Art as Therapy Opening Celebration

On May 1, the AGO celebrates the landmark new exhibition Art as Therapy, a series of interventions organized by philosopher Alain de Botton and art historian John Armstrong. This special edition of First Thursdays explores this theme with specially commissioned performances by local artists and interactive activities. And to cap the night off, a headlining performance by The Darcys, the Toronto-based art-rock group who will be performing at Arts & Crafts’ second annual Field Trip festival in June.

The Darcys headline the night with a performance in Walker Court at 9:30 p.m. Described by the Toronto Star as a mix of “Neil Young, contemporary Brit-pop and shoegazer glaze,” the 2014 JUNO Award-nominated band will ease guests of Toronto’s biggest art party with their therapeutic sounds. Dancing kings and queens can dance their stresses away in Galleria Italia as DJ Maylee Todd takes the reins of the all-night dance party with her favourite party tunes.

And don’t miss three Art as Therapy-inspired artist projects:

• Toronto-based artist Hanna Hur presents Popcorn (My Body, Your Body), which utilizes the therapeutic practive of reiki explores the potential of art to provide an experience of physical, mental, and spiritual healing. Visitors will be invited to receive reiki inside the Henry Moore Sculpture Centre, their reclining bodies mimicking and contrasting the sweeping, monolithic forms on view inside the gallery.

• Toronto-based conceptual artist Basil AlZeri will perform It is Not Guided, Nor is it a Tour. Responding to ideas outlined in Art As Therapy, a group of AGO Gallery Guides will transform visitors’ major Gallery experience. The group will engage in semi-scripted dialogues with unsuspecting observers, shedding light on our relationship to cultural institutions and exposing the level of engagement we are willing to invest with works of art

• Theatre artists Michael Rubenfeld and Sarah Stanley present mothermothermother, a work that attempts to get to the bottom of unresolved issues between a mother (Mary Berchard) and her adult son (Rubenfeld). Over the course of four pancakes, mother and son discuss a conversation inside a doctor’s office that was secretly recorded while the two awaited news about the mother’s mortality.

Plus, what’s more therapeutic than self expression through art-making? Put pencil to paper and create your own art-as-therapy at a self-portrait station, or cut and paste found images in arrangements that surprise and delight at our collage-as-therapy station.

Plus, join John Armstrong for tours of Art as Therapy, enjoy delicious food and drinks – including porchetta sandwiches, coconut shrimp, and Piña Colada cocktail popsicles – and dance to tunes by DJ Old News at another edition of Toronto’s most popular cultural night out. Don’t miss it.

 
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