Sundin Must Be Traded! AGO Adopts “User Input” Approach to Exhibits: TorontoIAM

This is a selection of recent popular blog articles from TorontoIAM where you will find the best blogs from Toronto, Ontario as well as video uploads, social networking, rumors, and blog authoring

Is Egotism Keeping Sundin in Toronto?

Justin Dahan, blogging on Buds Banter, questions Mats Sundin’s motivations for wanting to stay with the Leafs. He says he loves Toronto and “has no intention of waving his no trade clause.” And Cliff Fletcher says the Leafs “will not be sellers,” but instead “they will make smart hockey decisions.” But to improve the future of the Leafs, we need “sell” players. But let’s take a look at why Sundin doesn’t want to be traded. “Of course he loves the city, he’s treated like a God by the fans and media, but if he truly loved the team he would allow himself to be traded and return next season.”

Dahan opines in his post that “it’s a little egotistical for Sundin to want to remain in Toronto to maintain his star status.” Since the Leafs won’t even make the playoffs this year, why doesn’t Sundin “jump at the opportunity to contend for the Stanley Cup?” He’s been “dubbed” to be competitor, but he’s not acting like it. It’s not disloyal to leave and come back. But perhaps Fletcher “is worried that Sundin won’t come back if he’s traded.” What if he likes the environment or gets to hang out with all his Swedish buddies? The fact is, “the Leafs need to trade Sundin.” Doesn’t Sundin want a chance at the Stanley Cup… or is he happy with his Olympic gold medal?” 

The Art Gallery of Ontario Offers New Kind of Visitor Experience

A recent post by R. Ouellette from Reading Toronto announces that the Art Gallery of Ontario would like to offer patrons a “different kind of visitor experience.” Usually art galleries take a “top down approach where art experts determine what the rest of us should look at.” AGO is interested in letting “user input guide their curatorial choices.”

This kind of talk has been heard before from Canada's cultural sector, “but this time the gallery is up against profound changes in the way people access culture.” It is time to “adapt or be left behind.”

AGO's plan is to use “six key principles” to keep user-generated feedback in check. First comes creativity or course. Next is the idea of forum, so the new gallery “will be a platform for the exchange of ideas.” The third principle is transparency: “the gallery will make its deepest, darkest functions visible--think conservation of art as an example.” Fourth is diversity, thinking globally. Fifth is responsiveness, “where societal trends will be used to influence how visitors understand the arts experience.” And the sixth principle is relevance, which Oullette’s post calls “a subtle shift away from big curatorial themes to issue-based arts.”

The Readers Have Spoken: Toronto’s Top Ten Bookstores

One Blog TO, Tim features the Top 10 Bookstores in Toronto, as nominated and voted on by their readers. Of Toronto’s bookstores he writes that they “may not be the most lucrative business these days” with mega-chains like Chapters Indigo and online retailers like Amazon.ca. However, the many popular book sellers who remain “have made their stores better by distinguishing themselves on features like the quality of their selection, helpful service and ties to the local community.” Tim admits that narrowing the list to the Top Ten left some niche stores out, like Bakka-Phoenix (Sci Fi) and Mables Fables (Children’s), but ultimately, the readers were the ones to decide.

“Perhaps to nobody's surprise,” he writes in his post, “perennial favourite Pages Books & Magazines secured the top spot.” Pages has long supported local and independent publishers and also hosts “the widely-successful This is Not a Reading Series.” Other stores that made the Top Ten include TYPE Books, a “community-focused bookseller featuring a well curated selection of books on current events, design, cooking, the environment and a range of other topics, and David Mirvish Books, which features “one of Toronto's best selection of art books as well as architecture, film, music, design.” The most niche store on the list is Conspiracy Culture, “the source in Toronto for books and videos on any and all conspiracy theories.”

Organics Future Relies on Consumer Action

From Taste TO, Shelly Kirby recaps this year’s Canadian Organic Growers Conference, which took place in Toronto this past Saturday, and during which organic farmers, food producers, nutritionists and writers examined the issues and explored “how organics is changing the world.” The event included a “keynote speech by Helge Hellberg of Marin Organic from Marin County California, who is hard at work to make Marin the first completely organic county in the United States.” Prince Charles, one of the world’s leading supporters of the organic movement, has even come to visit the Marin County farmers market. Hellberg, a Certified Holistic Nutrition Counselor, gave an “inspiring speech” that “set the tone for the day,” writes Kirby in her post.

The Canada Organic Regime takes effect on December 14th, 2008, so Canada’s organic farmers and food producers “are working hard to ensure organic integrity.” The new regulations are a means “to differentiate organic products from mainstream ones,” although there was much discussion around the fact that the government, who will enforce certification standards, “does not have a background in organic principles.” Also this does not mean that organics will be available to everyone, so as consumers, we must do our part, such as “demand organic food” and “take responsibility for getting the right info.” During the final seminar, the panel was asked, “Can Organics Feed the World?” Present, they said, it could not, as “demand exceeds production and organics are seen as a threat to conventional food production.” Again, consumers need to take the lead.

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