While looking towards the future can be riddled with anxieties of the unknown, an Orillia arts community is looking to explore what’s next through an exciting new festival capturing big ideas.
Arts Orillia is pleased to announce Future Fest — A Week of Eco-Art, coming to Orillia during the week of Sept. 23 to 28. Future Fest consists of many different ways of looking at the future: writing, a series of short talks, the world of art, a theatrical experience — even augmented reality. Taking place over four days at venues across Orillia, explore different experiences that will make you consider what the future holds.
Festival Kick Off: Lecture and Book Signing with Bob McDonald
Monday, Sept. 23, Book signing at 6:30pm and lecture at 7pm
St Paul’s Centre, Orillia
The festival kicks off with a book signing and lecture by Bob McDonald, the genial host of CBC’s Quirks and Quarks. McDonald has just written The Future is Now: Solving the Climate Crisis with Today’s Technologies. As one reviewer notes:
“This is not another ‘wake-up call,’ and not another plea to heed the climate science. This is an exploration of the incredible technologies that our species can use to get out of the mess we’ve made for ourselves. It is a work of immense optimism to counteract the sense of doom that hangs over most discussions of the environment.”
McDonald’s work as host of the CBC science show has brought him into contact with a wide variety of the world’s scientists. He has taken the opportunity of these contacts to examine what today’s technologies can mean for the future of us all.
TICKETS
TALL Talks
Wednesday, Sept 25, 10am
St. Paul’s Centre
Through a collaboration with Lakehead University’s Third Age Learning Lakehead (TALL), a program designed to provide thought-provoking educational opportunities to adult learners, Arts Orillia presents TALL Talks — four 15-minute exciting talks on creativity and sustainability by four exciting young people.
Kate Hilliard, artistic director for Arts Orillia, will speak on the topic of art as an agent of change. Jacob Kearey-Moreland, a PhD student at Lakehead University, will address food literacy. Sean Rees, artist and educator and design manager for Arts Orillia, will speak about artificial intelligence as a creative tool. Finally, Heidi Strauss, artistic director of Toronto-based adelheid, will describe and explain the augmented reality exhibit, You Are Swimming Here, that will be featured at the Orillia Recreation Centre on Saturday, Sept. 28, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. (See below).
TICKETS
Community members signed up for Lakehead’s TALL fall series (of which this will be the first session) will be admitted free to this event, while non-members will be asked to pay at the door ($15) or show their Future Fest pass. Those who arrive at the usual TALL time of 9:30 a.m. will find coffee and tea ready along with an eco-art exhibit.
Eco-Art Exhibit & Performance
Thursday, September 26, 6pm display, 7pm performance
Orillia Opera House
A collection of eco-art (film, drawing and painting) will be on display in the Green Room featuring works by Emma Lee Fleury, Derek Owens, Gail Root, and Sean Rees. The display will also include artwork from 18 students whose pieces were chosen by Sustainable Orillia for inclusion in the 2025 calendar, Ontario Species Need Your Help. Sustainable Orillia’s 2024 student art contest asked students attending area schools to learn about the 180 endangered species (www.ontario.ca/page/species-risk-ontario) on the province of Ontario’s species at risk list and to then choose one or more to draw or paint and submit along with a personal comment to the contest. You will be impressed by the quality of both the artwork and the comments.
At 7 p.m. attendees will be invited into the Gordon Lightfoot Auditorium for Hard Wire, a performance that follows two scientists as their archeological dig leads to a deeper reflection on life in the face of a climate in crisis. This will be a thought-provoking experience for audience members.
TICKETS
Culture Days Experiences
Saturday, Sept 28, 11am-5pm
Orillia Recreation Centre
On Saturday, Sept. 28, plan to visit the Orillia Recreation Centre, where you will be invited to participate in two free experiences. Postcards to the Future is a community art collaboration with the City of Orillia as part of Culture Days. Join us to reflect, share, write and draw. We’re building a colossal tree and each leaf is a postcard that carries an idea or image created by you. Share your vision for the future. What do you dream about? What do you hope for? What do you want for yourself? What do you want for future generations?
Participate as well in You Are Swimming Here, an augmented reality experience created by Heidi Strauss and Luke Garwood that guides audiences on an independent and interactive wayfinding mission through a designated public space. It considers climate change and the human impact on the natural world, inviting audiences to privately reflect. Real and virtual worlds intersect in a playful and tender provocation to slow down. A unique experience awaits those who attend.
These two experiences are free as part of Culture Days
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Get the Future Fest Pass!
Want to attend all of the events? Your best ticket is a Future Fest pass. Passes are available for four different age groups: seniors, $49; adults, $59; students (18 to 20), $29; youth (17 and younger), $14.75. Get tickets for the whole family and plan to attend all events during the week. After all, chances are good that your children and young people have more of the future to look forward to than you do.
GET THE PASS
The future. We all wonder what it will look like and what it will bring us. Plan to attend Arts Orillia’s Future Fest (Sept. 23 to 28) for an exciting glimpse of what’s coming our way.
For more information, go to www.artsorillia.ca.
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