For 12 years, the Gladstone Hotel has been bringing Toronto audiences the cutting edge of art and design. Come Up To My Room (CUTMR) is unique amongst exhibitions because they invite artists and designers to transform their 125-year-old Hotel with brand new site-specific installations, rather than just curating existing work. The curators share the risk with the artists and trust them to push their practice beyond even their own expectations.
During the 10 days of the exhibition, you are invited you to come and explore; to meet the artists and designers, to engage in our interactive events, to rock out at the parties, and most of all to experience the vanguard of up-and-coming Canadian design.
Come Up To My Room was launched by founders Christina Zeidler and Pamila Matharu as a response to a growing need for an event that provided space for experimentation, interaction and a platform for risk within the design community. Coinciding annually with the juggernaut Interior Design Show (IDS), CUTMR has since become the cornerstone of the alternative design scene. Over the years, CUTMR has featured the work of hundreds of Toronto artists through site-specific, immersive installations that bring together diverse media, visions, skills and views that contrast and compliment the current art and design panorama.
This year, returning curators Robert Cram and Jaclyn Blumas are joined by Caitlin Plewes from Craft Ontario. This year they present a full palette of emerging and established creative talent from Toronto’s art and design community. This strategy includes utilizing the fourth floor of the hotel as a hub for graphic designers, inviting a multidisciplinary design firm to create an exterior installation, and encouraging collaborations and explorations between the mediums of sound design, electronics, traditional craft, multi-media art and sculpture throughout the hotel. Extending the CUTMR exhibition to 10 days allows the public to explore the curated crevasses, corners and hallways of this historic hotel.
Special features this year include Design Pirates, a TED talk meets Letterman that takes place from 8:00pm to 10:00pm on Thursday, January 15th.
The next evening, the opening reception party from 7:00pm to 10:00pm promises great fun as you mix and mingle with the participating artists and designers. Continue the party with Any Way You Like, a live music event hosted by Heretical Objects Cooperative, where you can experience some of the hottest bands coming out of Toronto and Montreal in a multi-media environment.
The much anticipated closing reception and Love Design party celebrates the last night of the exhibition on Saturday, January 24th from 7:00pm to 2:00am.
For full details, please visit http://comeuptomyroom.com/come-up-to-my-room-2015/.