Guelph Arts Council Announces Digital Doors Open Guelph: D.O.G. Tales

Guelph, ON – August 21, 2020 – Doors Open Guelph moves online this year, celebrating Guelph’s finest buildings, creative spaces, and artistically or architecturally relevant sites. Presented annually by Guelph Arts Council since 2002, the program showcases and celebrates Guelph’s hidden gems, as well as our great resources, businesses, and creative hubs.

This year, Doors Open Guelph will take the form of 5-minute tour videos highlighting the unique stories that each featured site has to tell. Digital tours will be released on guelphartsevents.com weekly from August 25 – September 30, ending with a bonus video in the last full week of the program. Site details are listed below and will be posted with event updates on guelphartsevents.com.

Since its inception, Doors Open Guelph has been part of Doors Open Ontario, an Ontario Heritage Trust initiative that was also launched in 2002 to celebrate community heritage. Communities all across the province are moving their events online and will be featured through Digital Doors Open.

D.O.G. Tales is made possible by the enthusiasm and hard work of volunteers who will serve as site storytellers and tour guides: Cindi Conlon, Robert Cutting, Ali Jones, Mireille Massue, Marion Reidel, and Jay Wilson. A special thanks to Doors Open Coordinator, Susan Ratcliffe, who made the stories come alive through research and writing, and Scott McGovern, the video editor of D.O.G. Tales 2020.

Guelph Arts Council thanks its event partners, including City of Guelph, Guelph Museums,  Ontario Heritage Trust, GCAT, eMerge, and Trails Open. GAC also thanks its sponsors: Downtown Guelph Business Association, University of Guelph – Gryphon Football, Sleeman Breweries, Aimée Puthon Real Estate, Hammond Power Solutions, SV Law, Granite Homes/The Junction, and Grinham Architects, as well as all participating sites, and its Steering Committee and event volunteers.

2020 Site Listing and Tour Release Dates:

1. Hammond Radio Museum – Tuesday, August 25, 7:00 PM
2. Catholic Hill – Tuesday, September 1, 7:00 PM
3. Gryphon Football Pavilion – Tuesday, September 8, 7:00 PM
4. President’s House – Tuesday, September 15, 7:00 PM
5. Bisson Dentistry – Tuesday, September 22, 7:00 PM
6. Hope House and Lakeside Downtown – Thursday, September 24, 7:00 PM
7. Junction/Granite Homes – Tuesday, September 29, 7:00 PM

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Guelph Arts Council Announces Fall Round of Guelph Emerging Artist Mentorship Project

Guelph, ON – August 7, 2020 – Guelph Arts Council presents the seventh round of the Guelph Emerging Artist Mentorship Project, a program that supports emerging artists in the critical transition to professional life. GAC is grateful for project support from the RBC Emerging Artists Project, which helps artists bridge the gap from emerging to established.

Applications for the seventh round of the project, which begins in September, are being accepted until Sunday, September 20 at 11:59 pm. Guelph visual and media artists, musicians, and cultural managers are encouraged to apply as mentors or emerging artists. Established artists may apply online as mentors, and emerging artists may apply online to be mentored. For more details on the project, please visit the online application forms through guelpharts.ca.

This project pairs emerging musicians, visual artists, and cultural managers with professional Guelph mentors in the same field. As in each of the six previous rounds, the emerging artists’ experience will culminate in a group exhibition of their work that they plan, promote, and install with support from their mentors. This year, training and mentorship sessions will happen in accordance with public health recommendations, and an in-person exhibition will be coordinated. GAC will assist in organizing online spaces for sessions as needed.

Guelph Arts Council is grateful for the support of the University of Guelph’s School of Fine Art and Music.

For more information about the Guelph Emerging Artist Mentorship Project, visit guelpharts.ca or call Guelph Arts Council at 519-836-3280.

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Guelph Arts Council Announces the Return of Historical Walking Tours

Guelph, ON – July 30, 2020 – The 2020 Historical Walking Tours season launches this Sunday, August 2. An annual Guelph tradition, the Historical Walking Tours highlight Guelph’s rich cultural, architectural, and social history through six featured tours. Hosted by Guelph Arts Council and led by a team of volunteer tour guides, the tours provide an opportunity to learn the stories and history behind Guelph landmarks and popular walking routes. The cost is $5 per person, online through the guelpharts.ca event calendar. Spots are limited, and all participants must wear a mask.

For over thirty years, Guelph Arts Council has celebrated the city’s cultural history through walking tours extending over a period of several months. The 2020 tours will run from August 2 – October 4 and will range from exploring the slopes of the Speed River, various areas of Downtown Guelph, Catholic Hill and Exhibition Park, and what was formerly known as Brooklyn, one of Guelph’s early industrial sections.

This season’s walking tours will kick off with Where Guelph Began, on Sunday, August 2, 2020 at 10 am. This tour encircles the original Market Square area, an area for both current and historic social and business life, where many of Guelph’s first buildings were built.

Tours include Where Guelph Began, Slopes of the Speed, Altar and Hearth, Brooklyn and the College Hill, and Ward One Guelph. Participants will engage in an enriching in-person tour that aligns with public health recommendations, while hearing Guelph’s stories and viewing some of the city’s best examples of masonry, stone carving, and historic architecture. A Public Art Walk on September 26 will be included in these historic walks as part of Culture Days Guelph, and will be free. This tour explores public art in Downtown Guelph and highlights how public art reflects Guelph’s values, diversity, and heritage.

All tour details can be found on Facebook and guelpharts.ca. If you are interested in participating in a Guelph Historical Walking tour, purchase a ticket through Guelph Arts Council events calendar.

Please note: Guelph Arts Council's Historical Walking Tours are operating with COVID-19 precautions. All participants must wear a face covering that covers the nose and mouth and maintain physical distancing throughout the tour. All tours offered have been condensed to 60 - 90 minutes. Participants who arrive without a face covering will be asked not to participate and will receive a refund through the GAC office. Guides will not handle cash. Tour booklets will be available at the GAC office only. Tours are restricted to a maximum of 6 prepaid and pre-registered participants. Tours with less than two registrations by the previous Friday at 4 pm will be cancelled.

Supported by Downtown Guelph Business Association

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Monthly Musical Member Video - Elaquent

Each month we’ll feature a video from one of GAC’s musical members. If you’re a musician and have a video you’d like us to feature, please send a YouTube link our way along with a short bio.

This month, we visit recent Hillside Homeside performer and Ed Video’s 2020 Kenny Doren Award recipient, Elaquent. The video for “Moodswings” has both a modern and classic feel, like a contemporary video reminiscent of those we remember from the late 80s/early 90s; think Maestro Fresh Wes’s “Drop the Needle”. A dance performance from Jason Ulysses complements the song perfectly, all beautifully captured by director Ryan Calavano.

Elaquent
Elaquent has seen music through two prisms. On one hand, the producer born Sona Elango has witnessed its power as a connective tissue that brings people in a city––a culture––together. Unifying. On the other, he understands just how deeply isolated one must be to find new corners of his own psyche. A native of Guelph, Ontario, Elaquent grew up without access to the infrastructure that’s readily available in a major city, and had little direction in terms of learning how to craft beats, or to play live. That forced him to learn by trial and error––but it also freed him from the cynical types of networking that gobbles up the time of creative people in coastal cities. And when he finally emerged with his own sound, Elaquent got to work establishing just the kind of scene he had been missing in his formative years.

Please visit Elaquent’s official website to learn more about this fantastic Guelph artist, and check out his many releases on Bandcamp, where they have committed to continue forgoing their share of artist sales on the first Friday of each month until the end of 2020. That means more money in the pockets of Elaquent and many of your other favourite musicians next Friday, August 7^th.

And finally, to swing your mood to a truly wonderful place for the next few minutes, here’s the official music video for Elaquent’s “Moodswings”: