Koffler Centre of the Arts

In 2012, the Koffler partnered with Luminato, Toronto’s Festival of Arts and Creativity, to present the opening night of Batsheva Dance Company‘s North American premiere performance of ‘’Sadeh21’'.

The evening included a pre-performance dinner at a private residence for Koffler patrons, the contemporary dance performance of ‘’Sadeh21’' at the MacMillan Theatre, University of Toronto, and a post-event celebration at the Gardiner Museum.

Luminaries included Ian Brown, Johanna Schneller, Adad Hannah, Barbara Astman, Deepa Mehta, Anne Michaels, Bernice Eisenstein, Colin Mochrie, Debra McGrath, Louise Pitre, Veronica Tennant.

The Koffler Gallery season included the large group exhibition ‘’Yonder’' featuring twenty Canadian artists from diverse cultural backgrounds whose works examine the immigrant condition (September 21 to November 27, 2016).

The Koffler Gallery 2014-15 season featured the group exhibition ‘’PARDES’' (September 13 to November 30, 2014), with new works by sound and multi-media artists Nadav Assor, Ira Eduardovna, Amnon Wolman, Nevet Yitzhak (guest curated by Liora Belford); Kristiina Lahde: ‘’ULTRA-PARALLEL’' (January 22 to March 29, 2015); ‘’Erratics’' (April 16 to June 14, 2015) featuring installations by Toronto author Martha Baillie and artist/curator Malka Greene with Alan Resnick; and ‘’Architecture Parallax: Through the Looking Glass’' (July 2 to August 30, 2015), an architectural installation by Montreal-based Brazilian-Canadian artist Alexander Pilis.

[10] The 2013-14 season of multidisciplinary programs opened with Koffler @ Uma Nota Community Cultural Fair, featuring the Canadian debut of Brazilian master acoustic guitarist Rick Udler and Toronto four piece band, Tio Chorinho at Lula Lounge on October 20, 2013.

Toronto artists Sara Angelucci, Barbara Astman, Adam David Brown, Michelle Gay, Ido Govrin, Vid Ingelevics and Jon Sasaki created new works engaging the context and history of the new space, formerly the library of the Shaw Street Public School.

Part of a significant international tour with presentations in Moscow, Budapest, Tromsø and Toronto, the exhibition brought a selection of Landau’s major video works to Canada for the first time.

In association with the exhibition ‘’Summer Special’' and together with Suburban Beast, a Toronto-based multimedia theatre company, the Koffler presented ‘’Honesty’' from October 18 to November 4 within Honest Ed’s store.

Participating authors included Fania Oz-Salzberger, David Layton, Irving Abella, Frieda Forman, Bill Gladstone, Pierre Anctil, Benjamin Hackman, Ronna Bloom, Jacob Scheier, Dr. Nora Gold, Martin Levin, Cary Fagan, and Beverley Slopen.

Festival events were held at the Miles Nadal JCC, Beth David Synagogue, Ben McNally Books, the Toronto Reference Library, and the Schwartz/Reisman Centre.

Hosted by former President & Publisher of Penguin Books Canada, Cynthia Good, the 2013 award winners included Aili and Andres McConnon for ‘’Road to Valour: A True Story of World War II Italy, the Nazis, and the Cyclist Who Inspired a Nation‘’ (Doubleday); Nancy Richler for ‘’The Imposter Bride’' (Harper Collins); Matti Friedman for ‘’The Aleppo Codex: A True Story of Obsession, Faith, and the Pursuit of an Ancient Bible’' (Algonquin Books); Julija Šukys for ‘’Epistolophilia: Writing the Life of Ona Simaite’' (University of Nebraska Press); Isa Milman for ‘’Something Small To Carry Home’' (Quattro Books); L. Ruth Klein for ‘’Nazi Germany, Canadian Responses: Confronting Antisemitism in the Shadow of War’' (McGill-Queen’s University Press); Pierre Anctil for ‘’Jacob-Isaac Segal 1869-1954, Un poète yiddish de Montréal et son milieu’' (Presses de l’Universite Laval); and Sharon E. McKay for ‘’Enemy Territory’' (Annick Press).

Saskatchewan-based sculptor Clint Neufeld’s solo exhibition ‘’Pipe Dreams of Madame Récamier’', off-site at General Hardware Contemporary, ran from January 10 to March 3, 2013.

The day featured discussions on Soviet Jewry with authors Gal Beckerman (‘’When They Come for Us We’ll Be Gone’'), David Bezmozgis (‘’The Free World’'), Gary Shteyngart (‘’Super Sad True Love Story‘’) and Irwin Cotler, Canadian Member of Parliament (Mount Royal) and international human rights attorney.

In March 2012, the Koffler produced and presented ‘’Honeycomb Way’', an artistic residency and concert featuring Jewish musical traditions from the Middle East and Eastern Europe.

The two-week residency was led by Iraqi-Jewish violinist and oud player Yair Dalal and American trumpetist Frank London from the Grammy Award-winning The Klezmatics, and included the composition of new music with Toronto musicians Waleed Abdulhamid, Jaffa Road‘s Aviva Chernick, Samba Squad‘s Rick Shadrach Lazar, Lenka Lichtenberg, Demetrios Petsalakis, Debashis Sinha, and Maryem Tollar.

Opening night featured American author Shalom Auslander (‘’Foreskin's Lament: A Memoir‘’, ‘’Hope: A Tragedy’'); other talks/readings included Michele Landsberg (‘’Writing the Revolution’'), Steven Gimbel (‘’Einstein’s Jewish Science’'), True North Records founder Bernie Finkelstein (‘’True North: A Life Inside the Music Business’'), Carol Bishop-Gwyn and Fraidie Martz (‘’A Fiery Soul: The Life and Theatrical Times of John Hirsch’' - also short-listed for the 2012 Governor General's Awards), David Berlin (‘’The Moral Lives of Israelis – Reinventing the Dream State’'), Richard Brody (‘’The Patagonian Hare: A Memoir’') and Lilian Nattel (‘’Web of Angels’').

Other featured authors included Anna Porter (‘’The Ghosts of Europe’'), George Gilder (‘’The Israel Test’'), Harold Troper (‘’The Defining Decade’'), David Brody (‘’Mourning and Celebration – Jewish, Orthodox and Gay Past and Present’'), Lynda Fishman (‘’Repairing Rainbows: A True Story of Family’'), Gregory Levey (‘’How to Make Peace in the Middle East in Six Months or Less Without Leaving Your Apartment’'), Kate Taylor (novelist) (‘’A Man in Uniform’'), Judie Oron (‘’Cry of the Giraffe’'), Savyon Liebrecht (‘’The Women My Father Knew’'), and Joseph Kertes (‘’Gratitude’').

The 23rd annual Helen and Stan Vine Canadian Jewish Book Awards were held on May 30, 2010 at the Bram & Bluma Appel Salon at the Toronto Reference Library.

From February 17 to April 17, 2011, the Koffler Gallery presented ‘’Graphic Details: Confessional Comics by Jewish Women’' off-site at the Gladstone Hotel (Toronto) and curated by Michael Kaminer and Sarah Lightman.

The artist transformed the vacant Kodak Fotomat drive-through photo processing booth in the parking lot, rear-projecting images of photographs collected from the North York community.

A site-specific installation off-site at Olga Korper Gallery, ‘’Swing Stage’' was a large wooden platform suspended with chains from the building’s structural trusses supporting the roof.

Over twenty-five authors were featured, including Noah Alper (‘’Business Mensch: Timeless Wisdom for Today’s Entrepreneur’'), Michael Wex (‘’How to be a Mentsh and Not a Shmuck: The Secrets of the Good Life from the Most Unpopular People on Earth’'), Seymour Epstein (‘’From Couscous to Kasha’'), David G. Roskies (‘’Yiddishlands’'), Fred Kaufman (‘’Searching for Justice’'), David Sax (‘’Save the Deli’'), Lily Poritz Miller (‘’In a Pale Blue Light’'), Nava Semel (‘’And the Rat Laughed’'), Marc H. Stevens (‘’Escape, Evasion and Revenge’'), Rabbi Erwin Schild (‘’And Miles to Go Before I Sleep: Six Walks With a Day of Rest’'), Rosanne Bernard (‘’Knittishisms: The Zen of Jewish Knitting’'), Kathy Kacer and Sharon McKay (‘’Whispers from the Camps’'), Lauren Kirshner (‘’Where We Have to Go’'), Cary Fagan (‘’Valentine’s Fall’'), Sidura Ludwig (‘’Holding My Breath’'), Adam Sol (‘’Jeremiah, Ohio’'), Aviva Allen (‘’The Organic Kosher Cookbook’'), Karen Fisman (‘’Adventure in Latkaland’'), and Kathy Clark (‘’Guardian Angel House’').

The 2010 winners included Robin McGrath, ‘’The Winterhouse’' (Creative Book Publishing), Allan Levine, ‘’Coming of Age: A History of the Jewish People of Manitoba’' (Jewish Heritage Centre of Western Canada and Heartland Associates), Michael Marrus, ‘’Some Measure of Justice: The Holocaust Era Restitution Campaign of the 1990s’' (University of Wisconsin Press), Eva Wiseman, ‘’Puppet’' (Tundra Books), David Sax, ‘’Save the Deli’' (McClelland & Stewart), Kenneth Sherman, ‘’What the Furies Bring’' (The Porcupine's Quill), Jeffrey Veidlinger, ‘’Jewish Public Culture in the Late Russian Empire’' (Indiana University Press), Goldie Sigal, ‘’Stingy Buzi and King Solomon’' (Lomir Hofn Press) and a Special Achievement Award to Howard Engel.

The multi-media exhibition within one of Toronto’s oldest synagogues recreated a living-room setting typical of a middle-class Jewish home from 1920’s Germany, and featured an in-character actress, sounds from 1920’s Berlin radio, and period furniture.

Speakers included Alan Dershowitz (‘’The Case Against Israel’s Enemies’') on opening night, Ronald Aronson (‘’Living Without God’'), Rabbi Elyse Goldstein (‘’New Jewish Feminism’'), Arie Kaplan (‘’From Krakow to Krypton: Jews and Comic Books’'), Lisa Alcalay Klug (‘’Cool Jew: The Ultimate Guide for Every Member of the Tribe’'), Rabbi Joseph B. Meszler (‘’A Man’s Responsibility’'), Pearl Sofaer (‘’Baghdad to Bombay: In the Kitchens of My Cousins’'), Bonnie Stern (‘’Friday Night Dinners’'), Gerald Tulchinsky (‘’Canada’s Jews: A People’s Journey’'), Richard Ungar (‘’Even Higher’'), Barrie A. Wilson (‘’How Jesus Became a Christian’'), Anita Diamant (‘’The Red Tent’'), Karen Levine (‘’Hana’s Suitcase’'), Kathy Kacer (‘’The Diary of Laura’s Twin’'), Ami Sands Brodoff (‘’The White Space Between’'), Gina Roitman (‘’Tell Me a Story, Tell Me the Truth’'), Morley Torgov (‘’A Good Place To Come From and Murder in A-Major’'), Howard Shrier (‘’Buffalo Jump’') and Jan Rehner (‘’Just Murder and On Pain of Death’').

In December 2009, the Koffler presented ‘’Crackin’ Up: Canadian Mosaic Comedy Night’' at The Rivoli, featuring Daniel Woodrow, Ron Josol, Arthur Simeon, Simon Rakoff, and Lori Pearlstein.

The Koffler Gallery presented the exhibitions Nina Levitt: ‘’Thin Air’', from March 6 to April 18, 2008; Karilee Fuglem: ‘’here within our curving spaces’' from May 15 to July 13, 2008; and Akira Yoshikawa: ‘’the way of now’' from September 11 to November 30, 2008.

Haussler’s project, which garnered media attention in the Toronto Star, National Post, The Globe and Mail, Canadian Jewish News, CBC Radio, Now (newspaper) and Fiberarts,[28] invited “visitors to wear and live with an article of clothing or accessory they’ve borrowed from the exhibit, donated by strangers who provide background information on their item.”[29] The Koffler Gallery’s second off-site project was Diane Landry: ‘’The Magic Shield’', March 19 to May 3, 2009 at the Beaver Hall Gallery.

In addition dozens of faculty from OCAD and York Universities signed a letter to the Koffler Centre stating that the latter’s “decision is a highly political act that serves to discredit Katz, her work and the validity of the political views and opinions she may hold as a Jew, an artist, and a social citizen.”[38] In its FAQ (undated and not posted until well after the controversy began), Koffler Arts denies censorship since it did not cancel the exhibition and continued to fund it.

The Koffler Gallery's inaugural exhibition 'We're in the Library' at Artscape Youngplace, November 2013
Artscape Youngplace