This Week In Art/Culture/Entertainment
By John Swartz
Xavier Fernandes was downtown one day and had an idea. The City was cutting down some of the trees. He got talking with one of the tree cutting crew members about what was going to happen with the parts cut down.
One of the ways Xavier makes art, among many, is wood turning. He makes bowls, candle holders, bottle stoppers, anything you can turn on a lathe. He sees wood and imagines something he could make of it.
So he’s downtown, looking at all the tree trunks and branches and figures he can make bowls of them. He got the go ahead to cart off as much as he could and set about to make his bowls.
But he also numbered the chunks of wood, so he’d know which tree they came from. He then put together the information about what the bowl had been and is selling them as keepsakes of what so many people value about the downtown.
While he’s already sold many of them, he will have the set on display at a reception at Peter Street Fine Arts Thursday, December 5, from 5:30 to 8 p.m. He’s selling the bowls for $50 each.
Making Money
A bunch of bands and musicians are getting together December 6 to raise some money for the Orillia Youth Centre in memory of Jake Beers. Hxmesweethxme has Rodda, Cousin Floyd, Zain Cook, Might Be Sketchy and Lil’ Durpy performing starting at 7 p.m. at Creative Nomad Studios. Admission is $10 at the door.
The next night, December 7, the show switches to the legion to raise funds for the Sharing Place. Zain will be joined by Alex Kaye Black, Sarah Simcoe, Mark Logan, Jane Bard and many more. The evening is hosted by Ian McRea and Ralston Harris. This one starts at 7:30 p.m.
Purposefully Ugly
Derick Lehmann’s 10th Annual Ugly Sweater Bowling Party sold out the day tickets went on sale (Derick said it only took 5 minutes to sellout), and before I had a chance to write about it.
Meanwhile Derick, after the sellout in 35 minutes last year started to think about how he could make the event bigger. He was thinking about having another of his famous dance parties. So the quicker sellout this year prompted him to pull the trigger and have the Ugly Christmas Sweater Dance Party at ODAS Park – and it’s this Saturday, December 7 from 8 p.m. to 1 a.m.
Derick’s other dance parties have been huge fundraisers. Aside from the dancing you can take a photo with Santa and there are prizes for the worst ugly sweaters. Steve Olimer is providing the music and there is a cash bar.
Both events are fundraisers with the bowling proceeds going to the Sharing Place food bank and from the dance distributed to various toy drives operating in Orillia. Get tickets for the dance online.
The last event Derick held was the annual Trunk or Treat at ODAS Park in October. This event is not necessarily a fundraiser as was born out of the pandemic when kids couldn’t go door to door. Derick borrowed an idea and encouraged people to fill up their trunks with candy so the kids would still have a Halloween.
This year there were more than 100 trunks to visit and more than 2,000 kids took over the park. This event runs on a tighter budget, but there always seems to be some money left over after expenses, which he donates. This year the Orillia Youth Centre got $1,200.
ORHA Awards
The Orillia Region Arts and Heritage Awards night at Creative Nomad Studios last Wednesday was the most well attended since before the pandemic. More than 100 people showed up to find out who among the nominees would get awards.
The recipients are:
Education in the Arts, Culture, and Heritage Award – Christina Bosco
Event in Arts, Culture, and Heritage Award – Lake Country Pride and Mariposa Arts Theatre for Queer Cabaret and the Orillia Pride March.
Emerging Artist Award – Bella Frances
Restoration, Renovation and Publication Award – Mary Aileen Reed for her work preserving the history of Ramara Township.
Qennefer Browne Achievement Award – The Orillia Silver Band
ORAH Award Qennefer Browne Achievement recipient OSB's Earle Birt, Sybil Taylor (Qennefer's daughter) and Neil Barlow
The award is offered by the Orillia Museum of Art and History and North Simcoe Arts (formerly ODAC).
And….We’re Off
We’ve got the snow, next up the spirit. Get your annual shot of spirit Saturday night, December 7 with the Orillia Concert Band’s annual Christmas Prelude.
I may have mentioned before, I was ambivalent for much of my life about Christmas. It was a byproduct of growing up in a family that had a retail store. Post being a kid, I reached the point where on Christmas Eve when the door was locked behind the last customer, all I could think of was, “I’m glad that’s over.”
There were some ups along the way, like when my boys were little, but for the most part I was always in a state of I’m new here and really don’t know anybody. It was at a Christmas Prelude in the late 90s, at a point where I was getting to know people in town. Everyone was saying hi and Merry Christmas to me. Well, not everyone, but quite a few.
The Opera House was full and the concert almost over when the band played the Hallelujah Chorus. This is a thing to hear when you have singers doing the heavy lifting. It’s a different thing when the whole audience gets up and starts singing. Despite the lack of a tonal center to any of the notes, it somehow gave me a warm feeling. At that moment I realized I was home. I felt the years of being here and there and on the road a lot were over. I had a home.
The OCB is not doing the Hallelujah Chorus this year and it’s been a while since I recall it was on the menu for the Christmas concert but that doesn’t matter. It’s what this concert signifies to me, and I think to many others, that is important.
Several years ago the OCB split the concert into two parts, the afternoon gig (3:30 p.m.) is for kids. This year the lineup of tunes is almost completely different from the evening concert. Santa will be dropping in and the Orillia Community Children’s Choir will be joining the band for some of the tunes.
The evening concert (7:30 p.m.) has the Orillia Vocal Ensemble and Alex Teske as guest performers.
Both concerts are at St. Paul’s Centre and you can get tickets for either concert, or both, online.
The Shorts
- A Skydiggers Christmas happens at St. Paul’s Centre December 5. Daniel Greaves of The Watchmen is opening the concert. You can get tickets online.
- Orillia Secondary School music students have a Christmas concert Dec. 12 at 7 p.m. at the school. Admission is by donation and proceeds are used for the music program.
- Green Haven Shelter for Women and Dress for Success Orillia and Barrie has Dickens’s A Christmas Carol happening Dec. 13 at St. Paul’s Centre. The readers, in order of appearance are Adam Chambers, Carey Moran, Krista Storey and Janell Bartosek. Sean Patrick will be providing the music and the readers have not been announced yet. You can get tickets online. It happens at St. Paul’s Centre at 7 p.m.
- The Orillia Silver Band has their Christmas Concert December 15 at the Opera House. Tickets for the 2 p.m. concert are available on online.
- The Orillia Vocal Ensemble has their concert December 21 at St. Paul’s Centre. Their guests are the Orillia Community Children’s Choir. Their concerts are always admission by donation and function as fundraisers for local charities; this time it’s the Orillia Central Preschool who are beneficiaries.
- OMAH has an online auction of art by Marlene Bulas happening. You can bid up to Dec. 12.
- The Orillia Museum of Art and History has three exhibits to see, one is Teachers and Their Enduring Impact, The Legacy of Jose Salas, the annual Carmichael show Tradition Transformed, and Gillian Lowry’s Owl Pen Revisited. OMAH’s annual gala is Jan. 18 and is also their 25th anniversary party; it’s at Hawk Ridge and the keynote speaker is Adam Shoalts; get tickets online… St. Paul’s Centre has the Call to Action 83 Art Project in the Ogimaa Miskwaaki Gallery… Hibernation Arts has a reception Dec. 7 from 1 to 4 p.m. of all kinds of art pieces by Rodney Frost; Streets Alive will be in Dec. 14 from noon to 2 p.m. for the annual ornament and photo session; … Peter Street Fine Arts has the annual 6×6 show up now… Cloud Gallery has their Gift of Art Show Dec. 7 from 2 to 5 p.m.; selected pieces are marked down to as low as $1200.
- The Washago monthly jam nights are Dec. 11 for country music and Dec. 18 for rock at the Lions Hall. Both start at 7 p.m. and bring something to donate to the Sharing Place.
- New Year’s Eve Even Steven are at Lake Country Grill; Samantha Windover is at Couchiching Craft Brewing.
- The Mariposa Folk Festival’s annual February Gospel and Blues concert #13 happens after Valentine’s Day on Feb. 22 at the Opera House. Lance Anderson has Andrew Craig, Jim Bowskill, Brittany Brooks, Selena Evangeline and Emily Burgess lined up to play, so far. Tickets always go fast for this one, and probably make a nice Christmas gift, get them online.
- Couchiching Craft Brewing has Stephan Bernard playing Dec. 6; Kyle McAdams is in Dec. 7; James Gray plays Dec. 13… Quayle’s Brewery has Sidney Riley playing Dec. 6; Rebekah Hawker is in Dec. 8; Jaskob Pearce plays Dec. 12; Chris Lemay Dec. 13; … the Hog ‘N Penny has a revolving cast of characters lead by Sean Patrick playing music every Saturday evening… Dave Shaw is at the Lone Wolf Café Dec. 19
(Photos by Swartz – SUNonline/Orillia and Images Supplied) Main: Xavier Fernandes taking bowl orders at the Creative Nomad Studios Christmas Market.
