Here is a list of what I thought were major achievements in arts, culture and entertainment this year.
1. The Winnipeg Art Gallery announced a major expansion of their gallery. Not only is the art gallery an architectural treasure but it is the foremost exhibitors of Inuit art. It has been a good year for the gallery with an amazing painting donated, some great exhibits and now the expansion.
2. Le Cercle Molière’s new théâtre opened in October. Canada's oldest theatre on Provencher Boulevard gets the street presence that it richly deserves and the venue to continues presenting French plays and culture.
3. Plug-In Art Gallery and the University of Winnipeg get together for a major presence of a well know gallery onto Portage Avenue and and a continued expansion of the university eastward to downtown.
4. Astron 6, a moviemaking collective from Winnipeg markets itself in Toronto and lands a film deal for Father's Day, a horror film put together by famed studio Troma of Toxic Avenger fame. Look for these guys for more films over the years.
5. Manitoba Theatre Centre get a royal designation from Queen Elizabeth. The continued strong showing year after year for Canada's first regional theatre deserves a salute.
6. Manitoba Museum wins international award for Beneath the Seas and hosts a retrospective of Manitoba rock, country, folk and French language music in Alloway Hall.
7. The Great Canadian Talk Show is cancelled by Kick FM at the behest of Red River College. The timing after the civic election is suspect.
8. Oldies rock station is killed on CFRW and becomes 1290 Sports Radio, the second time in a number of years sports radio tries to make a go of it in Winnipeg. Not to be outdone, Curve 94 FM kills their alt-pop music format and goes oldies as Fab 94.
9. Bachman and Turner go back on the road. Randy Bachman and Fred Turner might not be in overdrive but they are back to making rock music on tour across Canada.
10. ITV Brandon goes off the air. After the death of CKX in Brandon, it looked like the only alternative to the print media was ITV Brandon. Now it too has gone off the air.
4 comments:
I'm really looking forward to seeing what the WAG's Inuit gallery will look like. I'm sure it'll be a grander setting than the existing mezzanine gallery used to display Inuit art.
I think it is amazing that the gallery is indeed going to expand. The need for additional exhibition space can't be denied.
Astron-6 is producing the most exciting film/video material in Winnipeg, yet so few people have heard of them. Hopefully this feature debut changes all of that. I saw them shooting some of it at the U of W recently.
I expect we will be seeing a lot more from this group. Nice to see.
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