Downtown Kingston

Downtown Kingston is Lit

Downtown Kingston Light Installation
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I don’t even know if the term “lit” is popular anymore but I am going to roll with it for the purpose of this post which is to tell you about Kingston’s beautiful light installation downtown. The bright, twinkling, (they literally twinkle), lights are certainly needed at the end of this dreadful year. No, they will not act as the light at the end of this pandemic tunnel, however, with Christmas around the corner it’s important to find the silver-linings available to us and hold on tight to them! We can’t control  the current state of the world but we can control how we react to the madness! Continue reading →

Kingston’s Local Holiday Shopping Guide

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I’ve said it before and I will say it again, Kingston is filled with talented artists and makers. And there is no better time of year to celebrate them then right now. It can be really easy to just hit up Amazon Prime and have the gifts delivered to our doorstep but there is also an opportunity to engage with our local entrepreneurs. As you finish up shopping for your loved ones, consider supporting someone from our community. You can find some of the vendors I mention at the Kingston Holiday Market on weekends and many of them sell online as well!  Continue reading →

Artillery Park’s Baby Boot Camp

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To catch you up before I proceed, my husband and I welcomed a new addition to our family this year. And since this blog is about our experience living in this beautiful city, that will now include a few of the new parent/mommy-minded activities we’ve found helpful. It’s been said many times but it’s only just recently hit home (due to this latest life milestone!) that Kingston is a wonderful place to raise a kid. There are so many resources — some free and many affordable things to do. So I am going to tell you about one I’ve found really helpful so far!

I’ve always tried to stay active and that’s something post-baby that I was having a hard time fitting into my mat-leave schedule, enter Mom/Dad and Baby Boot Camp at Artillery Park. Our instructor, Patricia, lends a good mix of sweet and kind with tough love and badassery, cooing at our babes one minute and yelling at us to grab heavier weights the next. I started classes twice a week at 3 months postpartum and feel so much stronger and more energetic two months later. Patricia is mindful of how much we can push ourselves physically without overdoing it in our new postpartum bodies. Continue reading →

CHOIR!CHOIR!CHOIR! Is Coming to Kingston as part of the Festival of Live Digital Arts

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Kingston is home to so many amazing festivals and experiences – especially when the weather starts to heat up! This June be prepared for one of the coolest experiences – Festival of Live Digital Arts (foldA) will be blessing Kingston with an array of programming structured to support artists creating theatre in the digital age. Plenty of insta-worthy events are planned between June 12-15 for Kingston’s art and music lovers. Continue reading →

The Blue Man Group is Coming to Kingston! A Q&A with the Captain

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The Blue Man Group is coming to Kingston! The trio will be performing at the Leon’s Centre on March 21! The group’s Captain, Barney Haas, took a few minutes to answer some questions about the show via email. Read below to learn more about what to expect from their performance! And if you want a chance to win tickets, check out my Facebook or Instagram page to enter to win. 

Keep up with Kingston: How did you start performing for the Blue Man group? What made you want to tour with the group?
Barney Haas: Always having been a drummer, I was fascinated by the show and so I auditioned back in 2012. A series of further auditions finally led to finding myself in the training process in New York, and that’s where the adventure begun. Now it’s been 6 years and the show has taken us all around the globe. Continue reading →

Venture into Kingston’s Brand New Co-Working Space

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Co-working spaces are becoming more and more common as more people decide to embrace their entrepreneurial spirits and launch small businesses. These spaces fill a niche, by providing a place that offers more than a home office can as well as a community of like-minded people.

There is a new co-working space in Kingston, Venture Club, offering that and more. The new space on the corner of Queen Street and Barrie offers reception service, printing services, meeting rooms, fast internet in full furnished spaces to those looking to rent an office space. Continue reading →

Q&A: Don Maynard on his upcoming Art Installation at the Skeleton Park Arts Festival

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Have you heard? The Skeleton Park Arts Festival   is kicking off on June 20-24! This festival does a beautiful job at sharing and displaying the work of Kingston’s most talented artists and brings the community together for great food and music. A very exciting installation being featured is by Don Maynard called the Skeye Project. It will feature the work of local filmmakers on a floating movie screen held up by helium balloons. Oh the whimsy! Something you should be sure to check out. Don has answered a few questions via email about his work and upcoming show (June 22 – 9 pm in Friendship Park) below. Read on to learn more.

Keep up with Kingston: Please share a bit of your background in creative projects like the Skeye Project?
Don Maynard: It was ten years ago in 2007 in Kingston that I did a similar project, Tidal Mass at the NGB studios, which involved a large public installation in collaboration with about 13 musicians. NGB Studios, Kingston. There were 1,850 used fluorescent light bulbs, steel, 250 compact fluorescent light bulbs, steel rods and it was 29″ x 32′ x 54′.

Continue reading →

#DKShopfest Feature: Fancy That/Roundstone Owner Maria Cronk

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If you’ve found yourself at the corner of Princess and King street in the past 20 years or so, you’ve likely stopped in to clothing stores Fancy That or Roundstone. These shops are a staple of Kingston’s downtown and where you’ll find great deals on June 16 as downtown Kingston celebrates DKShopfest. DKShopfest is a day dedicated to celebrating and supporting our locally owned shops while scoring great deals. I wanted to learn a little more about Fancy That owner, Maria Cronk. She was kind enough to answer a few questions via email. Read below to learn how Fancy That started and what Maria loves most about being a Kingston shop owner.

Keep up with Kingston: Please share how Fancy That started? How many years have you been open?

Maria Cronk: Fancy That Group started in 1974 by Inger Sparring (my mother) in Brockville, ON. We started as one small store in Brockville, ON and grew over the years. At one point we had nine stores across Eastern Ontario! Now, we have two stores in downtown Kingston (Fancy That & the Roundstone) and one store in Brockville (Limestone & Ivy). IN 1979, my brother, Dan, joined in the business, he runs our store in Brockville, and I joined in 1985 to run the Kingston stores.

We came to downtown Kingston in May 1985 with Fancy That. Continue reading →

Q&A: Kay Kenney on Movement Market’s Juvenis Festival Show

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The Juvenis Festival has kicked off in Kingston showcasing the work of some of our city’s most talented young artists! Kay Kenney of Movement Market/SERIES took a minute to answer questions via email about her company’s participation in the festival. This Thursday until Saturday, Movement Market/SERIES will be showing in the old American Apparel storefront on Princess. Read about the new dance platform and upcoming performance in the Q&A below.
Keep up with Kingston: Tell me a little about yourself and your dance background? 
Kay Kenney: I grew up in Kingston ontario. I’ve danced since the age of 4 and studied at the Kingston School of Dance in the old tett centre building. I grew up training in the classical Cecchetti ballet method where I received up to my Intermediate certificate. Over the years I was interested in branching out and began studying all types of methods, such as; jazz, hip-hop, latin, ballroom, musical theatre & contemporary dance, to prepare me for post-secondary training.
I am a 2012 graduate from the Professional Contemporary Dance 3 year diploma Programme at The School of Dance in Ottawa. Since graduation, I have been working as a company dancer for Social Growl Dance, under Artistic Direction of Riley Sims (Toronto) & a company dancer as part of Ottawa Dance Directive, under artistic direction of Yvonne Coutts. I have trained and worked with professionals all over Ontario and Quebec and will be headed to Berlin in June to create a new work for Social Growl Dance to premier in March 2019.

Continue reading →

Les Ballets Jazz de Montréal is coming to The Grand!

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balletsjazzdemontrealphoto5Kingston is in for a treat on April 12th! Les Ballet Jazz de Montreal will be performing at the Grand Theatre and you don’t want to miss this performance. The Grand’s Performing Arts Manager in Cultural Services Jayson Duggan shares why Kingston is so lucky to have BJM.

Can you tell me why you’re personally so excited to see their performance this year?
The  appearance of BJM on April 12th will be without a doubt a highlight of the 10th Anniversary Grand OnStage season. We have been fortunate to present many Canadian icons over the last eight months as part of our anniversary celebrations, and BJM is another outstanding example of the creative brilliance and extraordinary talent flourishing across Canada. I have had the opportunity to see this program performed by BJM and I am looking forward to the reaction and response from the Grand OnStage audience. It is definitely a show that should not to be missed! Continue reading →