By Pepper Parr

October 19, 2015

BURLINGTON, ON

Denise Beard is pumped.

Denise Beard, Manager of xxx for the city heads up a provincially funded project to get the under 1q2 set outdoors running, jumping and playing every day.

She has her hands on a project that is going to keep her busy for the next three years and she believes the project is going to make a difference.

During a press briefing Beard told media that the city has been given a grant of $1.1 million to get the fat off the bodies of young people who spend more time in front of a screen of some sort rather than on their bikes.

There is an obesity problem in the city – and Beard who was a life guard when she was a teenager, wants to see younger people enjoying better health – and she thinks the program she is going to run for the next three years can go a long way to making that happen.

Beard tends to put everything she has into her projects – it’s just who she is.

So what is the program all about?

It is billed as a Community Challenge – an event that uses provincial money to drive a program that will result in younger people getting more exercise.

For reason’s it only understands the province decided to work with communities rather than schools or the medical community to get young people off the couch and away from the screens and exercise more.

The idea was first used in France where significant results were claimed to have taken place. The Ontario government chose Burlington as the only community in Halton to get funding. Hamilton and 45 other communities in the province were given funds.

Expect to see a lot of chalking going on at least until there is snow on the side walks of the city – all part of a healthier youth initiative.

Beard talked about “chalking” the community – getting young people to take to the streets and make their mark telling what they are doing to live healthier lifestyles.

The initiative came out of the provincial Ministry of Health and Long Term care that will be putting forward a new theme every nine months.

In order to get the funding communities had to come up with an Action Plan; Burlington apparently had the best one – so we will now see the Mayor pumping and promoting healthy living.

The city wants to see the grade 5 level students Running, Jumping and Playing every day. Data will be collected with the focus on individual Body Mass Index (BMI) – some additional focusing will be done on students at the grade 8 level.

There are five neighbourhoods in the city that that are expected to get special attention. The program will collaborate with the YMCA, parent groups and schools taking a “street to street” and “parent to parent approach” to getting young people – mostly those under 12 out onto the streets and the playgrounds and getting more exercise.

Great initiative – that has to compete with computer games.

By Pepper Parr

October 8th, 2015

BURLINGTON, ON

Each year the Fire Department holds an Open House which Fire Chief Tony Bavota describes as a day for the family that doesn’t cost a dime and “if they buy a hot dog from the service group they get it at cost – a great inexpensive family outing”.

But this year there was no Open House because the fire department HQ is undergoing a major renovation – so they had to come up with a new idea.  And they certainly came up with what can only be described as a winner.

The Fire Department partnered with the Culinary class at Robert Bateman High school for a cook off between four teams. Each team was made up of a fire fighter and two students. Murray Zehr who runs the Culinary program said there are 300 students in the class where the focus is on nutrition and kitchen safety. The cooks had an hour to prepare the meal.

There were very good reasons for using a cook off as the focus for the event – 53% of the fires in private homes are the result of unattended cooking.

Acting Captain Sam Wakunick taught the Gazette reporter a couple of things about unattended cooking. It was embarrassing.

This reporter has some direct experience with unattended cooking and the Burlington Fire department. Shortly after moving into a new home and getting used to the stove I wandered away from the kitchen and then heard that beep beep sound of the smoke alarm. There was nothing I could do to shut the damn thing off the way you can in most houses. I called security and told them everything was under control but it was too late – the fire department was on the way and before I knew it Sam Wakunick was standing at my door in full fire fighter kit. I sheepishly explained what I had done – she smiled – Sam wasn’t a guy – and asked if she could just look through the unit – which wasn’t exactly tidy.

Months later I show up to cover a news event and there is Sam – reminding me not to wander from the kitchen when food is cooking.

The Fire department media people working with the Bateman staff came up with a really fun and instructive program that made the point – fires are dangerous and they can be prevented. It was also an opportunity to showcase the cooking talent at Bateman

Fire fighter Peter Temoche explains a point to a member of his team Kristan Dymad – Alicia Ann Husk was also on the team.

Each of the cooking teams was given a recipe and the ingredients – there was a table with all kinds of oils, wines, and fresh vegetables that cooks could dip into.

To jazz up the event – a fire fighter with the name “That Guy” who wandered from stove to stove and just became a pain in the butt. He would drop something into the food or give one of the cooks a penalty which meant they had to sit in a penalty box – and not be able to take part in the food preparation.

There was a party atmosphere that brought out the newly minted Director of Education Stuart Miller and Mayor Goldring who advised the students that he had absolutely no culinary skills but was prepared to serve as a judge for the cook off. The Mayor mentioned that during his recent trip to China he learned to ask what he was being served; “you sometimes didn’t want to know” he said. Burlington’s taxpayers however might want to know what the Mayor was doing in China for close to a week.

Firefighter Dave Reid and Bateman students Vanessa Plouffe and Alisha Hales look into the ingredients they were given to cook up a meal in one hour.

Fire fighter Dave Reid and students Vanessa Plouffe and Alisha Hales were on a team called the Dragons.

Fire fighter Chris Grieve takes his cooks Cameron Davies and J.R. Kelertas through the approach he thinks they should take to preparing the meal.

Chris Grieve, the fire fighter was on a team with students Cameron Davies and J. R Kelertas – they decided to be known as Five Arm Alarm; one of the students had a cast on his arm

Fire fighter Peter Tamoche teamed up with Krista Dymod and Alicia Ann Husk – they wanted to be called the Hot Tamales.

Ty Solomon gets rapt attention from a student during the cook off.

Ty Solomon and students Bryce Walker and Nick Shaw titled themselves: Kill it with Fire.

The Bateman high school kitchen with its four gas stoves was a bit of a zoo with cameras all over the place and students scooting around picking up supplies and utensils.

The kitchen at Bateman was a bit of a zoo with students photographers wandering all over the place, the Cogeco cable News camera kept popping up while cooks were scooting around getting equipment and ingredients while Dennis Hayes kept calling out trivia questions and announcing penalties and in the last fifteen minutes telling everyone how little time they left.

Students and other observers looked on from the back of the kitchen.

The judging was pretty tight: winning team got 75 points with two teams getting 71 points. They were judged on presentation and taste.

Dave Reid’s team, on the left took first place while Ty Solomon throws his arms up and congratulates Bryce Walker and Nick Shaw who took second. There were less than four points between each team.

Fire fighter Dave Reid and students Plouffe and Hales took first place.

While students were cooking up their storm other students were trying on fire fighter equipment.

The fire department had three pieces of equipment parked outside the school and all kinds of fire fighter equipment set out for students to try on. There were 19 fire fighters helping out “on their own time” added Chief Bavota.

By Pepper Parr

October 5th, 2015

BURLINGTON, ON

Membership has its privileges – The Art Gallery of Burlington launched their fall season with a members only reception that had the xx artists in the fall program on hand to chat up their work and answer questions.

Laurin’s work plays with family and found photographs that he reinterprets

In Spirit
In Spirit presents the work of Timothy Laurin, John Latour and Heather Murray. Timothy Laurin’s work plays with family and found photographs that he reinterprets. His practice focuses on identity and memory and how one informs the other and keep in flux one’s sense of self.

John Latour’s text-based art, sculpture, and found photography highlight the ways in which we connect with the past, and how this uniquely human activity is mediated through words, objects, and images. Heather Murray is influenced by her rural backdrop and creates diligently and enthusiastically out of her haunted historical studio in Owen Sound Ontario.

This exhibition is co-curated by Virginia Eichhorn, Tom Thomson Art Gallery, and Denis Longchamps, Art Gallery of Burlington. The exhibition will run from September 19, 2015 to November 15, 2015.

Co-curation with the Tom Thomson Art Gallery is not small potatoes.

Drawn from the AGB’s Permanent Collection of Contemporary Canadian Ceramics, five artists – Bruce Cochrane, Reid Flock, Harlan House, Ruth Gowdy McKinley, and Kayo O’Young demonstrate their mastery over the medium. Not to be missed.

Thrown
While the thrown vessel is the most common ceramic form, great skill is required to achieve total control in the medium. Once this level of skill is reached, the artist can then either create ever more complex forms or loosen up and relax. Drawn from the AGB’s Permanent Collection of Contemporary Canadian Ceramics, five artists – Bruce Cochrane, Reid Flock, Harlan House, Ruth Gowdy McKinley, and Kayo O’Young demonstrate their mastery over the medium.

The permanent collection is gem that is all too often hidden – it was what validates the existence of the gallery – the rest of the country just hasn’t discovered it yet.

Curated by Jonathan Smith, the exhibition will run from September 19, 2015 to December 31, 2015 in the Perry Gallery.

a snapshot of one of the collages “5 Glasses” featuring a photo of artist Clive Tucker surrounded by five different types of glasses.

Click. Clip. Paste.
Jonathan Smith presents fifteen of his photo-collages ranging from the earliest created around 1997, to the latest one hung while the glue was still wet. Friends and family of the artist act as his models in this show.

The presence of the artist is suggested through his reflection with his eyeglasses or drinking glasses located in the foreground. Each work follows a set of formal principles: a grid is used for the collage composition following concerns of proportions, dynamic tensions and lines. The photos however were taken without any planned composition in mind. Many are captured at a table sharing a meal, at other times the models pose for the purpose of creating a collage.

Smith is the curator of the permanent collection.  He has been with the AGB for 25 years and is an artist in his own right.  The showing of his personal work in an exhibition was part of the thank you from the gallery board.  Well deserved.

The exhibition is on until October 18, 2015 in the RBC Community Gallery.

The AGB is going to use the corridor spaces to focus on regional work from different parts of the country. This preserve jar is a prairie contribution.

Amber Fields of Grain
The wide open spaces of the Canadian Prairies have been home to a great many well-known Canadian ceramic artists. Beside such great functional potters like Robert Archambeau, the Prairies have produced its own particular brand of sculpture, “Prairies’ Funk” that was created by such notables as Joe Fafard and Victor Cicansky. The Wild West has its own unique culture that is explored, often with great humour and insight that reflects the wide open spaces of the plains.

This is an ongoing 2015-2016 exhibition curated by AGB Permanent Collection Curator, Jonathan Smith.

The Gallery is open to the public:

Monday: 9:00 am – 6:00 pm
Tuesday – Thursday: 9:00 am – 10:00 pm
Friday – Saturday: 9:00 am – 5:00 pm
Sunday: 12 noon – 5:00 pm

Admission is free