PAST PROGRAMMING & EVENTS

CSDA/CCAD Sundays: Expert Series Presents Reimagining Purpose: Functional and Cultural Dimensions of Chinese Ceramics with Dr. Chih-En Chen               

Sunday, January 12, 2025 - 3 p.m. (ET) Via Zoom. 

Please join Professor Chih-En Chen who will reevaluate commonly accepted assumptions in scholarship regarding the function of Chinese ceramics. Traditional interpretations often assign specific roles—ritual, decorative, or utilitarian—to these objects, yet such classifications are frequently based on limited evidence. Through a close examination, this presentation considers the complexities of these ceramics’ intended uses and their broader cultural contexts. By questioning established views, this lecture seeks to encourage a more nuanced, evidence-based approach to understanding the multifaceted roles of Chinese ceramics in historical practice. Asian art consultant, Anthony Wu, will moderate the discussion following Dr Chen's lecture.
The recording for this lecture can be found in CSDA Member Only portal of the website.
Image credit: Ru ware bowl stand, Northern Song dynasty, China @ National Museum of Asian Art

YP&C In-person Event - Guided tour at the Bata Shoe Museum's new exhibition Art/Wear: Sneakers x Artists 

Saturday, December 7, 2024 - 11 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. EST

Art/Wear: Sneakers and Artists asks why artists are drawn to working on/with sneakers and why so many of us are interested in wearing these pieces. It also explores the longstanding divide in Western thought between art and fashion, ultimately questioning if and how our collective definitions of art are shifting. Topics explored include: a history of sneakers as canvases, graffiti artists and sneakers, and artist collabs, and the rise of customization as its own art form.

Image credit: Darren Rigo

CSDA/CCAD 42nd Symposium (Oct 18-20, 2024)

Hamilton: A City Rediscovered

CSDA/CCAD Symposium Oct 18, 2024

Marian Bradshaw Lecture Series - UNBUILT HAMILTON WITH MARK OSBALDESTON

Mark Osbaldeston, author of Unbuilt Hamilton, , presents the Ambitious City at its most ambitious, exploring unrealized building, planning, and transportation proposals spanning two centuries.  Through archival illustrations and photographs, Mark showcases abandoned projects such as a magnetically propelled, elevated transit system, and a 1917 city plan that would have created a North American Champs-Élysées. Alternate visions for landmarks such as Christ’s Church Cathedral, the Thomas McQuesten High Level Bridge and for Hamilton’s postwar foray into urban renewal cast new light on city landmarks. Unbuilt Hamilton presents the Hamilton that might have been.

View the program itinerary.
Image credit: Nick Parry

ORNAMENTUM LECTURE SERIES:                               

SENSING MUSICAL LANDSCAPES WITH NOLAN SPRANGERS

Thursday, October 10, 2024, 7 p.m.
This presentation provides a timeline of the pastoral genre as it has developed through literature, visual arts, and music from ancient Greece to the present day. Specifically, Nolan Sprangers discusses the sometimes vague ways music has engaged this genre in order to provide a broader context for understanding Boni's instrument and its decoration. More broadly, his interdisciplinary approach highlights how the arts have continued to mediate one another when engaging with natural topics. The presentation includes photographs and musical excerpts.

The recording for this lecture can be found in CSDA Member Only portal of the website.

Image credit: Harpsichord, used with permission from Gardiner Houlgate Auction House

DISCOVER THE ARCHITECTURAL & HISTORICAL TREASURES OF ST. THOMAS'S ANGLICAN CHURCH
September 22, 2024

Explore St Thomas's Anglican Church, a Toronto architectural gem, with historian and professor, Dr. Carl Benn. This Arts and Crafts masterpiece, designed by renowned architect Eden Smith in 1892-93, features a stunning Pre-Raphaelite First War memorial, historical stained-glass windows, and exquisite furnishings by prominent Canadian and British designers. The tour includes a reception showcasing vestments and silver treasures, and falls between the Sunday choral Eucharist and Evensong, and members are welcome to attend either service. The church, originally intended as a temporary structure, has served the community for over 125 years. Its baptistery from 1922 is described as "the most beautiful small room in Toronto.” The building houses several architectural treasures, including a reredos behind the high altar with hand-carved statues of nine saints.

Image: St. Thomas's Anglican Church, courtesy St. Thomas's Anglican Church

Canadian Canoe Museum Tour

The CSDA will host a day-long visit to the new Canadian Canoe Museum in Peterborough, Ontario.  The museum is re-opening in May in a state-of-the-art building in a new waterfront location. It holds the largest collection of paddle-propelled watercraft in the world, along with studios showcasing traditional crafts such as beading, fabric arts, millwork, snowshoe- and paddle-making, and, of course, canoe-building.  In addition to touring the exhibits, CSDA members will be granted access to a spectacular storage area housing the entire collection of watercraft, guided by the curator.

CSDA/CCAD Sundays: Expert Series                              

THE DESIGN EVOLUTION OF JAPANESE TEA CERAMICS

Sunday, May 5, 2024 - 3 p.m. (ET)   

Join art appraiser, Harrison Schley, in conversation with Asian art consultant, Anthony Wu, as they engage in a lively discussion about the ceramics, utensils, and decorative arts created for the tea ceremony, which is one of the most significant categories in Japan’s artistic canon.

Images: (Detail) (2012.168.1‑6), Eiraku Hozen, 1795‑1854, active in Kyoto, Tea Bowl ("chawan"), Between 1827 and 1849, Earthenware, painted decoration in underglaze iron oxide brown over buff slip, The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA), gift of Teruha Kagemori, Photo MMFA, Christine Guest

Frog, courtesy Diane Blunt

ORNAMENTUM LECTURE SERIES:                               

BITING TOWARDS OUR FUTURE WITH DIANE BLUNT

Thursday, April 25, 2024, 7 p.m.     

A fascinating look at the rare and ancient art form of birch bark biting. For this Ornamentum Lecture Series presentation, Ojibway artist, Diane Blunt, will share her birch bark biting process, her work, and her hopes to keep this art form alive well into the future. View a recording of this presentation.