This site is a source for information and response to the recent announcement that the Goethe- Institut is closing the cinema, gallery and library at the Toronto Goethe-Institut effective 30 June 2007.
This is a community response.
We will not sit idly by while another vital cultural venue in Toronto is closed.
The Kinowelt Hall, Gallery and Library have been the source of important cultural presentations and collaborations for many years. The potential loss of this venue will not be accepted.
Toronto needs a multitude of spaces such as this, but in recent years we have lost many.
This site and community response is an urging to the Director of the Goethe-Institut Toronto the Regional Director for North America in New York and the Directors and the head office of the Goethe-Institut in Munich, Germany to keep this venue open.
Saturday, April 21, 2007
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2 comments:
The essential work of the Goethe-Institut, which has so improved the post World War II view of German culture internationally, has been especially effective in Canada, with Toronto as a key multicultural hub. Every national cultural centre of consequence requires a public face via accessible quarters and top notch facilities. Destroying this much-needed interface is not a good idea. Economic pressures can be resolved in a number of ways, but it is not at all economical to annihilate a cherished, respected and vital part of the cultural lives of the Canada-Germany nexus that has been built over forty years. On the contrary, destroying the public face of the Goethe-Institut Toronto spells loss, loss, loss, loss, loss for stake-holders on both sides of the Atlantic. Perhaps it's time for a public meeting at which the community can encourage the key decision-makers involved to find a more constructive solution than what is being proposed. Spending vital energy looking for venues and favours elsewhere is a poor use of staff time and talent and will diminish the Goethe-Institut's programmes and reputation. The remarkable cultural programme for which it is recognized can't be asked to play the cuckoo in other people's nests. It deserves a home.
Hello Beancounters,
I think this decision to close is very short-sighted. D'd and Canada need a place where artists can mingle and view and discuss their works.
Question: are any bureaucratic empires being closed? I hope so.
HH from Winnipeg
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