Art for Tibet Canada Gallery Show and Auction

Two years ago, Students for a Free Tibet’s inaugural ART FOR TIBET in New York City: 50X50 was a phenomenal success. It brought together and showcased established and new artists from all over the world – including a growing number of outstanding contemporary Tibetan artists. Now we hope to bring this event to Toronto and make ART FOR TIBET Canada into a major art show in its own right.

DATE: Saturday, October 15, 2011

TIME: 6:00-10:30pm

LOCATION: Gallery 1313, 1313 Queen Street West, Toronto

ART FOR TIBET is an art show, cultural exhibition and fundraiser that will showcase work from a diverse international pool of both established and new artists, including a growing number of outstanding contemporary Tibetan artists. For many Tibetan artists this show is a rare and vital opportunity to express their artistic voices and exhibit their work to a broad audience.

Art for Tibet Canada – Online Auction Starts Oct 7th at http://www.artfortibet.com and artwork will be available for public viewing 1-6pm at Gallery 1313 beginning Oct 6th.

Tibet in Montreal

Last week, I traveled east to Montreal for His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s public talk at the Uniprix Tennis Stadium. It was so wonderful, as always, to see His Holiness in bright spirits, and in turn everyone else who caught his contagious smile by the end of the talk.

Before, during, and after the public talk, I, along with Montreal SFTers tabled at the event for Students for a Free Tibet, gathering petition signatures for our Stop Mining Tibet and Nomad Rights campaigns as well as for the release of Dhondup Wangchen, Rungye Adak, Norzin Wangmo and Tenzin Delek Rinpoche. It was great to see that people had taken His Holiness’ words to heart from his talk that day entitled “Global Citizenship through Universal Responsibility” – it seemed that people were more empowered and enthusiastic to take action for Tibet after the talk, signing petitions and postcards, asking us questions about the situation in Tibet, and supporting our work for Tibet by buying our cool SFT merch and making donations. We thank everyone who came to see us that day and supported our work. As a side note, I was also told by the local SFTers that several Quebecois celebrities were at the talk that day and some even came to our table!

I stayed in town a couple of extra days, in large part due to that fact that I head that there was a new Tibetan documentary about Tibetans nomads being premiered in Montreal. The documentary titled “Tibet: terre des braves” (or Tibet: Land of the Brave) was filmed in Tibet and made by a Montreal couple who I had met once a few years ago. The film follows their trip back to Tibet where Gyamtso la’s (the husband) nomadic family lives.

Reminder: Tell the World Gold Council Tibet’s Gold is Conflict Gold

Tomorrow, September 1st, is the deadline to submit feedback to the World Gold Council (WGC) on its plans to remove “conflict gold” from the market. The WGC is the leading authority in the gold industry, and its decision presents an opportunity for us to help stop China’s exploitation of Tibet’s resources.

The WGC has asked for feedback from the public on what standards it should use to certify newly-mined gold as “conflict-free.” Let’s ensure all gold from Tibet is classified as conflict gold by writing to them today, before the deadline!

Art For Tibet Canada: Call for Submissions

We invite you to be part of the first ever ART FOR TIBET (A4T) show in Canada. Honouring the Tibetan people’s unwavering commitment to nonviolence, a group of committed activists and artists are organizing a group art sale to raise money for Students for a Free Tibet Canada (SFT): a non-profit global grassroots network that campaigns for Tibetan freedom and human rights and trains young Tibetan and non-Tibetan students worldwide in strategic nonviolent action.

Art plays a vital role in Tibetan culture, and has long been a profound tool for social and political change. This event will showcase work from a diverse pool of artists and allow patrons to purchase reasonably priced original pieces, while raising money for an important cause.

We would be honoured if you would join us in helping Tibet by submitting a piece of your work or a piece you own and would like to donate to the event.

Two years ago, SFT’s inaugural ART FOR TIBET in New York City: 50X50 was a phenomenal success. It brought together and showcased established and new artists from all over the world – including a growing number of outstanding contemporary Tibetan artists. ART FOR TIBET: 50X50 garnered significant New York and art world press and brought in hundreds of New Yorkers. Now we hope to bring this event to Toronto and make ART FOR TIBET Canada into a major art show in its own right.

In addition to the Toronto gallery show, we will be featuring all participating artists and artwork on our site to expand our reach.  This website will include an online auction of pieces included in the show.

Thoughts about a great Canadian leader

All of us here at Students for a Free Tibet are deeply saddened to hear about the loss of Jack Layton, leader of the NDP.

There’s nothing else that I can say that hasn’t already been said by Canadians all over after hearing about the devastating loss of this great Canadian leader.

When I first heard about Mr. Layton’s sad passing early yesterday morning, the first thing I thought about was when I met him two years ago during Tibet Lobby Day in Ottawa. He, along with MP Paul Dewar, met with Tibetan representatives including myself, then a student at the University of Ottawa, as well as former National Director of SFT Canada Tsering Lama.

NDP Leader Jack Layton met with Tibetan representatives during Tibet Lobby Day 2009.

Karma Yoga for Tibet

Have you ever wanted to try yoga? Are you a seasoned yoga expert but want some good karma? Do you love Tibet? Come try Karma Yoga for Tibet!

SFT is hosting our first-ever Karma Yoga for Tibet this September! Come try Pranayama & Yoga Asanas with seasoned Tibetan yoga teacher from the Tibetan Canadian Cultural Centre, Dawa Gyaltsen.

Date: Sunday, September 11, 2011

Time: 2:00-4:00pm

Location: Centre for Social Innovation, 4th floor, 215 Spadina Avenue, Toronto, ON

The Intern Series…

Woo. It feels like a long time since I posted anything on here. Life at SFTCanada has been really fun. Wednesday, I finished up a newsletter I’d been working on since I started the internship. It’s called Tibetan Citizen and it’s a pilot project we’re thinking of doing on a monthly basis. Yes, it took me a month. Did you know you difficult it is to use Adobe InDesign? I had to watch at least 2 hours worth of Adobe TV just to learn how to get an image onto the page.