Education/training
Gas-station attendant as Renaissance ManLike Hollywood, Toronto's after-hours convenience stores and gas stations are seemingly staffed by budding novelists, screenwriters and actors who spend the graveyard shift honing their craft. MARK TOLJAGIC |
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 [ 2005-10-05 ] |
Gregory Nixon ought to know; he used to watch over the pumps at an all-night gas bar.
"It was a job with one saving grace: with nothing else to do in those lonely pre-dawn hours, I read. I started to enjoy reading, something I had never done before," he recalls of his aimless teenage years.
Today, Nixon manages the City of Toronto's Live with Culture program, a marketing project that will co-ordinate a cornucopia of upcoming cultural events in the city, including the opening of the new wings of the Art Gallery of Ontario and the Royal Ontario Museum.
What makes this high-school dropout qualified for the job? Nothing less than 20-plus years immersed in Toronto's arts community as an actor, musician, theatre-company founder, photographer, video and film producer, and entrepreneur.
The transformation from gas jockey to arts advocate was not an easy one, but Nixon credits his years at Centennial College for giving him the tools and skills he needed to reshape his life. In a way, Nixon is a Renaissance Man himself.
With no high school diploma, Nixon was able to enrol in Centennial's College Preparatory program, which promised to bring him up to Grade 12 equivalency and get him ready for college.
Under the tutelage of an inspired professor, Norman Black, Nixon excelled in the program, earning straight A's and a scholarship, which in turn got him a seat in Centennial's Broadcasting and Film program.
The three-year program introduced Nixon to photography, radio, news writing, and video and film production in a fast-paced environment that emulates Toronto's media industry.
"Everything I know today I learned at Centennial, things like writing a proper media release," Nixon says. "I can't emphasize enough how vitally important community colleges are."
After graduating in 1983, Nixon went to the University of British Columbia to earn a degree, but a family crisis brought him back to Toronto before he could complete his Bachelor of Arts.
At that point, he struck out on his own, joining Toronto's vibrant theatre scene as an actor and keyboard musician, creating scores for live plays. He founded a small theatre company in 1987 --Flexible Packaging Plant -- and went on to co-found the Fringe Festival in 1989.
Inspired by the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Toronto's annual event attempts to make live theatre as affordable and accessible as possible for the broader community. He went on to produce the ArtsWeek Festival and the Toronto Arts Awards.
Nixon left to explore his own craft in the mid-1990s, becoming an independent video and film producer. "Film combines my love of photography and theatre," he says.
A video he directed for Vancouver's Grapes of Wrath earned him a Much Music Video Award nomination. Nixon also reported on Toronto's live theatre scene for radio station CFNY The Edge.
More recently, he has written, produced and directed more than 20 short films, including Poe, which was featured in the Toronto International Film Festival three years ago.
Nixon continues to make films and works on his photography, even as he manages one of biggest cultural events in Toronto's history.
It's a busy time to be sure, but Nixon takes his ascendancy in the arts community in stride: "Not bad for a kid who used to work all night at a self-serve gas station."
For more information visit www.centennialcollege.ca.
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