Koffler Centre of the Arts
The Koffler Centre of the Arts is a broad-based cultural institution established in 1977 by Murray and Marvelle Koffler and based at Artscape Youngplace in the West Queen West area of downtown Toronto, Ontario.
History
Established in 1977 as part of the Bathurst Jewish Community Centre in the North York area of Toronto on Bathurst Street. On July 1, 2009, the Koffler was incorporated as an independent not-for-profit charitable organization.The Koffler was home to the Jewish Book Fair, the Toronto Jewish Literary Festival and the Koffler Chamber Orchestra.
In 2008, the Koffler Centre of the Arts was rebranded and restructured, with a multidisciplinary program department that ran complementary to the Koffler Gallery. Unlike the Gallery, with its mandate to exhibit, interpret, and document works in the visual arts, focusing on contemporary Canadian art and programming of interest to the Jewish community, the multidisciplinary programs focused more specifically on Jewish arts and culture from Canada and internationally.
The Koffler Gallery moved its programming off-site in 2009 when the original Koffler Gallery was demolished along with the BJCC. Koffler multidisciplinary programs were also programmed off-site around the GTA, with events located downtown, mid-town and the north GTA.
In 2013, after five years programming off-site, the Koffler Centre of the Arts opened its administrative offices and a new Koffler Gallery at Artscape Youngplace in downtown Toronto. The Artscape Youngplace facilities showcase Koffler Gallery exhibitions, public programs, expanded school and education programs, as well as programs in partnership with Artscape Youngplace tenants and other neighbourhood organizations. Koffler multidisciplinary programs now take place at Artscape Youngplace, as well as various locations across the GTA. Starting in summer 2014, the Koffler no longer offers studio classes in visual art and ceramics at the Prosserman JCC on Sherman Campus. Classes at that location are now offered under the management of the Prosserman JCC.
Leadership and Funding
From 2001 to 2014, Tiana Koffler Boyman was the Board Chair. From 2006 to 2013, Lori Starr, former Senior Vice President and Museum Director, Skirball Cultural Center and former Director of Public Affairs and Communications, the J. Paul Getty Museum and J. Paul Getty Trust, Los Angeles, was the Executive Director. In February 2013, Starr left the Koffler for the position of Executive Director of the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco. From 2014 to 2019, Cathy Jonasson was the Koffler Centre of the Arts' Executive Director. Karen Tisch was appointed Executive Director in March 2019.The Koffler Centre of the Arts is supported and funded by the Koffler Family Foundation as well as its patrons, members, donors and corporate sponsors. The Centre receives annual support from the Ontario Arts Council through the Community and Multidisciplinary Arts Organizations Program, and received funding in 2013 for renovations to its new space at Artscape Youngplace through the Ontario Trillium Foundation. CIBC Wood Gundy is the Koffler's Cultural Season Sponsor.
The Koffler Gallery is a public gallery supported by the City of Toronto through the Toronto Arts Council, the Ontario Arts Council and the Canada Council for the Arts.
Fundraising to support the Koffler's diverse programs is achieved through several charitable events, philanthropic donations to its exhibitions and programs, and galas. Two fundraisers in 2009, ARTFUL DISH and The Wrecking Ball, were catalysts to support expansion of programs and reach new audience members and patrons. In 2010, the ballet gala Stars of the 21st Century was the Koffler's major fundraiser.
In 2012, the Koffler partnered with Luminato, Toronto's Festival of Arts and Creativity, to present the opening night of Batsheva Dance Company's North American premiere performance of Sadeh21. Funds raised from the evening supported the Koffler Centre of the Arts and its programs. The evening included a pre-performance dinner at a private residence for Koffler patrons, the contemporary dance performance of Sadeh21 at the MacMillan Theatre, University of Toronto, and a post-event celebration at the Gardiner Museum. The evening also honoured Senator Linda Frum and Howard Sokolowski for their philanthropic support of the arts. In 2013, the Koffler's major fundraiser was Koffler Rocks! - a benefit evening featuring music performances by Randy Bachman, The Sadies, and Melanie Fiona. The event took place at Artscape Wychwood Barns on May 2, 2013. On May 15, 2014, the Koffler revived its ARTFUL DISH fundraiser, featuring intimate dinners in private homes with cultural luminaries and well-known chefs. Luminaries included Ian Brown, Johanna Schneller, Adad Hannah, Barbara Astman, Deepa Mehta, Anne Michaels, Bernice Eisenstein, Colin Mochrie, Debra McGrath, Louise Pitre, Veronica Tennant. In 2015, the Koffler's major fundraiser was Art Privé: 3 Nights in June, three intimate evenings in exclusive private settings featuring modern and contemporary art collections.
Activities and Facilities
The Koffler presents exhibitions of contemporary Canadian and international art with the Koffler Gallery, and is home to the Vine Awards for Canadian Jewish Literature. It presents year-round literary events, concerts, education programs, film screenings, theatre programs, and discussions on contemporary art and culture. Rooted in the Jewish community of Toronto, the Koffler specializes in an interdisciplinary mix of programs to bring artists and the community together. In 2009, the Koffler Centre of the Arts was incorporated for charitable status in Canada.Koffler Gallery
The Koffler Gallery was established in 1980 and initially developed a successful range of exhibitions on contemporary crafts. It shifted its mandate in 1994 to focus on contemporary Canadian art. From 1980 to 2009, the Gallery was located in its own dedicated space at the Bathurst Jewish Community Centre. In 2009, the Gallery moved its programming off-site when the Bathurst Jewish Community Centre was demolished. From 2009 to 2013, the Gallery exhibited its exhibitions and site-specific installations in various locations across the Greater Toronto area, including Honest Ed's, an abandoned house, the Jack Layton Ferry Docks, city sidewalks, parking lots, construction hoarding, and other rented or borrowed spaces. In November 2013, the Gallery opened its new downtown space at Artscape Youngplace.Koffler Centre of the Arts at Artscape Youngplace
In November 2011, the Koffler Centre of the Arts announced that it was joining the Artscape Youngplace project in Toronto's downtown art and design district. The organization signed a five-year lease with Artscape to occupy a prominent space on the main floor of the new arts and cultural centre located at 180 Shaw Street, just north of Queen Street West, in the historic Shaw Street School.Artscape Youngplace is a 75,000 sq. ft. centre for creative collaboration in a variety of disciplines, as well as arts, community and social mission organizations. Other owners and tenants include Luminato Festival, Centre for Indigenous Theatre, Inter-Galactic Arts Co-op, College-Montrose Children's Place, Paperhouse Studio, Red Pepper Spectacle Arts, SKETCH, Small World Music Society, Typology Projects, The Developing Tank, and artists Barbara Astman, Eve Egoyan, Heather Nichol, Shabnam K. Ghazi, and Vid Ingelevics.
Starting in fall 2013, Koffler Gallery exhibitions, related education and public programs, as well as Koffler Centre of the Arts' multidisciplinary programs will be based at Artscape Youngplace.
Artscape Youngplace opened in November 2013. The Koffler Centre of the Arts administrative offices and the Koffler Gallery are located in a 4,600 sq. ft. space on the main floor of the building.
Programs
2018-2019
The 2018-19 season featured Books & Ideas, a series of author talks and on-stage interviews, with Indigenous authors Joshua Whitehead and Arielle Twist; Indian writer and journalist Amitava Kumar and Shani Mootoo; and The New York Times critic-at-large Wesley Morris and CBC’s Amanda Parris. The 2018 Vine Awards for Canadian Jewish Literature were announced and presented at a ceremony at the Windsor Arms Hotel.The Koffler Gallery season featured the group exhibition Through lines guest curated by Noah Bronstein and featuring artists Lise Beaudry, Scott Benesiinaabandan, Michèle Pearson Clarke, Leila Fatemi, Maria Hupfield, Raafia Jessa, and Nadia Myre. Never Never Land was the first solo exhibition in Canada for Tehran-born Iranian-Canadian artist Ghazaleh Avarzamani. Israeli-artist Nevet Yitzhak’s WarCraft was a Primary Exhibition of the 2019 CONTACT Photography Festival presented in partnership with Images Festival. Peter’s Proscenium was London-based painter Christian Hidaka and Paris-based sculptor Raphaël Zarka’s first exhibition in Canada.
2017-2018
The 2017-18 season included literary events and conversations featuring authors Nicole Krauss, Nathan Englander, Eric Beck Rubin, Danila Botha, Gwen Benaway, Katherena Vermette, 2017 Man Booker International Prize winning author David Grossman in conversation with Michael Enright, and American author and public speaker Fran Lebowitz. The second annual Vine Awards for Canadian Jewish Literature were announced and presented at a ceremony at the Park Hyatt Toronto.The 2017-18 Koffler Gallery season featured Staring Back at the Sun: Video Art from Israel, 1970-2012, an international, touring exhibition featuring 38 artists and curated by Ilana Tenenbaum, Sergio Edelsztein, Yael Bartana and Avi Feldman. Nicole Collins: Furthest Boundless was a major, new mixed media installation by Toronto artist Nicole Collins. Esther Shalev-Gerz was Paris-based artist Esther Shalev-Gerz’ first solo exhibition in Toronto, a Primary Exhibition of the 2018 CONTACT Photography Festival. José Luis Torres: Question d’adaptation is a site-specific, multi-roomed, maze-like sculptural installation created by Argentinian-born, Québec-based artist José Luis Torres.
2016-2017
The inaugural Vine Awards for Canadian Jewish Literature were announced and presented at a ceremony at the Four Seasons Hotel and Residences Toronto in September 2016. In October 2016, the Koffler Centre of the Arts – together with Why Not Theatre and Complicite Creative Learning – co-presented the Toronto premiere of the theatre/performance project Like Mother, Like Daughter, featuring pairs of immigrant and newcomer mothers and daughters on stage in unscripted conversations. In May 2017, the Koffler presented the Toronto premiere of Joshua Harmon’s internationally produced play, Bad Jews. Other programs included author Olive Senior in conversation with Toronto playwright Ravi Jain at the International Festival of Authors; YidLife does Kensington, a web series by YidLife Crisis creators Eli Battalion and Jamie Elman, focusing on the Jewish history Toronto's eclectic Kensington Market neighbourhood; Israeli author Etgar Keret at the Toronto Public Library; and Koffler Salon, a series of cross-disciplinary conversations that included evenings on the 2017 Women's March on Washington, identity and dislocation, and artists as disruptors.The Koffler Gallery season included the large group exhibition Yonder featuring twenty Canadian artists from diverse cultural backgrounds whose works examine the immigrant condition. No Work, Nor Device, Nor Knowledge, Nor Wisdom was Montreal painter Leopold Plotek's first survey exhibition. His and Other Stories was a survey of Montreal-based artist/performer 2Fik's work, and was a Primary Exhibition of the 2017 CONTACT Photography Festival. Mary Anne Barkhouse: Le rêve aux loups is the first Toronto solo exhibition for the Vancouver-born artist and sculptor.
2015-2016
In 2015-16, the Koffler Centre of the Arts presented Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and Academy Award-nominated screenwriter Tony Kushner in Conversation, Israeli author Assaf Gavron at the International Festival of Authors, live readings of Sheila McCarthy’s new play Hairbrained, the Toronto premiere of season two of the web series YidLife Crisis with Jamie Elman and Eli Batalion, among many other literary, theatre, and public programs.In February 2016, after a one-year hiatus, the Koffler announced the Vine Awards for Canadian Jewish Literature. The new awards have five categories, each with a $10,000 prize. Fiction, Non-Fiction, History and Young Adult/Children's Literature will be awarded annually; Poetry will be awarded every three years.
The Koffler launched Koffler.Digital in October 2015, "a digital arts series available 24/7 on a number of platforms, on your smartphone, tablet, or desktop, that uses the vigorous application of art, thought, and imagination on digital medias to explore the ideas that are shaping Toronto." Programs included The Slow Now, a public audio walk through Little Italy, Toronto that uses Toronto poet laureate Anne Michaels’ iconic, award-winning novel Fugitive Pieces as its foundation; Koffler X Neighbourhoods, which pairs young photographers with professional local writers to examine diverse Toronto neighbourhoods; and How to Build a Fire, an original radio play by Kat Sandler and produced by Theatre Brouhaha.
The Koffler Gallery 2015-16 season featured the first solo exhibition in Canada of British-Spanish filmmaker Isabel Rocamora. Troubled Histories, Ecstatic Solitudes featured four film works – including the world exhibition premiere of Faith – in which Rocamora explores "demographics of identity, then deconstructs the props and processes that hold, and often hurt, them." A Brief History, a solo exhibition of Toronto artist Howard Podeswa's latest series of paintings was hailed by Toronto Star art critic Murray Whyte as "Podeswa’s magnum opus and well worth your time." Spring exhibition Raymond Boisjoly: Over a distance between one and many, guest curated by Sarah Robayo Sheridan, is a Primary Exhibition of the 2016 Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival.
2014-2015
The 2014-15 season included a series of literary events, including the book launch of The Jewish Comix Anthology: Volume 1 ; Koffler @ IFOA with Shelly Oria and Alison Pick ; an afternoon with author/radio producer Jonathan Goldstein ; and the illustrated talk What the %@&*! Happened to Comics? by Pulitzer Prize-winning artist/illustrator, comic book legend Art Spiegelman.The Koffler co-presented a number of theatre/stage programs, including a staged reading of Infinity by Hannah Moscovitch, the North American premiere of Marathon, and the North American premiere of Theatre Ad Infinitum's Ballad of the Burning Star.
The Koffler Gallery 2014-15 season featured the group exhibition PARDES, with new works by sound and multi-media artists Nadav Assor, Ira Eduardovna, Amnon Wolman, Nevet Yitzhak ; Kristiina Lahde: ULTRA-PARALLEL ; Erratics featuring installations by Toronto author Martha Baillie and artist/curator Malka Greene with Alan Resnick; and Architecture Parallax: Through the Looking Glass, an architectural installation by Montreal-based Brazilian-Canadian artist Alexander Pilis.
The Koffler announced in December 2014 that the Canadian Jewish Book Awards were being "put on hiatus for 2015 and will resume, invigorated and reinvented, in 2016" as the Koffler recalibrates and revamps several of its current programs.
2013-2014
The 2013-14 season of multidisciplinary programs opened with Koffler @ Uma Nota Community Cultural Fair, featuring the Canadian debut of Brazilian master acoustic guitarist Rick Udler and Toronto four piece band, Tio Chorinho at Lula Lounge on October 20, 2013. For the third consecutive year, the Koffler returned to Harbourfront Centre's International Festival of Authors with Koffler @ IFOA on October 27, 2013 featuring Israeli first-time novelist Shani Boianjiu. In partnership with the Miles Nadal JCC, the Koffler screened Argentinian films Tango, A Story with Jews / Tango, una historia con judíos and Rio Klezmer in December. KidLit! The Jewish Literary Festival for Children took place at the Prosserman JCC in February 2014. In March 2014, the Koffler presents Benedictus, by Israeli playwright and screenwriter Motti Lerner, a play reading by Toronto's Volcano Theatre.The Koffler Chamber Orchestra's 2013-14 final season, led by former Toronto Symphony Orchestra concertmaster Jacques Israelievitch, included Music She Wrote, A Tribute to Canadian Woman Composers featuring guest pianist Christina Petrowska-Quilico in November 2013, and From Europe to Israel featuring the music of Julius Chajes, Dmitri Shostakovich, Ödön Pártos, and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky in March 2014.
The final Toronto Jewish Literary Festival was presented from May 25 to June 1, 2014 at various venues around the GTA. The 26th annual Helen and Stan Vine Canadian Jewish Book Awards were awarded at a ceremony on May 27, 2014 at the Toronto Reference Library.
The Koffler Gallery opened its 2013-14 season with the inaugural exhibition We’re in the Library in its new downtown Toronto space at Artscape Youngplace. Toronto artists Sara Angelucci, Barbara Astman, Adam David Brown, Michelle Gay, Ido Govrin, Vid Ingelevics and Jon Sasaki created new works engaging the context and history of the new space, formerly the library of the Shaw Street Public School. Moving to Stand Still followed, featuring internationally acclaimed Israeli artist Sigalit Landau, who represented Israel at the 2011 Venice Biennale. Part of a significant international tour with presentations in Moscow, Budapest, Tromsø and Toronto, the exhibition brought a selection of Landau's major video works to Canada for the first time. Solo exhibitions by Vancouver-based artist Adad Hannah, and Toronto-based artist Penelope Stewart round out the 2013-14 season.
2012-2013
The 2012-13 season opened on September 3, 2012 with a performance by the Mexican klezmer band Klezmerson at the 2012 Ashkenaz Festival at Harbourfront Centre. On September 6, 2012, the Koffler presented a talk by author Roy Doliner at the Columbus Centre. Doliner, co-author of the international bestselling book The Sistine Secrets, spoke on hidden Jewish messages concealed in the Sistine Chapel.In association with the exhibition Summer Special and together with
, a Toronto-based multimedia theatre company, the Koffler presented Honesty from October 18 to November 4 within Honest Ed's store. A performance intervention written and directed by Jordan Tannahill and starring Virgilia Griffith, Honesty was presented in two acts: in the first act, 'Honest Work', Griffith moved through the store, quietly performing the real life duties of Honest Ed's employees. Visitors were encouraged to find Griffith in the store and engage with her, but she otherwise quietly went about performing her job as a real employee would. In the second act, 'Honest Stories', Griffith performed seven different monologues in seven different locations around the store, leading the audience on a performance promenade. The monologues were based on interviews with real Honest Ed's employees – and Griffith shape-shifted between voices, transcending age, gender, and race. NOW Magazine's theatre critic Jon Kaplan raved about the performance, calling it "a truly heartfelt experience" and giving it 4 out 5 stars. In June 2013, Virgilia Griffith was nominated for a 2013 Dora Award for Outstanding Performance – Female for Honesty.
The Koffler returned to the International Festival of Authors with Koffler @ the IFOA on October 28, 2012 featuring British author Howard Jacobson, author of the 2010 Man Booker Prize-winning The Finkler Question, and Zoo Time. Finkler was in conversation with Dan Friedman, the Managing Editor of New York's The Jewish Daily Forward. On November 1, 2012, the Koffler together with Size Doesn’t Matter and Sternthal Books presented Tamar Tal's award-winning Israeli documentary Life in Stills at the Bloor Hot Docs Cinema on November 1, 2012. The film screening was followed by a Q & A with the film's Ben Peter.
The Koffler Chamber Orchestra opened its 2012-13 season with Musical Crossroads on Sunday December 2, 212 at Temple Emanu-El. The final performance of the Orchestra's season, Fuguing Around, was on March 10, 2013 at the Gladstone Hotel.
From February 17 to March 1, 2013, the Koffler Centre of the Arts and Ashkenaz Foundation presented the Canadian premiere and artist residency of internationally acclaimed Buenos Aires, Argentina-based musician, artist and educator Simja Dujov. Dujov's two-week artistic residency included educational activities with youth, including master classes with music students at TanenbaumCHAT and a two-week workshop with SKETCH, an organization focused on bringing cultural opportunities to homeless and underprivileged youth in Toronto.
The annual Toronto Jewish Literary Festival was presented from June 1 to 9, 2013. The "re-envisioned" Festival focused on literary programs geared towards diverse audiences in different locations and in partnership with other Jewish organizations across the City of Toronto and in Vaughan. Participating authors included Fania Oz-Salzberger, David Layton, Irving Abella, Frieda Forman, Bill Gladstone, Pierre Anctil, Benjamin Hackman, Ronna Bloom, Jacob Scheier, Dr. Nora Gold, Martin Levin, Cary Fagan, and Beverley Slopen. Festival events were held at the Miles Nadal JCC, Beth David Synagogue, Ben McNally Books, the Toronto Reference Library, and the Schwartz/Reisman Centre. Partnering organizations included the Miles Nadal JCC, Committee for Yiddish, Friends of Yiddish, Toronto Workmen's Circle, ShaRna Foundation, Canada-Israel Cultural Foundation, Ontario Jewish Archives, Jewish Fiction.net, Leo Baeck Day School, Schwartz/Reisman Centre, and PJ Library.
The 25th annual Helen and Stan Vine Canadian Jewish Book Awards were awarded at a ceremony on June 6, 2013 at the Bram and Bluma Appel Salon at the Toronto Reference Library. Hosted by former President & Publisher of Penguin Books Canada, Cynthia Good, the 2013 award winners included Aili and Andres McConnon for Road to Valour: A True Story of World War II Italy, the Nazis, and the Cyclist Who Inspired a Nation ; Nancy Richler for The Imposter Bride ; Matti Friedman for The Aleppo Codex: A True Story of Obsession, Faith, and the Pursuit of an Ancient Bible ; Julija Šukys for Epistolophilia: Writing the Life of Ona Simaite ; Isa Milman for Something Small To Carry Home ; L. Ruth Klein for Nazi Germany, Canadian Responses: Confronting Antisemitism in the Shadow of War ; Pierre Anctil for Jacob-Isaac Segal 1869-1954, Un poète yiddish de Montréal et son milieu ; and Sharon E. McKay for Enemy Territory.
The Koffler Gallery began its final season of Off-Site programming in 2012-13. Local Colour Info Centre at Miracle Thieves was a solo exhibition featuring the work of Toronto artist Erica Brisson. Inspired by tourism information centres as well as the process of public consultation, Brisson set up a social space where passersby could share their personal interpretations of the city's intentional or informal landmarks. Saskatchewan-based sculptor Clint Neufeld's solo exhibition Pipe Dreams of Madame Récamier, off-site at General Hardware Contemporary, ran from January 10 to March 3, 2013. Off-site exhibitions by Toronto's Corwyn Lund and São Paulo’s Iara Freiberg followed in 2013.
In fall 2013, the Koffler Gallery opened its 2013-2014 season of exhibitions in its new home at Artscape Youngplace in downtown Toronto.
2011-2012
The Koffler Centre of the Arts presented Koffler @ the IFOA, a day of Russian-Jewish themed literary programs at Harbourfront Centre's International Festival of Authors on October 23, 2011. The day featured discussions on Soviet Jewry with authors Gal Beckerman, David Bezmozgis, Gary Shteyngart and Irwin Cotler, Canadian Member of Parliament and international human rights attorney. Award-winning Israeli novelist Michal Govrin and translator Peter Filkins also spoke on the subject of translation.The Koffler Centre of the Arts was invited by the Art Gallery of Ontario to create a range of interpretive programs around the AGO's 2011 exhibition, Chagall and the Russian Avant-Garde: Masterpieces from the Collection of the Centre Pompidou, Paris. The first was Chagall’s Musical World, a two-hour free concert by the Koffler Chamber Orchestra in Walker Court at the AGO on November 20, 2011. Led by violinist and former Toronto Symphony Orchestra concertmaster Jacques Israelievitch, the Orchestra's performance featured pianist Andrew Burashko and Beyond the Pale's klezmer clarinetist Martin van de Ven. The Koffler Chamber Orchestra performed Music Off the Map, its second and final concert of the season on March 18, 2012 at Toronto's Gladstone Hotel.
Also in association with the AGO's Chagall exhibition, the Koffler presented Past Present: Chagall Through Toronto’s Artists on December 14, 2011 at the Weston Learning Centre, Art Gallery of Ontario. The evening of music, dance, performance and spoken word included the eight-piece jazz fusion ensemble The Thing Is, selections of contemporary choreography from Kaeja d’Dance, accordionist Sasha Luminsky with Jonno Lightstone, and the debut of an excerpt from Bella: The Colour of Love, performed by Yiddish jazz performer Theresa Tova together with Montreal pianist Matt Herskowitz.
In March 2012, the Koffler produced and presented Honeycomb Way, an artistic residency and concert featuring Jewish musical traditions from the Middle East and Eastern Europe. The two-week residency was led by Iraqi-Jewish violinist and oud player Yair Dalal and American trumpetist Frank London from the Grammy Award-winning The Klezmatics, and included the composition of new music with Toronto musicians Waleed Abdulhamid, Jaffa Road's Aviva Chernick, Samba Squad's Rick Shadrach Lazar, Lenka Lichtenberg, Demetrios Petsalakis, Debashis Sinha, and Maryem Tollar. The event culminated in a performance at the St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts on March 28, 2012. Dalal and London also taught a master class and visited several Toronto-area schools.
The 34th annual Toronto Jewish Book Festival opened in June 2012 at the Bram and Bluma Appel Salon at the Toronto Reference Library. The Festival featured over 35 international and Canadian authors, panels, book launches, musical events, films, slideshows, student programs, and books for sale over a 4-day period. Opening night featured American author Shalom Auslander ; other talks/readings included Michele Landsberg, Steven Gimbel, True North Records founder Bernie Finkelstein, Carol Bishop-Gwyn and Fraidie Martz, David Berlin, Richard Brody and Lilian Nattel. The Festival also featured a special spotlight on the Azrieli Foundation films Holocaust Survivor Memoirs, and a series of daytime children and school programs featuring Karen Levine on the 10th anniversary of the international bestselling Hana’s Suitcase, and authors Aubrey Davis, Anne Dublin, and Lesley Simpson.
The Toronto Jewish Book Festival culminated in the 24th annual Helen and Stan Vine Canadian Jewish Book Awards on June 7, 2012. Hosted by broadcaster and host of CBC Radio One's The Sunday Edition Michael Enright, the 2012 award winners included David Bezmozgis for The Free World, Denis Vaugeois for Les Premiers Juifs D’Amérique 1760-1860: L’extraordinaire histoire de la famille Hart, Eli Pfefferkorn for The Muselmann at the Water Cooler, Richard Marceau for Juif, Une Histoire Québécoise, S. Weilbach for Singing from the Darktime: A Childhood Memoir in Poetry and Prose, Kalman Weiser for Jewish People, Yiddish Nation: Noah Prylucki and the Folkists in Poland, Rebecca Margolis for Jewish Roots, Canadian Soil: Yiddish Culture in Montreal, 1905-1945, Fraidie Martz and Andrew Wilson for A Fiery Soul: The Life and Theatrical Times of John Hirsch, and Lesley Simpson for Yuvi’s Candy Tree.
Continuing with its Off-Site program, the Koffler Gallery presented four exhibitions in 2011-12. Spin Off: Contemporary Art Circling the Mandala, at 80 Spadina Ave. featured Aya Ben Ron, Mircea Cantor, Vandana Jain, Gary James Joynes/Clinker, Melissa Shiff and Jennifer Zackin and was guest curated by Evelyn Tauben. Museum of the Represented City, the first a solo exhibition at a public gallery by Toronto artist Flavio Trevisan was also off-site at 80 Spadina. The exhibition featured three-dimensional maps representing Toronto neighborhoods and cityscapes and received press coverage with reviews the National Post, blogTO, and Torontoist,. The Koffler Gallery presented the first Canadian survey of the works of internationally acclaimed Israeli photographer Adi Nes, off-site at Olga Korper Gallery. A Featured Exhibition in the 2012 , it included Nes’ most prominent photographs from the Soldiers, Boys and Biblical Stories series, including Untitled . The exhibition received significant press coverage, including reviews in The Globe and Mail, National Post, Canadian Art, NOW Magazine, Toronto Standard, and Canadian Jewish News,. The Koffler Gallery closed its 2011-12 season the group exhibition Summer Special, off-site at Honest Ed's store in Toronto. Taking inspiration from the signs and show bills of Toronto's landmark discount store, the exhibition included site-specific installations both inside and outside the store by Toronto artists Corinne Carlson, Robin Collyer, Barr Gilmore, Jen Hutton, Sarah Lazarovic and Vancouver-based Ron Terada. Press coverage included the Toronto Star, NOW Magazine, Canadian Art, The Jewish Daily Forward, and blogTO,. In association with the exhibition and the Toronto Fringe Festival, the Koffler presented a free concert in Honest Ed's alley with the Toronto band The Pining on July 12, 2012.
2010-2011
In 2010-11, the Koffler presented the 34th Annual Toronto Jewish Book Fair, from October 23 to 31, 2010 at Beth David B'nai Israel Beth Am Synagogue. Award-winning Israeli author and peace activist David Grossman opened the Fair and spoke on his new novel, To the End of the Land. Tarek Fatah, political activist, writer, broadcaster, and founder of the Muslim Canadian Congress closed the Fair with his 2010 book, The Jew is not my Enemy: Unveiling the Myths that Fuel Muslim Anti-Semitism. Other featured authors included Anna Porter, George Gilder, Harold Troper, David Brody, Lynda Fishman, Gregory Levey, Kate Taylor , Judie Oron, Savyon Liebrecht, and Joseph Kertes.On October 19, 2010, the Koffler presented the Toronto premiere performance of Israeli jazz composer and bassist Avishai Cohen at the Isabel Bader Theatre, U of T. In November 2010, the One World, Double Take series continued with a panel discussion on boundary-crossing artistic expression presented together with the Centre for Diaspora and Transnational Studies, U of T. The panel featured artist and curator Millie Chen, First Nations artist Arthur Renwick, actor Marika Schwandt, and David Shneer. Shneer, professor at the University of Colorado and editor of the books Queer Jews and Torah Queeries, was the Koffler's scholar-in-residence in fall 2010, and gave talks on the Russian Jewish Diaspora and his original research into the Soviet Jewish photographers between the World Wars.
The Koffler Chamber Orchestra, led by former Toronto Symphony Orchestra concertmaster Jacques Israelievitch, performed three concerts: Music That Survived on November 7, 2010 at Temple Emanu-El; English Gems for Strings on Sunday, February 13, 2011 at the Conrad Centre for the Performing Arts, Kitchener; and Back to Bach, Viva Vivaldi on April 10, 2011 at the Gladstone Hotel.
On May 4, 2011 the Koffler presented Texas-based singer, performer, author, and political activist Kinky Friedman at the St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts.
The 23rd annual Helen and Stan Vine Canadian Jewish Book Awards were held on May 30, 2010 at the Bram & Bluma Appel Salon at the Toronto Reference Library. The 2011 winners included Alison Pick, Far to Go, Tarek Fatah, The Jew is not my Enemy: Unveiling the Myths that Fuel Muslim Anti-Semitism, Robert Eli Rubinstein, An Italian Renaissance: Choosing Life In Canada, Charles Foran, Mordecai: The Life and Times, Harold Troper, The Defining Decade: Identity, Politics, and the Canadian Jewish Community in the 1960s and Judie Oron, Cry of the Giraffe. The awards ceremony was hosted by award-winning and bestselling author Michael Wex.
The Koffler Gallery continued off-site in 2010-11 with the group exhibition MIXEDFIT from September 21 to November 28, 2010. The exhibition, located within four Toronto Balisi stores, featured works silkscreened onto T-shirts by artists Millie Chen, Emelie Chhangur, Hannah Claus, Stefan Hoffmann, and Dan Perjovschi and was presented in conjunction with Printopolis: International Symposium on Printmaking. From February 17 to April 17, 2011, the Koffler Gallery presented Graphic Details: Confessional Comics by Jewish Women off-site at the Gladstone Hotel and curated by Michael Kaminer and Sarah Lightman. The touring group exhibition featured original drawings, autobiographical comics and graphic novels from eighteen Canadian and international Jewish women artists, including Vanessa Davis, Bernice Eisenstein, Sarah Glidden, Miriam Katin, Aline Kominsky-Crumb, Miss Lasko-Gross, Sarah Lazarovic, Miriam Libicki, Sarah Lightman, Diane Noomin, Corinne Pearlman, Trina Robbins, Racheli Rotner, Sharon Rudahl, Laurie Sandell, Ariel Schrag, Lauren Weinstein, and Ilana Zeffren. Stephen Cruise: Share the Moment, from May 5 to August 28, 2011, was a sculptural installation in the Sheppard Plaza, at Bathurst and Sheppard Streets, Toronto. The artist transformed the vacant Kodak Fotomat drive-through photo processing booth in the parking lot, rear-projecting images of photographs collected from the North York community. The installation was a feature exhibition of the 2011 Scotiabank CONTACT photography festival. The final Koffler Gallery exhibition of the 2010-11 season was Lyla Rye: Swing Stage. A site-specific installation off-site at Olga Korper Gallery, Swing Stage was a large wooden platform suspended with chains from the building's structural trusses supporting the roof. A circular screen displayed a video projection referencing the view out of the round window atop the eastern gallery wall. The video spanned a 1930s rendering of the building, footage recorded on site, and a Google Earth model view of the neighbourhood. The exhibition received press coverage in the National Post, on Canadian Art 's website, Akimblog
and Azure magazine's blog.
2009-2010
In 2009-10, the Koffler Centre of the Arts presented the second year of off-site programming around the greater Toronto area, the first year of arts education in the new Prosserman JCC facilities, and programs in the new spaces on Sherman Campus, including the book review series Treasures in Jewish Literature and the screening of the Israeli mini-series A Touch Away. The crEATivity club, presented together with the Prosserman JCC, was held the last Wednesday of every month and featured interactive cultural programming during the day.The 33rd annual Toronto Jewish Book Fair was held from October 24 to November 1, 2009 in the renovated Lipa Green Centre for Community Jewish Services. Over twenty-five authors were featured, including Noah Alper, Michael Wex, Seymour Epstein, David G. Roskies, Fred Kaufman, David Sax, Lily Poritz Miller, Nava Semel, Marc H. Stevens, Rabbi Erwin Schild, Rosanne Bernard, Kathy Kacer and Sharon McKay, Lauren Kirshner, Cary Fagan, Sidura Ludwig, Adam Sol, Aviva Allen, Karen Fisman, and Kathy Clark.
On November 8, 2009, the Koffler presented Israeli musician Kobi Oz at the Mod Club Theatre in Toronto. Oz, lead singer of the Israeli band Teapacks, performed Psalms for the Perplexed for the first time outside of Israel. On November 18, 2009, the Koffler presented the Toronto premiere of British-born Israeli Robbie Gringras’ one-man play, About the Oranges, "a short play about suicide bombs" in which Gringras "stripped the Middle East conflict down to its essentials: pain and comedy." The following night at the Miles Nadal JCC, Gringras moderated the discussion Staging Struggle, as part of One World, Double Take series. A panel consisting of Philip Akin, Majdi Bou-Matar, Jennifer Herszman Capraru, and David Yee examined theatre as a force for social change.
On January 27, 2010, the Koffler presented the first Musical Melding series performance, featuring Toronto-based Juno-nominated world music group Jaffa Road together with Guelph-based Eccodek, at Lula Lounge. On April 25, 2010 the second Musical Melding performance took place at Hugh's Room and featured Jaffa Road performing together with Iraqi-Jewish musician Yair Dalal. While in Toronto, Dalal played at elementary and secondary schools and taught master classes on Iraqi and Jewish-Arabic music.
In March 2010, the Koffler presented Cine-Seder Roundtable at Victoria College, University of Toronto, together with the Centre for Jewish Studies. A panel of U of T professors discussed Toronto-artist Melissa Shiff's video sculpture Cine-Seder Plate, installed for that night.
The Koffler Chamber Orchestra, led by former Toronto Symphony Orchestra concertmasterJacques Israelievitch, performed three concerts: Mendelssohn and More on November 22, 2009 at Temple Emanu-El, Toronto; From Sweden to Italy with Stops in Jerusalem and Prague on February 28, 2010 at Shaar Shalom Synagogue, Thornhill; and An Italian Music Holiday on May 2, 2010 at the Conrad Centre for the Performing Arts in Kitchener, Ontario.
The 22nd annual Helen and Stan Vine Canadian Jewish Book Awards were held on May 27, 2010 at the Al Green Theatre, Miles Nadal JCC. The 2010 winners included Robin McGrath, The Winterhouse, Allan Levine, Coming of Age: A History of the Jewish People of Manitoba, Michael Marrus, Some Measure of Justice: The Holocaust Era Restitution Campaign of the 1990s, Eva Wiseman, Puppet, David Sax, Save the Deli, Kenneth Sherman, What the Furies Bring, Jeffrey Veidlinger, Jewish Public Culture in the Late Russian Empire, Goldie Sigal, Stingy Buzi and King Solomon and a Special Achievement Award to Howard Engel.
The Koffler Gallery continued to program off-site during 2009-10, presenting Joshua Neustein: Margins from June 27, 2009 to March 28, 2010 at the Royal Ontario Museum. Organized by the Koffler Gallery and the Institute for Contemporary Culture at the ROM, the exhibition ran concurrently with the ROM exhibition Dead Sea Scrolls: Words that Changed the World. The Koffler Gallery also presented the group exhibition how good are your dwelling places from January 14 to March 14, 2010. Curated by Rochester-based curator Cyril Reade and located in a vacant residential and commercial space at 23 Beverley Street in Toronto, the exhibition featured works by artists Rita Bakacs, Susan Lakin, Ross Racine and Allen Topolski. Auguststrasse 25, by Toronto-based sound artist E.C. Woodley, was presented from April 22 to May 30, 2010, in the Kiever Synagogue in Kensington Market, Toronto. The multi-media exhibition within one of Toronto's oldest synagogues recreated a living-room setting typical of a middle-class Jewish home from 1920's Germany, and featured an in-character actress, sounds from 1920's Berlin radio, and period furniture. The Gallery closed the 2009-10 season with Panya Clark Espinal: Vagabond Vitrine from June 27 to August 1, 2010, a sculptural installation located at the Mon Ton Window Gallery on College Street, Toronto.
2008-2009
In 2008-09, the Koffler presented Israeli art historian Gideon Ofrat in a two-month residency that included a series of public talks on Israeli and Jewish art and art history at the Miles Nadal JCC, and presentations to schools and community groups. The Koffler also presented Israeli musician David Broza on December 23, 2008 at the Leah Posluns Theatre.From November 1 to 9, 2008, the Koffler presented the 32nd annual Toronto Jewish Book Fair at the Leah Posluns Theatre. Speakers included Alan Dershowitz on opening night, Ronald Aronson, Rabbi Elyse Goldstein, Arie Kaplan, Lisa Alcalay Klug, Rabbi Joseph B. Meszler, Pearl Sofaer, Bonnie Stern, Gerald Tulchinsky, Richard Ungar, Barrie A. Wilson, Anita Diamant, Karen Levine, Kathy Kacer, Ami Sands Brodoff, Gina Roitman, Morley Torgov, Howard Shrier and Jan Rehner.
In December 2009, the Koffler presented Crackin’ Up: Canadian Mosaic Comedy Night at The Rivoli, featuring Daniel Woodrow, Ron Josol, Arthur Simeon, Simon Rakoff, and Lori Pearlstein.
The Koffler Chamber Orchestra, founded in 2005 and led by former Toronto Symphony Orchestra concertmaster Jacques Israelievitch, performed three concerts: From the Old World to the New World: Music of England and America on November 16, 2008 at Hart House ; Folk Feast on February 22, 2009 at Temple Emanu-El; and From Russia with Love on May 31, 2009 at the Toronto Centre for the Arts.
The 21st annual Helen and Stan Vine Canadian Jewish Book Awards were held on May 25, 2009 at the Al Green Theatre, Miles Nadal JCC. The awards, which recognize Canadian writing on Jewish themes and subjects, are presented in the genres of fiction, non-fiction, history, poetry, Holocaust literature, biography and memoir, scholarship, and youth children's literature. The 2009 winners included Peter C. Newman, Izzy: the Passionate Life and Turbulent Times of Izzy Asper, Ami Sands Brodoff, The White Space Between, Barrie Wilson, How Jesus Became Christian, Joseph Kertes, Gratitude, Isa Milman, Prairie Kaddish, Reinhold Kramer, Mordecai Richler: Leaving St. Urban, David G. Roskies, YiddishLands, and Kathy Kacer, The Diary of Laura's Twin.
The Koffler Gallery presented the exhibitions Nina Levitt: Thin Air, from March 6 to April 18, 2008; Karilee Fuglem: here within our curving spaces from May 15 to July 13, 2008; and Akira Yoshikawa: the way of now from September 11 to November 30, 2008. Yoshikawa's exhibition was the last to be held in the former Gallery space in the BJCC. The Gallery was demolished along with the Koffler offices and the BJCC in spring/summer 2009 to prepare for construction of the new Sherman Campus and Koffler Centre of the Arts.
In the interim, the Koffler Gallery began to program off-site at locations around Toronto. The first off-site exhibition was Iris Häussler: Honest Threads, from January 22 to March 8, 2009. The exhibition was presented on the second floor of Honest Ed's, a large discount store located at Bathurst and Bloor Streets in Toronto. Haussler's project, which garnered media attention in the Toronto Star, National Post, The Globe and Mail, Canadian Jewish News, CBC Radio, Now and Fiberarts, invited "visitors to wear and live with an article of clothing or accessory they've borrowed from the exhibit, donated by strangers who provide background information on their item."
The Koffler Gallery's second off-site project was Diane Landry: The Magic Shield, March 19 to May 3, 2009 at the Beaver Hall Gallery.
Reena Katz controversy
In May 2009 The Koffler Centre of the Arts announced it was disassociating itself from artist Reena Katz as a result of her support for Israel Apartheid Week, and a petition that she signed "condemning Zionism to the dustbin of history." The Koffler Centre stated that such activities undermine the existence of Israel as a Jewish state. As stated on its website, undated documents say that the existence of Israel as a Jewish state is a core value of The Koffler. These documents did not exist at the time the controversy began. The website also stated that "hile we will support artists with diverse views about Israel, we will not endorse anyone who calls for the demise of Israel as a Jewish state." Katz "categorically rejects" this interpretation of her position.The Koffler Centre of the Arts has kept its contractual financial obligations to the project, each hand as they are called, which was planned to be associated with Toronto's Luminato festival. Katz' show was to be a non-political celebration of Jewish history in Kensington Market, which the Toronto Star described as "a gentle exploration of the layers of multi-ethnic immigrant history in Kensington Market, played out on the market's streets in performance and, in one notably warm-fuzzy intervention, a game of mah jongg between members of a Jewish seniors' centre and a class of Grade 8 students at a nearby school." The Centre's objection was not to the planned installation itself, which they had heartily approved of every step of the way, but to Katz' anti-Zionist views and activism, prompting Koffler's action to be described as blacklisting by critics. The Centre's response was "Just as every individual has a right to freedom of expression, any organization is free to choose with whom it partners."
Katz and independent curator Kim Simon, hired by the Koffler Center to curate the project, had been working on it for well over a year, and claim that from the beginning they had made Katz's critical activism concerning Israel clear to the Centre's own curator, Mona Filip who in turn must have told executive director Starr about it. Katz herself describes the effect of having only a single one-hour meeting with Starr on May 8, who then immediately issued the Koffler's press statement nationally, as a "stonewalling of internal dissent and debate... At no point along the way was I asked to represent myself, my ideas, or the mandates of the groups I belong to,
despite amicable, almost daily contacts with Filip for many months."
As a result of the Centre's actions, 4 of the 34 artists pulled out of Koffler's summer art party and fundraiser The Wrecking Ball as a protest. One artist, Gwen MacGregor, stated "It really speaks to fundamental issues about freedom of expression and freedom of association. It's the thin edge of the wedge, in terms of censorship, and that's a slippery slope." Another artist, Yvonne Singer, the only professional artist on the Koffler Board and an associate professor at York University, where she was in charge of the graduate program in visual art, resigned from the Board. She said, concerning a meeting of the Board's Arts Advisory Committee on May 1 where Starr had raised the issues, "Several of us objected. The exhibition had nothing to do with political views, and in any case, she had a right to them as a citizen." Singer again objected at the May 4 meeting of the full Board, but a majority agreed with Starr. In addition dozens of faculty from OCAD and York Universities signed a letter to the Koffler Centre stating that the latter's "decision is a highly political act that serves to discredit Katz, her work and the validity of the political views and opinions she may hold as a Jew, an artist, and a social citizen."
In its FAQ, the Koffler Centre of the Arts denies censorship since it did not cancel the exhibition and continued to fund it. They claim that the decision as to whether the exhibition continues remains in the hands of the artist and curator. This point of view was not accepted by journalists such as Murray Whyte, visual arts reporter at the Toronto Star, or Susan G. Cole, senior entertainment editor at Toronto's Now weekly magazine, nor was it the view of then Board member Yvonne Singer who told Whyte she "knew right away it would scuttle the whole thing. You can't dissociate like that, and reasonably expect it to survive." Cole noted the domino effect that the Koffler's quickly issued press release had on others involved in the project, in effect virtually terminating it 12 days before it was to open.
each hand as they are called finally went forward after the Koffler's lawyer reached a settlement with Ms. Katz's lawyer and was presented from October 1 to 25, 2009.
The , which provides substantial financial support to The Koffler, addressed the situation: "We're asking if this signals a change in policy," said Claire Hopkinson, TAC's executive director. "We're taking it very seriously." While the Toronto Arts Council after a formal review has confirmed that its funding of The Centre will continue, it also noted that Koffler had been "in violation of the City of Toronto's non-discrimination policy regarding an individual's right to freedom of political association" but declined to say what changes they were required to make.