Refuge Canada
All are welcome at new presentation that shines a light on people who know what it’s like to be very, very unwelcome. In an interactive exhibition, 30 museum visitors are able to squeeze on to a life raft built for eight. On a recreated flight bound for Gander, Nfld., actual refugees are heard talking about their escapes. In short, visitors are invited to walk a mile in the shoes of people for whom a mile is longer than most. At Halifax’s Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21.
The Essential Joe Fafard: Van Gogh and Other Inspirations
Joe Fafard at the opening of A Tune to Art: Sculpture and Song at the Slate Fine Art Gallery in Regina.The Globe and Mail
He’s known for his horses outside the National Gallery of Canada, his bronze cows pasturing at Toronto’s TD Centre and his bull on Georgia Street in Vancouver. But with this large-scale figurative exhibition, the celebrated Saskatchewan sculptor unveils works inspired by things and places other than his home province. Included among his influences is a Dutch postimpressionist notoriously hard of hearing. May 12 to June 9, at Toronto’s Mayberry Fine Art.
Les Filles du Roi (The King’s Daughters)
From the creators of Children of God, a musical about Canada’s controversial residential schools history, comes a new work of song and story, this time about young Mohawk siblings whose lives are disrupted by the arrival of the legion of young French women who settled in what is now Montreal, in New France, in the 1660s. The musical, by Corey Payette and Julie McIsaac, is performed in English, French and Mohawk. May 15 to 27, at Vancouver’s York Theatre.
Canadian Music Week: The Mastering of a Music City
The ka-ching is music to the ears of city officials the world over who have come to embrace the notion that the music industry is an economic engine worth priming. At the annual Canadian Music Week festival of conferences and live showcases, a one-day summit is devoted to the creation, performance and reception of music and its monetary impact. May 12, at Toronto’s Sheraton Centre.
Beatrice Deer
“It’s about reconciliation with yourself, which is the hardest thing to do,” Beatrice Deer says. “And I mean that on a personal level as well as on a national level.” Deer, a Montreal-by-Nunavik singer-songwriter who on May 18 co-hosts the Indigenous Music Awards in Winnipeg, is talking about the inspirations behind her new album My All To You. Conveying her ideas via traditional Inuit throat singing and modern indie rock, Deer’s music is a vibrant, potent declaration in any of the languages she chooses to employ. May 12, at Montreal’s O Patro Vys.
Brad Wheeler