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Artscene Dress code: casual on the porch By Dominik Kurek OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF 25 · Friday, July 9, 2010 OAKVILLE BEAVER · www.oakvillebeaver.com O n most days the Oak Park home of Blake and Carmelina Martin is just that, a home. However, on Tuesday, July 6 their front porch and lawn became the venue for a free musical concert for their neighbours. For the second year in a row, the Martins have organized the one-day evening event, this year featuring the musicians Craig Cardiff and Deb Whalen, who also performed last year. "We believe in community," said Blake of why he and his wife organized the event. "It's people and your neighbourhood doing things together. When you have shared memories that really makes a tight community so that's really important for us." The free community concert attracted between 80 to 100 people. Blake added another reason for putting on the concert is to help young musicians get exposure. "We had two musical artists perform right on the porch," said the Martins' friend and neighbour Christine Zalzal. "It's in Oak Park. It's a neighbourhood where we have MICHELLE SIU / OAKVILLE BEAVER CASUAL STYLE: Audience members watched as Deb Whalen performs on the front porch of Blake and Carmelina Martin's Oak Park home in Oakville on Tuesday evening. The Oakville residents host the event to provide a greater sense of community and donations were collected for the two artists who performed. porches. It was literally on the porch." For the second year, the event attracted a large group of people to the front of the Martins' Gatwick Drive home in the evening. They also managed to get the town to block off the road for the duration of the show. "Basically the neighbours come around, they bring their lawn chair, they sit and watch a musical performance. It's just in the spirit of having an identity for our community and bringing people together," said Zalzal, who helped the Martins spread the word around. "There were lots of kids there and people from the neighbourhood that come around. It's unique, I think, and it's really done from their heart," she added. Zalzal noted there was a lot of effort involved in putting on the show including by musician Cardiff, who came from Ottawa for the performance. "That's a long drive to play on a porch," she said jokingly. Blake said he and his wife already knew the two musicians. Both performed mostly original tunes with some covers. Cardiff plays an alternative-folk music style while Whalen performs jazz-folk music. Jump aboard the ARTBus and journey to many galleries Do you enjoy looking at art but aren't sure which galleries to visit? Then you can let these people take you around to various exhibits during the ARTBus Tour event Sunday, July 11. The exhibit will tour the Art Gallery of Mississauga and the Port Credit off-site location of the Blackwood Gallery along with the local Oakville Galleries. The tour starts at the Ontario of College of Art & Design in Toronto at 11:30 a.m. and drops patrons off at the same school at 5:30 p.m. The tour will hit the Art Gallery of Mississauga in Mississauga's city hall first at noon for the exhibit Art at Work: Corporate Collecting Practices Today. The exhibit, by a group of artists, is the first of a two-part exhibition that questions the role art in the Canadian corporate world. At 1 p.m. the bus will reach the off-site location of the University of Toronto Mississauga's Blackwood Gallery in Port Credit. The exhibit, titled The Projects: Port Credit, is in its second edition featuring the work of a large group of artists. The first edition was last summer. At 2:30 p.m. the bus will make a stop at the local Oakville Galleries at Centennial Square for the first of the two-location exhibit of Real Life. Here, patrons will see the work of Ron Mueck, including A Girl, a 16-foot-long, 800-pound, hyperrealist sculpture of a newborn baby. Then, at 3:30 p.m. the bus will head over to the other Oakville Galleries location at Gairloch Gardens for the second location of the Real Life exhibit featuring the work of Guy Ben-Ner who uses humour in his video and installation art works. The bus will then drop people off where it picked them up, at OCAD, located at 100 McCaul St. in Toronto. Tickets to ride the tour cost $10, which includes refreshments provided by Whole Foods Market. For reservations, people are asked to contact artbus@oakvillegalleries.com or 905-844-4402, ext. 30 by today, Friday, July 9. Tim Hortons Free Swim. It's our thanks to you. Your local Tim Hortons is happy to bring you Tim Hortons free swim ­ complimentary swimming time at your local pool. For a schedule of times and locations, drop by your local Oakville Tim Hortons location for more details. © Tim Hortons, 2007