Art in Ottawa - story for Ottawa Regional Tourism

There is an art to every Ottawa trip
It is Roger Rabbit. It is 50. It is 100. It is timeless beauty

Toronto, September 6, 2008 – There is always something artistic happening in Ottawa. Depending on one’s taste, this fall you can spend an animated weekend in Ottawa being Goofy (and Porky and Bullwinkle), plus you can see how photographers snap the moment, and, admire the traditional beauty of sculptor Gian Lorenzo Bernini.

The Ottawa International Animation Festival (OIAF) is one of the world’s leading cartoon events providing first class screenings, exhibits, workshops and entertainment for both the entertainment industry and visitors alike. This annual festival is one of the biggest of its kind and attracts artists, production executives, students and fans into the city September 17 – 21, 2008 in Ottawa.

Visitors are welcome to take part in many of the festival’s activities. Staged at the Chateau Laurier in downtown Ottawa, the OIAF has a number of public screenings of both new, experimental and classic animations. There will be over 100 animated films screened at the Festival including the latest from Oscar nominee Bill Plympton, as well as Fear[s] Of The Dark - a Twilight Zone-like anthology feature of surreal tales of phobias by six international animator/directors,

Classic cartoon episodes with clips of favourite characters including Porky Pig, Felix the Cat, the Flintstones, Bugs Bunny and Bullwinkle can be seen at the screenings. There will also be a 20th anniversary screening of the breakthrough film Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, with its Oscar award winning animation director Richard Williams in attendance.

In addition to the screenings, there are also lectures, demonstrations and many evening parties, open to the general public. For more information visit www.animationfestival.ca. Get Drawn In.

Many of the cartoons that will be shown at the Animation Festival hail from the 1950s. The theme for Festival X, Ottawa’s annual citywide photography festival, looks farther back in time.

The second annual Festival X -- www.festivalx.ca -- which opens September 18th and runs until September 28th, is a photographic art celebration that will take place at art galleries, public buildings, and restaurants in Ottawa and Gatineau.
The theme for this year of X, the Decisive Moment, was chosen to celebrate the 100th anniversary of French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson’s birth. Cartier-Bresson stated that, “there is a creative fraction of a second when you are taking a picture. Your eye must see a composition or an expression that life itself offers you, and you must know with intuition when to click the camera. That is the moment the photographer is creative.”

On view at the National Gallery -- www.gallery.ca -- from November 28, 2008 to March 8, 2009, is the exhibition Bernini and the Birth of Baroque Portrait Sculpture. Four hundred years ago, Italian born sculptor Gian Lorenzo Bernini was redefining portrait sculptures, and he made a name for himself carving the likenesses of popes and saints.

In partnership with the J. Paul Getty Museum, the National Gallery will host an international exhibition that explores the remarkable development of the sculptural portrait in early 17th century Rome. An exhibition on this topic has never been mounted before; the level of virtuosity displayed by Bernini and others in his sphere in coaxing such a rendering from the intractable medium of stone is astonishing.

The National Gallery of Canada is home to the most important collections of historical and contemporary Canadian art in the world. In addition, it has pre-eminent collections of Inuit, Western and European Art from the 14th to the 21st century, American and Asian Art, as well as drawings and photography. Created in 1880, it is among the oldest of Canada’s national cultural institutions. For more information, visit www.gallery.ca.

Tourists wanting information, tickets and lodging reservations can visit www.ottawatourism.ca, a powerful website operated by Ottawa Tourism and supported by the region’s growing tourism industry.

Ottawa Tourism provides destination marketing, strategic direction and leadership in cooperation with members and partners to service the travel media and attract visitors, tours and conventions to Ottawa and Canada’s Capital Region. Its vision is to build recognition of Ottawa as an outstanding four-season tourism destination.