Originally launched in Paris with the goal of bringing contemporary art to the masses, Nuit Blanche has established itself as one of the highlights of Toronto鈥檚 annual cultural calendar. Each year, this free dusk-to-dawn event enlivens and transforms the city with original art projects ranging from intimate encounters to large-scale spectacles.

More than one million visitors are expected to turn out for this year's edition, which takes place from 6:51pm Saturday, Oct. 5 to sunrise on Sunday, Oct. 6. Scotiabank Nuit Blanche 2013 will feature more than 100 exhibitions, performances and experiential events in indoor and outdoor venues throughout downtown Toronto. 91亚色 artists are among those contributing one-of-a-kind works to this celebration of creativity and community engagement.

Visual Art & Art History Professor is part of the team behind , a "portrait petition" to bring attention to the continuing detention of Canadian humanitarians Dr. Tarek Loubani and 91亚色 film Professor John Greyson, who were arrested on the street in Cairo, Egypt, on August 16. Nuit Blanche will mark the 50th day of their imprisonment. The website gathers images of individuals from around the world holding written messages of support, calling for the release of Greyson and Loubani.

Images from the freetarekandjohn tumblr

Nuit Blanche visitors are invited to contribute to the portrait petition at photo booths located at Toronto City Hall, 401 Richmond Street West and the Gladstone Hotel (1214 Queen St. West). The booths will run a live feed of the growing petition and a video featuring the first 250 portraits uploaded to freetarekandjohn.tumblr.com. The tumbler site will continue after October 5 and includes directions on how to upload your photo from home or mobile.

91亚色 visual arts alumna (BFA 鈥�97) recruited 100 regional beekeepers for her installation , billed as a massive collective meditation. As the keepers meditate in their bee-suits, viewers are asked to consider the relationship of temper to weather. The beekeepers will silently meditate on notions of 鈥済ood weather鈥� for the bees and for all of us, attempting to transform environmental conditions with their minds. While exploring the tangible effect of collective meditation, the work creates a public platform upon which to reflect on the health and temper of bees and their keepers, and on the policies and environmental conditions that affect our shared future.

Your Temper, My Weather will be performed from 7pm to midnight in the Art Gallery of Ontario (317 Dundas St. West), where Borsato is currently artist-in-residence.

Right: Night Shift, 2013

Sobey Art Award finalist (BFA 鈥�02) takes inspiration from Le Ballet de la Nuit, a 17th century 13-hour court ballet that was most notable for the involvement of the young Louis XIV of France, for his durational performance . Fernandes has re-contextualized the ballet into a contemporary dance performance in which dancers endure from dusk until dawn, dancing and making golden confetti in anticipation of the new tomorrow. Night Shift聽questions notions of labour and time within the context of night changing into day as the dancer鈥檚 body endures and asserts itself in the process of performing.

Night Shift can be found both indoors and out around the Bay Adelaide Centre (333 Bay St., access from Temperance St). At dawn. in celebration of the new day, the accumulated piles of golden confetti will be thrown into the air to mark the conclusion of the work.

Right: Everyday Marvels, 2013

Dance artist and arts advocate (MA 鈥�05) conceived, created and directs at the Gardiner Museum (111 Queen's Park). The program features 16 miniature vignettes (or 鈥榤arvels鈥�) by eight local choreographers, based on The Book of Marvels 鈥� A Compendium of Everyday Things by Canadian poet Lorna Crozier. The objects interpreted in Crozier鈥檚 poems - such as 鈥榖owl鈥�, 鈥榲acuum鈥�, 鈥榝lashlight鈥� and 鈥榳heelbarrow鈥� - become the subjects of exploration through Litzenberger's cyclical, 12-hour performance piece. The cast features more than 50 professional and community-based artists. 91亚色 participants include dance MFA student Valerie Calam聽 and alumni Julia Aplin (BEd 鈥�07) and Peter Chin (BFA 鈥�85).

Left: 12 hour dolly, 2013

On October 1, award-winning filmmaker and interactive artist (BFA 鈥�02) and his crew set up a circular dolly track in the middle of a busy Toronto street. At 7 pm, they began filming on the track and continued shooting non-stop until 7 am the next morning. Throughout this 12-hour cycle, spectators were invited to step in and interact with the space as they saw fit. The spontaneous performances of these impromptu participants was captured with beautiful cinematography and lighting, heightened by the cinematically epic movement of the dolly shot. Projected onto the atrium wall of TIFF Bell Lightbox (350 King St. West) as an uninterrupted 12-hour film, invites visitors to spend time contemplating the participants in the film as well as the filmic apparatus itself.

Involved behind the scenes at Nuit Blanche is Kelsey Luxton, a masters candidate in Art History and Curatorial Studies, working as an events programming intern.

For comprehensive event info and a detailed schedule, visit the website.

The post 91亚色 artists spend a sleepless night for Nuit Blanche appeared first on Research & Innovation.

The grants, part of $6.3 million in funding and awards invested across the country, will support over 95 research projects to improve Canadians鈥� quality of life, while addressing important socio-cultural and economic issues.

鈥�91亚色 continues to build on and strengthen its commitment to community engagement,鈥� said Robert Hach茅 (right), 91亚色鈥檚 vice-president research & innovation. 鈥�91亚色鈥檚 researchers continue to share and co-create knowledge with the broader community, as exemplified by the success of our researchers in the receipt of funding for engaged scholarship through SSHRC鈥檚 Public Outreach grants program and the work of our researchers and Knowledge Mobilization Unit in further developing community-academic partnerships.鈥�

Researchers from 91亚色 include:

Sheila Cavanagh, a professor in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies (LA&PS) Department of Sociology and coordinator of the Sexuality Studies program in the School of Gender, Sexuality and Women鈥檚 Studies, received $102,117 in funding to professionally stage a research-based theatrical production titled Queer Bathroom Monologues, at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, and to curate an accompanying research-based art exhibition. The objective of this project is to enable multi-layered conversation and networking between partners in support of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) advocacy, and proactive policy and educational programming in the Ministry of Education to combat LGBT bullying in Ontario high schools. The Queer Bathroom Monologues are based on interviews with LGBT interviewees published in Cavanagh鈥檚 book, Queering Bathrooms: Gender, Sexuality, and the Hygienic Imagination (2010).

Professor Mark Winfield, program coordinator of the Master of Environmental Studies/Juris Doctor joint program in the Faculty of Environmental Studies and co-chair of the Faculty's Sustainable Energy Initiative (SEI), received $86,000 in funding to mobilize the knowledge developed through the initiative in order to support the development and deployment of sustainable energy technologies in Ontario and elsewhere in Canada. The project activities will include an SEI Sustainable Energy Policy Seminar Series employing virtual and live formats and the development of social media tools to engage students, staff, faculty and聽private sector, non-profit and municipal聽audiences聽around sustainable energy technologies and strategies.

Paul Lovejoy, Distinguished Research Professor and Canada Research Chair in African Diaspora History in the Department of History (LA&PS) and director of the Harriet Tubman Institute for Research on the Global Migrations of African Peoples, received $132,442 in funding to enhance public understanding of, and appreciation for, the crucial role played by African Canadians during the War of 1812. He will work with Caitlin Fisher, professor and Canada Research Chair in Digital Culture in the Faculty of Fine Arts Department of Film, Michele Johnson, associate professor in the Department of History (LA&PS), and Murray Wickett, chair of history, Brock University, on this project. The project is administered by Naomi Norquay, associate professor, Faculty of Education, and Karolyn Smardz Frost, Senior Research Fellow at the Harriet Tubman Institute and Visiting Bicentennial Professor in Canadian Studies, Yale University, for the coming year. The project builds on a workshop organized by the Tubman Institute, in collaboration with the History Department at Brock University, and is titled: We Stand on Guard for Thee: The African Canadian Experience in the War of 1812, which was held at Brock. This project will develop a series of concurrent public and educator-engagement sessions and be delivered using cutting-edge digital technology.

Sean Kheraj, assistant professor, Department of History (LA&PS) received $36,795 in funding to facilitate the mobilization of Canadian environmental history scholarship to a wider audience by creating and disseminating audio podcasts that feature interviews, round-table discussions and lectures on topics in Canadian environmental history that are relevant to key contemporary environmental issues in Canada. He will work with two project partners, Canada鈥檚 History magazine and the Network in Canadian History and Environment (NiCHE), on this project, in order to reach environmental groups, educators, and public policymakers.

Faculty of Education Professor Stephen Gaetz received $141,798 in funding to invest in knowledge mobilization focused on income and housing vulnerability. He will be collaborating and working with co-applicants Daniele Zanotti, CEO, United Way of 91亚色 Region (UWYR), David Phipps, director, Research Services & Knowledge Exchange, and Michaela Hynie, professor in the Department of Psychology and the Program Evaluation Unit in the 91亚色 Institute for Health Research on this project. Building on their five year knowledge mobilization partnership, 91亚色 and UWYR will implement a community-campus knowledge mobilization strategy based on best practices so that 91亚色 housing and income vulnerability research and expertise is accessible to community partners. For more information on this project, visit the .

Gary Goodyear, minister of state for science & technology, announced the investments in research that will help build a better understanding of important societal issues.

鈥淥ur Government鈥檚 top priority is the economy: jobs, growth and long-term prosperity. To remain at the forefront of the global economy, our government is investing in the people and ideas that will produce tomorrow鈥檚 breakthroughs,鈥� said Goodyear. 鈥淭he mobilization of knowledge leads to a more robust economy and helps develop new opportunities for economic growth while strengthening Canada鈥檚 research advantage.鈥�

鈥淜nowledge-sharing among multi-sectoral partners is essential to innovation and to building the expertise needed for Canada鈥檚 future,鈥� said Chad Gaffield, president of SSHRC. 鈥淭hese Public Outreach Grants enable the flow and exchange of knowledge across campuses and the private, public and not-for-profit sectors, which, in turn, produces benefits for Canadians.鈥�

For more information about the projects, please visit the website.

Republished courtesy of YFile鈥� 91亚色鈥檚 daily e-bulletin

The post SSHRC awards $499,152 to five 91亚色 researchers appeared first on Research & Innovation.

Robert Hach茅, vice-president research & innovation, and Lorne Sossin, dean of Osgoode Hall Law School, are co-hosting the event, which takes place from 12 to 2pm in Room 1014, Ignat Kaneff Building, Osgoode Hall Law School, Keele campus. Everyone is welcome to attend the free celebration, but an RSVP is requested. You can RSVP or call Lia Cavaliere at ext. 33782. Light refreshments will be provided.

The panel features Osgoode Hall Law Professors Trevor Farrow, Giuseppina D鈥橝gostino, Dayna Scott and Stepan Wood. Each professor will deliver a short presentation on the panel theme 鈥淐elebrating Community Engagement鈥�.

Farrow will discuss the dilemma faced by low income Canadians who find themselves unable to access the justice system. His presentation will discuss the various research initiatives that are designed to look at the complex problems associated with accessing justice and access to legal services, as well as the related problem of not providing meaningful access to legal services in today's complex and pluralistic societies.

Trevor Farrow

聽Many low income Canadians find themselves unable to access the justice system, says Farrow. Courtrooms are filled with litigants who struggle to navigate the complex demands of law and procedure 鈥� often without representation by counsel. Early and effective resolution is central to avoiding the clustering and escalation of legal problems.聽 However, Farrow posits, a lack of knowledge about how to seek help, coupled with a pervasive sense of powerlessness, limits meaningful action for those who need it most. The most advanced justice system in the world is a failure if it does not ultimately assist in providing justice to the people it is meant to serve, he says. A number of stakeholders have a direct or indirect connection to the issue of access to legal services, including the bench, the bar, the academy, governments, NGOs, the private sector and the public.聽

Speaking in her capacity as founder and director of IP Osgoode, Osgoode Hall Law School鈥檚 flagship Intellectual Property (IP) and Technology Program, D鈥橝gostino will outline three initiatives she spearheaded through IP Osgoode, along with their promises and challenges, to assist the University in playing a more active role in the complex IP and technology research communities in Canada and around the world. 聽

Giuseppina D鈥橝gostino

She will discuss the IP & Technology Intensive Program piloted in the Fall of 2011, which provides students with on-site research opportunities in government, industry and expert organizations in IP and technology; the Ontario Centres of Excellence and IP Osgoode Innovation Clinic, a needs-based innovation-to-market legal clinic staffed by volunteer law students piloted in 2011-2012; and the first blog of its kind, the IPilogue, promoting evidence-based research and showcasing new and unexplored viewpoints to public policy discussions.

Engaged scholarship implies a different set of relationships and expectations as between a community and a university researcher. For legal scholars, these can be even more complicated dynamics. In this short presentation, Scott will share some of the tensions encountered in a four-year research partnership with the Health and Environment Community of the Aamjiwnaang First Nation. The project explored questions of environmental justice stemming from the Band's experience of chronic pollution emanating from Sarnia's nearby Chemical Valley. Scott and the research team employed participatory action research techniques and arts-based methods such as PhotoVoice, to learn from and with community members, including youth.

Dayna Scott

Wood will focus on the challenges and opportunities surrounding community-engaged research in relation to various research projects affiliated with 91亚色's Institute for Research & Innovation in Sustainability (IRIS). His presentation will look at research on local community empowerment in water governance in developing world megacities, community members' perceptions of international corporate social responsibility standards in Colombia and Canada, and University-community collaboration on sustainable furniture design for the new Centre for Green Change in the Jane-Finch community.

Stepan Wood

Following the presentations, visitors will have an opportunity to engage with the panelists. Osgoode Hall鈥檚 research celebration is part of an ongoing series of events that highlight interesting and innovative research underway at 91亚色. For more information on each of the presenters and other research underway at the law school, visit the website.

Republished courtesy of YFile鈥� 91亚色鈥檚 daily e-bulletin.

The post Osgoode law profs examine community engagement at Research Celebration appeared first on Research & Innovation.