museum Management.
I attended the meeting last night at the request of Christine Castle, a Museum Education Consultant and publisher of the Museum Education Monitor. I was pleased to lead a discussion on social media within educational efforts at museums and galleries. It was a fun, chatter-filled night with each institution who attended sharing their ideas and progress, challenges and triumphs.
From my perspective social media can offer insight into what happens behind-the-scenes and bring the collections out to the community in new and engaging ways. It helps us open up our vaults, so to speak, to show what it is we do and educate our friends locally, regionally, nationally and even internationally about our collection and historic significance. Social Media is often thought of as purely marketing but the educational components are so inspiring as well.
Two examples of using social media in the education department here at the RMG are our Youtube page, which offers behind the scenes looks at installations and the projects that our summer campers create, and our Facebook fan page, which shows student work from our many classes and camps each Tuesday.
Here are all the institutions that participated last night and their various homes on the web. If you are interested in history, culture and the arts in Durham Region, following along with each profile will provide you with loads of interesting and educational content.
What would you like to see your local gallery and museum do using social media websites? What kind of content interests you? We'd love to hear from you in our comments section.
Today's blog post comes from Sonya Jones, Curator of The Thomas Bouckley Collection.
When looking at images we bring our own history and memories to the experience. For me, coming from an art history background, there are times when I not only look at the images in the Thomas Bouckley Collection from a historical perspective, but also from an “art” perspective. There are many images in the collection that are not only historically significant, but aesthetically beautiful. The majority of the images were taken for documentation purposes—snapshots of events, buildings, or people—but there are many that were clearly taken by a skilled photographer. For example, the composition and lighting of this 1912 image depicting young men playing billiards at the YMCA is striking.
Other times I’m pleasantly surprised to be reminded of famous paintings when looking at images from the collection. There are a couple that have always reminded me of artworks, for example the Oshawa beach scene and Seurat’s painting below.
Beach Activities, Oshawa on the Lake 1915
Georges-Pierre Seurat A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte 1884
However, in preparing this blog I put on my art history goggles and even more jumped out at me. Although there are differences, the similarities are what are enjoyable to discover.
T.N. Gibbs Daughter, c. 1850s, (detail)
Jean-Honoré Fragonard The Reader c. 1776
On the Oshawa Creek, 1900
Pierre-Auguste Renoir The Skiff (La Yole) 1875
Oshawa Junction, 1912
Claude Monet Gare Staint-Lazare 1877
Newton Home, located at 246 Albert Street, 1880
Grant Wood American Gothic 1930
A new installation of photos from the Thomas Bouckley Collection opens Saturday 28 April. Music To Our Ears: Oshawa's Musical History is on view until 23 August, 2012.
The RMG’s ArtReach department funtions as an educational outreach program which brings understanding and passion for art to our community. ArtReach, in collaboration with our music event series RMG Fridays, is pleased to present this opportunity for illustrators, graphic artists, musicans and others to participate in showcasing the talent in the music promotion community in Durham Region.
Posters are an art medium with a rich history. Many well known fine artists have completed famous examples: Henri Toulouse-Lautrec’s ads for theatre productions are art history staples, while more recently notable graphic designers such as Milton Glaser created designs for rock icons like Bob Dylan.
We're very excited to see this exhibition of posters by local talent come together in May. For the past few months, we've been seeking submissions from graphic designers, artists, painters, illustrators and other creatives who have designed posters advertising musical performances. We were pleased to receive diverse entries and our jury has made their top 15 selections.
Meet our jury:
Jenn Shadbolt, RGD is a Toronto-based graphic designer with a specialty in delicious food & beverage retail package design. Her work can be found in groceries & drugstores across Canada and the US. She loves to see how good design improves our everyday lives.Luke Despatie is an award-winning graphic designer, illustrator and printmaker living and working in the bucolic town of Port Hope, Ontario. A true design nerd, Luke is inspired by all things aesthetic – art, architecture, film, theatre, food, toys and comics. His past and present clients include Survivorman, The Northern Pikes, Oak Heights Winery, Random House, Harper Collins, PEN Canada, Yahoo! and Chatelaine, among others.Chad Mitchell started his career in the music industry 13 years ago at BMG, building websites and riding the social media wave. Eventually he moved into his current position, Video Production Manager at Sony Music Canada, where he has been filming and editing Canadian and International talent for the past 9 years. He has also done gigs with CRIA, Universal Music and The Songwriters Association of Canada.
In addition today we were able to announce our prizes. They are:
The JMS Audio Best Overall Prize $150 cash, $100 Oak Recording Studios gift certificate, membership to the gallery & RMG Fridays swag bag
The Aked Second Overall Prize $100 cash, $25 Long and McQuade gift certificate, membership to the gallery & RMG Fridays swag bagThe RMG Fridays Third Overall Prize $50 cash, membership to the gallery & RMG Fridays swag bag
(Winning entries will be announced on the evening of the event.)
The Durham Region Area Archives Group (DRAAG) is an advocacy and support group for the history of Durham Region and surrounding areas. The group, made up of Durham’s archives and libraries, works to promote and preserve the shared documentary heritage of Durham Region along with some neighbouring communities. This press release announces their upcoming Archives Awareness Week.
For Immediate Release 20 March 2012
Oshawa – Are you the unofficial family archivist? Join the Durham Region Area Archives Group (DRAAG) as we celebrate Archives Awareness Week (April 2-6) with our Preserving Your Family History event on April 4 at the Northview Branch of the Oshawa Public Libraries from 2:00pm – 8:00pm. Professional Archivists and Local History Librarians will be on hand to answer questions on genealogy, document and photograph preservation, digitization, and document repair. Residents of Durham Region are invited to drop in for digitization and encapsulation demonstrations. There will be helpful information on how best to store your family collection to ensure it lasts for generations to come! Residents are encouraged to bring along their photographs and documents.
For more information please contact the Oshawa Community Museum and Archives at 905-436-7624 ext. 100.
In this edition of The Intern Files, we hear from Amy Weir. Amy is a library and information science graduate student from the Faculty of Information at the University of Toronto. In the past, Amy has interned at the RMG Library and Archives, and is currently working on a special project for the Thomas Bouckley Collection.
Compiled by local historian Thomas Bouckley, the Thomas Bouckley Collection at the RMG depicts the history of the City of Oshawa – providing visual insight into Oshawa’s past. The collection’s catalogued component consists of over 2280 photographs and negatives, but in addition, the RMG possesses a wide range of supporting files from Thomas Bouckley’s personal collection: over 2000 items including uncatalogued photographs, documents, artefacts and ephemera.
As some may be familiar, much of the catalogued component of the Thomas Bouckley Collection has been organized and filed in proper storage, frequently displayed in exhibitions and accessed for research purposes by the public. However, the other items that make up the collection currently remain in the condition received in 1985, with little organization, improper storage, and a lack of archival-quality housing. The uncatalogued materials, while stored in folders that have been numbered and named, are also difficult to locate due to a lack of description in the accompanying finding aid. This is where I come in. Over the course of three months, I’m working toward the goal of establishing order and appropriate storage for the uncatalogued portion, with the ultimate objective of facilitating ease of access, longevity, and ongoing preservation for the entire collection.
Re-housing files in archival-quality folders, before and after.
Currently, the project’s first stage is just wrapping up: the records within nearly all of the files have been ‘re-housed,’ and placed in archival-quality storage to enhance their preservation. Some files have simply required new, archival-quality file folders, while others have required more careful intervention – removing damaged photos from dated photo albums, for example.
Damaged photos to be removed from unstable photo albums.
Doing so has involved an analysis of every item in the collection, which has provided a great opportunity to discover the treasures that Bouckley collected as part of his research. Items, such as the original postcard with inscription shown here, tell the stories of the families who lived in early Oshawa.
1917 postcard and note on verso. Man in photo is identified as Frank Mallet of Mallet House Hotel, Oshawa. TBC File no. 013A
What's more, some of the items within the collection speak to not only the history of Oshawa, but the history of other areas in Ontario, with research and artefacts dating as far back as the aboriginal settlements of today’s Durham Region and Southern Ontario. Once the collection has been properly re-housed, organization and the eventual production of a digital finding aid (and collection inventory) is created, access to the collection will be significantly enhanced while contributing to Bouckley’s endeavour to continually augment and to preserve our knowledge of the region’s history.
Sonya Jones is the Curator of The Thomas Bouckley Collection.
In looking at Oshawa through a “Then and Now” lens, it really puts into perspective how much Oshawa has changed in the last 100 or so years. The city continues to grow and seems to always be in transition. Consider, for example, UOIT’s continued expansion in the core of the city and how it is rejuvenating the downtown core; or the demolition of General Motor’s north plant to be replaced by a shopping complex. How do these physical changes affect how we think about our city?
This idea of comparing history to present day is explored in the current Thomas Bouckley Collection exhibition in partnership with the Oshawa Seniors Citizens’ Camera Club titled Oshawa Creek: Then and Now. Using historical photographs from the Thomas Bouckley Collection as a starting point, members of the Oshawa Seniors Citizens’ Camera Club have photographed the Oshawa Creek as it appears today. The photographs examine the evolution of the creek and illustrate its continued importance to the foundation of this community. Please join us for the opening reception on Tuesday, February 7th, at 11:30am. Oshawa Creek: Then and Now is on view until April 26th.
On Monday, 28 November in the morning, I attended the official opening of UOIT’s Energy Systems and Nuclear Science Research Centre (ERC). Six years ago, we invested in a ground source heating system for our home, so I am excited to know that Oshawa’s university is a leader in research into innovation in clean and renewable energy as this is where the future is undoubtedly taking us. After the dignitaries spoke, they gathered in front of a sculpture to cut the ribbon and declare the building officially open. Yes, they stood in front of a sculpture!
And not just any sculpture but Geordie Lishman’s True Power, a magnificent 4.1 metre high stainless steel horse that I first saw at Geordie’s home and studio in Ajax. True Power was the central work in the exhibition Hidden Worlds held at the RMG this past summer and which I described in the catalogue essay as an “other-worldly creature of graceful power.” This exhibition was definitely a highlight in our 2011 programming year as shown by the hundreds of people who attended the opening and the number of repeat visitors we had over the summer months.
I was thrilled to hear of the community grass roots initiative to purchase the work for UOIT and specifically for the new research centre. Oshawa and its citizens continue to support this place as a creative city and it shows in how quickly they were able to raise the funds to make this initiative happen. Geordie describes his sculpture as symbol of untapped potential in harnessing energy. How perfect that it would become a centre piece for an institution that is also seeking to harness renewable energy sources! Congratulations go to Geordie, our tireless community supporters of the arts and UOIT in making this match possible.
With just an hour or so to go in the Q in Oshawa campaign, we thought now would be a good time to reflect on what we've achieved in an incredibly short window of time. Oshawa's spirit for arts and culture is electric and we're thrilled to be part of it. Here's some links to things that have been suggested as reasons for Q to come to Oshawa. Win or lose, we've had so much fun working on this campaign and we are so proud of all of the supporters and friends we've made along the way.
10. It’s just 35km from Toronto. It’ll only use up a small portion of Q’s travel budget.
9. Everyone already knows about Hamilton, London, Stratford, Guelph and Kingston. What do people know about Oshawa? If your answer involves anything to do with cars, it doesn’t count.
8. Oshawhat!? magazine, Durham’s “Village Voice” or “Now Magazine” is launching and it needs a cover story.
7. Parkwood Mansion is here. They filmed Billy Madison and X Men there. Plus it’s super pretty and a national monument. But…BILLY MADISON!!
6. Because Jian and us have one friend in common on facebook and we didn’t ask her to ask him for us. We respect boundaries.
5. Our downtown core is being revitalized. UOIT (University of Ontario Institute of Technology for you non-locals) has set up shop and has renovated two beautiful historic buildings, the Regent Theatre and the Alger Press. They are really great examples of what historians and architects and universities can do if they all get together in one room. UOIT is a diverse university with students from over 65 countries, but we also have Durham College and Trent University in Oshawa, with a student population projected to reach 22,500 within the next three years. Oh, and Queen's University is setting up shop too.
4. We’ve got a bad reputation. We don’t have the Bard or the Beibs like Stratford. (In fact, what Shakespeare we do have, we take on the road with the Bard’s Bus tour by the Driftwood Theatre Company). We don’t have Margaret Atwood. We don’t have Sarah Harmer. Actually, we’re very punk rock and a lot of our arts events are grassroots, not for profit, unsponsored and totally local-focused. Oshawa is the unexpected and controversial choice.
3. The Robert McLaughlin Gallery’s First Fridays event series is the coolest thing happening in Durham Region right now. Bands play, artists make stuff, photos get taken, people drink beer, sometimes even dance crews show up and breakdance. All of this in a gallery that houses thousands of masterpieces of Canadian modern and contemporary art. It’s shwasome.
