Tag: Culture

Les AMIS to make Cobourg a Beacon for the High Arts

John Draper

In 2014, after “35 Terrific years in Toronto”, classical composer and artistic director Michael Pepa moved to Cobourg bringing his concerts with top performers with him.  Since then he has produced a number of concerts with some of Canada’s top violinists, cellists and pianists.  Initially planned to be in St Peter’s Church, the Concerts moved to the Loft when repairs were required for St Peter’s roof.  So far, one concert has been in Victoria Hall but the word is getting out and the Loft may not be big enough to stage future concerts so more may be coming to Victoria Hall.  The concerts are called Les AMIS concerts and their program plus more about them can be found on the… Read complete articleLes AMIS to make Cobourg a Beacon for the High Arts

Community Grant Requests

John Draper

Although there won’t be a decision until March 14, community groups were given the opportunity to present their case to Council on Tuesday at a 5:00 pm public meeting.  Thirteen groups took advantage of that and made their case.  There are others who applied last October who did not make a presentation – Deputy Mayor Suzanne Séguin commented that the total “asks” amounted to $76,000 and given the goal of an increase of about 2% on last year’s awards of $43,000, council would be saying no to a number of the applicants.  The time allocated was an hour but with up to 10 minutes that each were allowed, the presentations over-flowed into the 6:00 pm Committee of the Whole meeting… Read complete articleCommunity Grant Requests

Poutine Festival Coming to Cobourg

John Draper

Not too long ago, Labour Day weekend was when the Shelter Valley Folk Festival happened but with its shutdown, there is no major event scheduled for that weekend.  So it was an obvious time to stage a Poutine Feast.  At the Committee of the Whole meeting on Monday, Council approved an application by Poutine Feast Ontario Inc. to hold their event in Victoria Park on that weekend.  It will involve ten to fifteen vendors with their food-trucks “each of them offering their own version of the iconic dish”.  Dessert trucks, a kid’s zone and entertainment will also be a part of the offerings.  It’s not licensed and will be free to enter – that presumably means no fence.  It will… Read complete articlePoutine Festival Coming to Cobourg

Water Park may not happen

John Draper

Because of a motion put by Deputy Mayor Suzanne Séguin, the installation of a Water Park on Cobourg’s Beach was raised at Monday’s Committee of the Whole meeting.  Although Council agreed last year to approve the idea, installation did not happen last year and no contract has yet been signed.  Jason Pulchinski, President of ATL (At the Lake), the distributor of the equipment, made a presentation to Council and triggered a good debate on the subject.  He explained that last year they had tried to partner with the YMCA to provide lifeguards but that did not work out.  They did manage to hire 5 but they needed 10 so that 4 could be on duty at all times.  It was… Read complete articleWater Park may not happen

First Public Cultural Plan Meeting

John Draper

On February 6th, Cobourg invites citizens to a launch event for the Cultural Master Plan that is under development. It will be in the Concert Hall at Victoria Hall at 6:00pm and “the evening will feature an opportunity to see an overview of the Cultural Master Plan development process, a visioning and engagement exercise and an opportunity to provide valuable feedback.”  In the meantime, citizens are invited to participate in an online survey to complement input already received from culture and heritage groups and the business community.  Once completed, it is hoped that “the Cultural Master Plan will establish a cultural vision for the Town of Cobourg as well as identify concrete strategies and actions to support cultural and broader… Read complete articleFirst Public Cultural Plan Meeting

Winter Film Festival

John Draper

In November 2003, Ken Prue asked for interested people to join him in presenting first run Movies that were aimed at movie lovers yet not shown in the Northumberland Mall theatre.  Sourcing Films from the Toronto International Film Festival’s “Film Circuit”, the group called itself Northumberland Film Sundays (NFS) and showed five or six films each Spring and Fall.  In early 2012, Ken bought the Mall theatres but continued to lead NFS. In July 2014, Ken called an end to his venture at the Mall and passed the NFS reins to others. After a painful transition, he eventually re-opened at the Loft where he stages quality documentaries, occasional classics, Royal Opera movies and live shows. NFS continued with the new… Read complete articleWinter Film Festival

Capitol Announces Replacement for Antonio

John Draper

With Cobourg reviewing the Cultural scene with the development of a Cultural plan, one item of interest is what’s happening with the Capitol Theatre in Port Hope.  In October 2018, the Capitol Board announced that Executive Director Antonio Sarmiento would be leaving on December 31 and would be replaced by two Directors: an Artistic Director and a Managing Director.  Olga Cwiek, Board Chair of the Capitol Theatre has now announced that these will be Susan Ferley as Artistic Director and Mike Forrester as Managing Director.  As announced in October, they will focus on making the Capitol a non-profit community theatre – with apparently more emphasis on “community”. Both Susan and Mike have a wealth of talent and experience in theatre in… Read complete articleCapitol Announces Replacement for Antonio

Ted Amsden Completes Term as Poet Laureate

John Draper

Cobourg appointed Eric Winter as its first Poet Laureate on July 21, 1997; Jill Battson followed and most recently, Ted Amsden has held the post since 2011.  He was re-appointed to the position at the start of the previous term of council and this ends with his last poem to be read at the Mayor’s Levee on January 1, 2019.  In tribute to Ted, a number of organizations have added videos to their facebook pages of Ted reading one of his poems.  But several of his poems are online on You-Tube – links to them are given below and one has been selected for this post. Poets are quite active in Cobourg – there is an active poetry group who… Read complete articleTed Amsden Completes Term as Poet Laureate