This Week In Art/Culture/Entertainment
By John Swartz
The Orillia Museum of Art and History made out like bandits on Wednesday. They scooped up 50 items from the auction of items from Gordon Lightfoot’s estate.
A news story I found on SSBCrack News (from India) while searching for results from the auction has this curious line:
“Proceeds from the sale will benefit Lightfoot’s estate and contribute to the Orillia Museum of Art & History.”
“I saw that too on the CBC; first I heard of it,” said OMAH director Ninette Gyorody.
There is no financial benefit to the museum from the auction. However, the CBC story did mention unsold items may be donated to museums in Canada. The museum had a plan for the auction.
“We got everything related to Orillia.”
The haul includes the 45 RPM recordings from CFOR which Gord made or participated in, all the school books, books from his personal collection, his electric train set, a collection of hotel keys, and some garments. They also got some of Gord’s awards including the Mariposa Folk Festival award.
“(We got) Anything we felt we didn’t have or contributed to the story of Gordon Lightfoot, and we got anything connected to Lakehead (University),” Ninette said
Good for them. The auction wasn’t held at Southeby’s or Christie’s, OMAH might not have done so well since winning bids would likely have been a lot higher at the premier auctioneers As it is, the Martin D-18 guitar in the auction sold for $380K and with the buyer’s premium the winner will be paying more than $400K. Gord’s Gibson 12 string went for $350K last year. Both guitar buyers got deals in my opinion.
“We had budget for the guitar and it far exceed our budget, so we backed off on that.”
“We’re happy with what we got. We did well and maybe there’ll be more to come,” Ninette said.
The museum received a big donation which paid for the items they picked up last year and are now to be seen in the Gordon Lightfoot: Turning Back The Pages exhibit. They have had more donations to acquire Gord’s things and have a Lightfoot fund set up at the Community Foundation of Orillia and Area.
There is another auction happening, which was previously mentioned here. The same auction house that ran last year’s sale of Gord’s guitars and effects has one more guitar to sell. It was supposed to end November 28, but it has been extended to December 5. The top bid so far is $3,700. You can see details of it here.
Also in Gord news, The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald reentered the Billboard charts the week ending November 13 in the #1 spot on the Rock Digital Song Sales chart. It also got to #15 on the Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart, #2 on the Country Digital Sales chart and #4 on the All Digital Sales chart. This translates to 9.1 million on-demand streams and sold 7,000 song downloads.
At the same time Sundown returned to the same chart at #6 and If You Could Read My Mind did so too at #10.
The Award Goes To
The North Simcoe Arts awards happened last week, but first it’s necessary to mention NSA, The City of Orillia and Arts Orillia won an Ontario Culture Days award. They got the Best Participatory Program award for their Storytelling Slam Night which happened October 2 at Creative Nomad Studios.
Last Wednesday the NSA held the annual Art and Culture Awards at Creative Nomad Studios. This is the new version of the ODAC Awards and the Orillia Region Art and Heritage Awards. The NSA is the new ODAC, so you might say the awards are back to where they started. They had 27 nominees in 5 categories.
Award sponsor, Arts Orillia’s Kate Hilliaard and winner Lesley Truemner 
Award’s MC Leslie Fournier and winner Mary Lou Meiers
The Equity and Inclusion Award went to the Call to Action #83 art project (at St. Paul’s Centre, Mondays through Thursdays from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.). Mary Lou Meiers is the brains behind this one and she was there to receive the award.
The Community Impact Award went to Lesley Truemner, who teaches at Monsignor Lee Catholic School, for stickhandling the school’s theatrical production The Little Mermaid.
Award sponsor, and winners The Scottish Festival’s Carrie Dunn and Angela Paylor 
Award sponsors Deby Melillo and Raune-lea Marshall with winner Lucy Goodman 
Qennefer Browne’s duaghter and award winner John French
The Youth Voice Award went to Lucy Goodman for establishing the Raccoon Skate Club, a youth skateboarding club.
The Creative Experience Award went to the Orillia Scottish Festival. Festival co-chairs, Angela Paylor and Carrie Dunn, received the award.
The Qennefer Browne Achievement Award went to John French for 50 years of contributions to the arts in Midland, particularly his creation of the Brookside Music Association concert series.
The house was packed for the awards and there were many great nominees to choose from. Congratulations to all.
This is Going To Be Hades Week
Not counting two City of Orillia Open Houses (one about streets and sidewalks as they relate to the Transportation Master Plan, December 3 from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. at the rec center – and a feedback event regarding the City’s new Official Plan December 4 from 6 to 8 p.m. at the waterfront centre (the Port building) there are a several events happening.
Dec. 2 The Red Dot Gallery opens in Orillia Square Mall. It’s only going to be there for December. This is a showcase, for the season, of works by five artists; Raune-lea Marshall, Deby Melillo, Mike Bailey, Linda Gidora and Norman Robert Catchpole. They have a ribbon cutting/open house from 3 to 8 p.m.
December 3 Arts Orillia has a concert happening at the Opera House with performers from the music programs of the city’s high schools and the Kempenfelt Bay School. Oh, and a little band called Brassworks is playing too. Oh, Oh, Christina Bosco is going to sing as well.
Arts Orillia usually coordinates these kinds of things with workshops for students and Alex Dean and Dylan Bell will be leading those. You can get tickets for the concert online.
MAT’s Film Night at the Galaxy has Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight playing Dec. 3.
The Orillia Youth Centre has a fundraising concert December 5 at the Highwayman Inn with Grate Northern headlining and Sean Kelly and Andy Sheldon (of The Samples) on the bill too. There are still a few tickets left.
While you are on that page buying tickets, you’ll notice there’s another concert December 21 at Creative Nomad Studios with Serena Ryder and Lydia Persaud (also of Dwayne Gretzky).
The Orillia Concert Band’s annual afternoon Christmas concert for kids is December 6 at St. Paul’s Centre at 3 pm. The Orillia Community Children’s Choir is their guest and you can get tickets online. Later the same day the annual Christmas Prelude happens at 7:30 p.m. Their guest performers are the Orillia Wind Ensemble. You can get tickets online.
So What Have They Been Up To?
Many of you will remember Calvin and Cheryl Stone, or maybe you’ve run into them on one of their return visits to see the grandkids. They’ve been living in suburban Phoenix for several years. They turned their enjoyment of presenting entertainment at the Sundial Inn into a new vocation, they are now concert promoters.
Most of the concert acts they produce are tribute acts and do so in about a 100 mile radius of Phoenix, but they latched onto a British Columbia band, Eagle Eyes, who do… wait for it… an Eagles tribute show, augmented with Joe Walsh tunes, and they are coming to Casino Rama December 13. There will be a story this coming week about it all, and if you are inclined to get tickets, click the sponsor ad on the sidebar of this webpage.
The Shorts
- The Orillia Vocal Ensemble has their Christmas concert December 14 at 4 p.m. at St. Paul’s Centre. They will be joined by the Orillia Community Children’s Choir. Admission is by donation.
- Green Haven Shelter For Women’s annual reading of A Christmas Carol is happening December 18 at the Opera House. The performers are Aurora Browne, Christy Bruce, Tereesa Pavlinek, Naomi Snieckus, and Jane van de Graff, with Bruce Pirrie directing. Get tickets online.
- The Cellar Singers are doing two pieces, Fantasia on Christmas by Ralph Vaughn Williams and Messe de Minuit pour Noel by Marc-Antoine Charpentier at St. James’ Anglican Church December 20. You can get tickets online.
- The Orillia Concert Association has season tickets on sale (still only $90) and their lineup is: Terry Lim And Friends Feb. 22, Daniel Vnukowski March 22 and The Brooks, Ronai, Teske Trio May 3. All concerts are at 2:30 p.m. You can get the season tickets online.
- OMAH has the annual Carmichael landscape show, Tradition Transformed, up to see (it’s great), they also have John Gould: Travels Of The Mind And Body, and Tracing Places: Advertising In Orillia… Peter Street Fine Arts guest artist is Rick Barrett; the annual 6×6 Show will be up all of December and now is the time for artists to pick up their board ($20).
- Quayle’s Brewery has Stephan Bernard playing Nov. 20; JJ Blue is in Nov. 30; Sydney Riley Dec. 5; Chris Lemay Dec. 7; and Kyle Moning Dec. 7; … the Hog ‘N Penny has No Great Mischief playing Nov. 29; an afternoon jam session every Sunday with Sean Patrick and others and Taylor Hofner at 4 p.m. Nov.30 … the ANAF club has the Bogies playing Nov. 29.
(Photos by Swartz – SUNonline/Orillia and Images Supplied) Main: Grate Northern plays an Orillia Youth Centre fundraiser at the Highwayman Inn Dec. 5
