#3 — A BRIEF HISTORY OF DISNEY | PART 2
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#3 — A BRIEF HISTORY OF DISNEY | PART 2
PLUS: 8 smARTpicks of events near you!
Your smARTcircle's here once again with you updates from smART HQ and the exhibitions piquing our curiosity right now.
While Everything Everywhere All at Once dominated the Oscars last weekend, we'd be remiss if we didn't offer Kudos to the two Canadians who won major awards (Brendan Fraser's Canadian!?)
And while we're at the movies, we're also bringing another excerpt from Richard Ouzonian’s Disney chronicles, in honour of the Disney Animation: Immersive Experience presented by Lighthouse Immersive (on till July 9th).
And while Issue 11 of smART Magazine is printed and available, we're already getting the ball rolling on Issue 12. Are you interested in participating in the next round of conversations with luminaries across the art world? Stay tuned for how you can get involved.
A BRIEF HISTORY OF DISNEY | PART 2: Silly Symphonies And Serious Dreams
by RICHARD OUZOUNIAN
Catching up with Richard Ouzonian for Part 2 of our Brief History of Disney, we find Disney studios expanding exponentially after the pivotal success of Steamboat Willie.
Walt Disney, like the animated projects now pouring out of his ever-growing studio, was always in motion.
The staff that launched Steamboat Willie in 1928 was a lean, hard-working group of about a dozen. Within two years, it had increased to 30, and in five years it had reached 100
But not even in their wildest dreams did anyone at the studio think that, a mere decade after Mickey Mouse had made his first appearance, Walt Disney would be leading a workforce of over 1,000 employees and have received the first eight of the 22 competitive Academy Awards® he would earn in his lifetime.
At first, the growth was technical in nature, with the addition of sound being followed by the embrace of the three-strip Technicolor process that gave Disney projects their dazzling look.
That use of technology combined with unmatched creativity led to Disney winning the first Academy Award® for “Best Short Subject, Cartoon,” for the vibrant Flowers and Trees (1932) which offered clean, bright, dazzling colour that audiences had never before seen, as well as animation from two men who would be Disney personnel in the ensuing years: David Hand and Les Clark. ── CONTINUE READING.
TOP EXHIBITS AND EVENTS HAPPENING NEAR YOU:
Opening this week at Trinity Square Video, A psionic hope, an astonishing dream is a multimedia exploration of how our minds reach beyond the grasp of our bodies. Curated by Philip Leonard Ocampo with work by Camille Jodoin-Eng, Morris Fox, Tyler Matheson, Santiago Tamayo Soler, Sin Wai Kin, and Curtia Wright. March 17–April 29
Right now there are 4 shows at Xpace by an exciting cohort of emerging artists: Please take separate bite and chew before swallowing by Maddie Lycheck Objects in mirror are closer than they appear by Jill Smith, future re/collection by Wenting Li, and a group show curated by Avalon Mott, a series of actions or steps taken in order to achieve a particular end. March 10–April 22
As part of Another World That Sounds Like You, Gallery TPW and SAVAC host Resistances and Rebellions, two evenings that capture political sonics: INDEX II خوانش ٢ (March 30) features sounds from the Women, Life, Freedom protests presented by a group of Iranian artists in Toronto and A Loud Voice Never Dies (March 31) is a lecture-performance by Urok Shirhan on the 2019 October Revolutions in Iraq and Lebanon. March 30–31
Tangled Arts presents Crippling Masculinity: Designing Fashion Utopias, an exhibition showcasing Disabled, Deaf, and Mad-identified designers who are exploring and imagining new worlds through masculine couture. March 10–May 12
At The Next Contemporary, Something Like Arriving brings three artists (Alize Zorlutuna, Diyar Mayil, and Sukaina Kubba) together for a show which finds the uncanny in domestic spaces by reimagining everyday objects through multiple media. February 25–April 22
Mary Ellen Mark: Ward 81 is in its last month at the Main Gallery of the Image Centre. This exhibition collects the documentary photographs taken by Mark during a 36 day residency at the Oregon State Hospital in 1976. For more information on this seminal project, Curators, Gaëlle Morel and Kaitlin Booher, will give a virtual talk on March 22. January 25–April 1
Curated by Kalina Nedelcheva, Peculiar Movements/Green Junctions features artists, Hannah Busse and Alex Gregory for a combined show of video, paintings, sculpture, and swarms of living plants at NAMARA projects. March 4–May 6
The duo of Rhonda Weppler and Trevor Mahovsky bring The Pool in the Shell to Susan Hobbs gallery. An exhibition that plays with the materials and materiality of labour (including but not limited to art), using a mixture of prints, watercolours, and cast objects. March 2–April 8