E-mail A Friend Tell a friend about the information found on this page by sending them an e-mail.   Your Name: Your E-mail:   Type an e-mail address, then click add: Add a Personal Message: (Optional)

AFTER four years of speculation, visitors to Toronto's Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) will be able to make up their own minds about one of the most-talked-about renovations in the country. From June 2 to 10, the museum will give visitors a sneak peek at its multi-million-dollar renaissance project.

The main attraction? The Michael Lee- Chin Crystal. Designed by Daniel Libeskind, the architect behind several components of the new World Trade Center site, the ROM's aluminum-and-glass prismatic chrysalis looks like it is bursting out of the ROM's historic limestone buildings on Bloor Street.

Getting creative The Crystal opening on June 2 is part of Luminato, a new festival in Toronto that celebrates creativity and the arts. The kickoff will feature free museum access in the evening and an outdoor concert. Luminato continues until June 10, with a range of events across the city, including world premieres of The Book of Longing, a concert by Philip Glass based on the poems of Leonard Cohen, an oratorio inspired by Monty Python's Life of Brian and a film by Atom Egoyan. —B.G.

Besides the Crystal, with its seven new galleries, four-storey atrium and rooftop restaurant, Alvarez says the museum's main 1914 buildings have also been restored to their original splendour by opening up vaulted ceilings and arched windows that had been covered up over the years, making for brighter, airier spaces to complement the Crystal.

After the June preview, most of the galleries will close so that staff can begin installing exhibits which will open throughout the year. The two Crystal galleries that will remain open until August will feature Japanese paintings from 1690 to 1850 and the work of photographer Hiroshi Sugimoto.

— Bruce Gillespie

top