Friends, followers and fellow magic enthusiasts: we have some very exciting news to report regarding Magicana!
Over the past twenty-five years, Magicana has grown from a Canada-centric arts organization—founded by the late Patrick Watson, Daniel Zuckerbrot and myself—dedicated to sharing wonder, to become a multi-dimensional, charitable organization with a global reach. We’ve created templates for community programming, staged performances by stellar magicians and hosted conferences that have explored magic’s history. We have made short films, published numerous books, and the periodical, Magicol.
If I had to pick three projects that represent the very best of Magicana, they would be: the Allan Slaight Awards for Magic Excellence, a program that has just completed its tenth and final year; The Screening Room, which provides unparalleled and free access to a treasure trove of performance footage of many of magic’s great luminaries; and the publication of The Rich Cabinet Collection, the definitive, nine-volume set of five hundred magic history essays, written by renowned author and historian, the late Dr. Edwin A. Dawes.
Of course, these achievements have been a team effort: First, and foremost, we must recognize our donors. Without their generosity—particularly, that of Allan Slaight and his son Gary Slaight, and the Slaight Family Foundation—little of this would have been possible. Next, we must acknowledge our long-serving board of directors, under the leadership of Tim Jackson. Then there is Julie Eng, who has been responsible for the execution and direction of these projects. Julie is Karl Germain’s “Blooming Rose Bush” incarnate: She started at Magicana as a seed and now, has grown and blossomed into an unstoppable force for which there is truly no immovable object. And finally, to all of you: We couldn’t have done it without you! Your support for what we do, along with the content, ideas, resources and time that you have shared with us, have been deeply gratifying and most appreciated.
—♦—
Over the past year or so, with a silent prompt from Stewart James and Remembering the Future, I started to contemplate my own future. I find it almost unbelievable that I have been involved and committed to magic for fifty years. Although I sometimes quip that, “I now am retired,” it is not quite true. I have been thinking a great deal about what I would like to accomplish personally over the next decade, or two, and for me, there remains quite a lot to complete.
With that in mind, Magicana is now sharing the news about many changes.
I’ll start with a big one: On July 31, Julie Eng will be moving on from Magicana to take on a new role as the Executive Director of Genii. Given Randy and Kristy Pitchford’s vision and philanthropic nature, and Julie’s indefatigable energy and creative flair, I predict that wonders will never cease. Everyone involved with Magicana, and I in particular, are very proud of Julie. She has been part of Magicana since 2004; we are delighted to see her take on this new and exciting role as she continues her journey in magic.
Although I do not know exactly what they have up their sleeves, I do know one or two things. The primary one from our perspective is that Magicana will be migrating, among other things, its online content—including The Screening Room and all the current online exhibitions—to Genii! This will take some time, and Magicana’s site will remain as is until the migration is completed. All of the resources that you have come to love and explore will remain available not just in the present, but also in the future.
The next big change is that Magicana is winding down its publication division. I am also pleased to announce, however, that Magicana will be transferring its publishing interests, with a few exceptions, and its remaining inventory to Vanishing Inc.! Most of the current titles, including The Magic of Johnny Thompson, the books of Ross Bertram and of Stewart James, are out of print. The quality and care that Andi Gladwin and Joshua Jay and their team put into everything they do at Vanishing Inc. is widely known and respected. Magicana is thrilled that the titles will now reside with them, so that magicians will continue to have access to these pivotal works for years to come.
Please note that Magicana is not transferring the rights to anything that was published as a limited edition, including The Rich Cabinet Collection, because we, as an organization, have always said what we mean, and do what we say. (This is, perhaps, a good time to mention that there are less than thirty sets of The Rich Cabinet Collection available. Once they are gone, they really will be gone.)
And then there is Magicol.
It was truly an honour for Magicana to become the publisher of magic’s oldest continuously published journal dedicated to magic history and collectibles. And for me personally, it was an honour to follow the footsteps of my predecessors as editor, particularly Jim Alfredson and David Meyer. I am proud of how we expanded the content, worked with Michael Albright to overhaul the look-and-feel of the publication, and ushered the journal into a new age. It was an equal thrill to pass the role of editor to Julie Eng, who also tweaked the magazine’s design and content under our watch. Those who know Julie, particularly those of you interested in magic history and collecting, understand her passion not just for the subject matter but also—and more importantly—for the people who share those same interests.
So Magicana is truly thrilled to report that ownership of Magicol, as well as all rights in the Magic Collectors Weekend (MCW) have been transferred to Julie. I am sure you will all agree that they could not be in better hands.
You are probably now wondering what will be left of Magicana? Well, a lot.
First, I will return to the role of executive director, ably assisted by James Alan, who has kindly agreed to return to the fold.
Second, Magicana will continue to provide its community programs for youth and seniors throughout the Greater Toronto Area. The templates and titles to My Magic Hands and Senior Sorcery, however, will also be transferred to Genii so they can expand those programs exponentially.
Third, Magicana is shifting its activity away from publishing and performance to become more like a foundation, with a focus to provide assistance to magic-related endeavours and programming. We have, for example, made financial commitments to upcoming conferences and program initiatives and will continue to do so on a case-by-case application basis.
Fourth, we have retained what I consider to be Magicana’s greatest asset—our film, video and still photography collection. What was once the McIlhany Collection, has morphed into the Magicana Media Collection. As many of you know, we have been working with a team of professionals to digitize, restore and catalogue all of the material. Currently, we have over six thousand film clips, and twenty thousand still images in our library, the majority of which has not been released yet. We will continue to process, digitize, restore and catalogue our video, audio and image content to eventually make it available to magic enthusiasts, researchers, scholars and professionals for future generations.
Finally, on a personal note, I am pleased to report that my collection of books, periodicals, ephemera, photographs and notebooks related to magic, will all be housed at the Lilly Library, Indiana University. I look forward to working with the Lilly Library in the coming years as they gradually make this material available to magicians, researchers, and scholars of magic.
That’s it for now. Time to get back to work.
