Confirmed yesterday morning via email from Hungary, Albert Schultz, founding artistic director of Soulpepper Theatre Company, stage and television actor, master of the spoken word, all around man’s (and woman’s) man, will walk the planks at Koerner Hall as auctioneer for the The Autists Gala live art auction.

Experts agree, we couldn’t have found a better candidate for the job. Albert has done many auctions before and is widely viewed as one of Toronto’s great wits. A native of Port Hope, Ontario, Albert has worked for years getting onto stage, and acting in, some of the most creative and cutting edge theatre ever seen in the nation.

It’s fair to say that Albert is live theatre in these parts, playing roles ranging from Hamlet to Chief Executive Fundraiser, and most everything in between. He even played Conrad Black in a major Canadian TV biopic on the now-incarcerated business titan — not a role just any old actor could wear well.

One space left to fill; and, of course, sponsorship

Albert’s joining us means The Autists now has but one key Gala Night position remaining: That of Master of Ceremonies. No contenders’ names ought be mentioned just yet, but we hope to bring you news of this soon.

With just 3.5 months to lift-off, we are now into the sponsorship drive phase of the event, and in earnest. We’re looking for corporate and individual sponsors able to fund various portions of our event in amounts ranging from $5k to $50k, though we promise not to scoff at offers exceeding the latter amount. If you inhabit such a corporate or institutional entity, or are a generous person of means, we invite you get in touch with The Autists’ fundraising chief, Hindy Abelson at habelson (at) autism.net.

As for Albert, from the depths of our well-peppered souls, we organizers thank you, sir, for stepping forth as you have. We can’t wait to see you do what you do best — speak really quickly on stage with minimal syllabic entanglement.

Behold our Save This Date thingy, which brings you up to speed on The Autists at a glance:

Chaka Khan has just confirmed her attendance as headline act for The Autists.

Does this woman need an introduction?

To do so with any degree of originality is to commit to a serious regime of cliche avoidance. And since that cannot be done, we’ll embrace the cliches, own ‘em and get ‘em out of the way in one sentence: Chaka Khan is royalty, an enduring superstar, a wellspring of talent, is a force for the collective soul, a doer of good, a haver of fun and an eminent presence. Oh, and she has a wickedly powerful, sensual voice, too, which is handy when you make your living as a singer. Ok, so it took two sentences.

A visit to her website is a satisfying journey into her music and her soul.

Chaka Khan is a powerful presence in the generosity dept. Through her amazing Chaka Khan Foundation, she helps kids at risk in the South Central L.A. neighbourhood gain access to opportunities in education, and hence, a more promising future. Through a crafty mix of well-harnessed fellow celebrities, insightful mentors, college scholarships, specialized training programs in life skills as well as financial acumen, she’s helping a great many kids use their own brains and ambition to find their way out of poverty and the unsavory forces that accompany it.

And as the relative of someone with autism, Chaka Khan also supports programs that enable kids with autism reach their full potential, as well as aiding their families to offset the associated financial burdens.

We are so touched by this graceful nod to us that it has reignited the fire under us, the one that drives us to make this event so rich, so substantial and effectual, so packed with energy and life and celebration.

So, with maximum sincerity and alacrity, from all of us putting The Autists together and all of those who will benefit from your generosity — thank you, Ms Chaka Khan.

News just in this morning from Charles Pachter: One of the world’s great living photographers, Edward Burtynsky, has committed to donate a work to be auctioned in support of The Autists.

The native of St. Catharines, Ontario, has astonished the world with his work, much of which has the power to literally evacuate the air from an unsuspecting set of lungs at first glance. He possesses the singular ability to make profoundly ugly landscapes and scenes of utter wrongness irresistible to the soul of the beholder.

The quotidian, largely unseen horrors of modern life, the giant-sized bites it exacts from the earth and its humblest inhabitants, the ultimate essence and price of being industrial — this is the currency of Edward Burtynsky.

His website is well worth a visit.

With humility and gratitude, we welcome the man aboard.

And once again, we are indebted to Charles Pachter for making this happen for The Autists.

As well as bringing us a huge slice of this country’s greatest artistic talent to contribute works, The Autists’ Art Curator, Charlie Pachter, has also graciously signed on as a contributor to our live art auction.

His work is iconic, ironic and patriotic — not an easy blend to master. But master it he does. He’s perfected the creative send-up — royalty, sacred cows (and moose) — whatever passes within reach of his ebullient imagination. His talents extend well beyond fine art into the worlds of architecture, education, fund-raising and, it seems, pretty much anything he applies himself to.

Below, a few choice samples of his work.

We recommend a visit to Charles’ website where you’ll experience loads more of his art, as well as detailed tours of his many architectural and renovation projects, including his current home/studio, The Moose Factory, in Toronto’s Chinatown.

Yet another highly-regarded Canadian artist has agreed to donate work to The Autists’ live auction. Diana Thorneycroft, based in Winnipeg, has exhibited across North America, Europe and in Russia, Japan and Australia. Her work is by turns dark, hilarious and discomfiting, but never less than intriguing, and has thus earned her many an award and accolade.

Her accomplishments range from inclusion in Phaidon Press’ publication Blink, which profiled 100 rising-star photographers, to Canadian Art Magazine naming her most recent show one of its Top 10 Exhibitions of 2008.

See Diane’s portfolio here.

Great news — already — from our newly installed Art Curator, Mr Charles Pachter: He has sought and received pledges from five prominent artists to donate work to The Autists for the live auction portion of the event.

Here’s a little about each of them and a few peeks at their work.

Viktor Mitic, a native of Belgrade, Serbia, is a master of the stylized portrait and vivid, colour-saturated abstracts among his other techniques and approaches.

His work has shown in Japan, Serbia and his current base, Toronto, and hangs in the private collections of many well-known Canadians, from former Prime Ministers and ministers to sports celebrities.

Check out more of his work here.

Joanne Tod is a Toronto artist and lecturer whose vast array of superbly crafted work has been exhibited nationally and internationally over the past 20 years.

Joanne’s work spans portraiture as well as Pop Art-inspired social critique and examination. It is on display in the National Gallery of Canada, the Art Gallery of Ontario and Montreal’s musee d’art contemporain, as well as private art collectors.

See more of her work here.

Kim Dorland is a Canadian-born artist whose work examines the psychic, nostalgic spaces of his Canadian upbringing.

His work regularly shows in galleries internationally and is part of collections at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, the Neumann Family Collection in New York and the Sander Collection in Berlin, as well as several corporate portfolios.

See much more of Kim’s work here.

Thrush Holmes is a talented artist based in Toronto. The OCAD alumnus has had work recently shown in galleries in Ottawa, California, Toronto, Ireland and many other cities and countries. Self-taught, he tackles notions of art, myth, introspection and biography via a great variety of mediums, and to great effect.

His work is also in Elton John’s private collection, and is regularly featured in influential publications.

See more of his art here.

Kent Monkman is an artist of Cree ancestry who works in a variety of media including paint, film/video, performance and installation. His approach swirls over, under and in between extreme in-your-face hellraising and witty social critique. One thing it’s not is dull.

He has exhibited widely within Canada and is well represented in numerous private and public collections such as the National Gallery of Canada, the Art Gallery of Ontario and the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.

See more of Kent’s work here (and don’t miss the Louis Vuitton quiver).

All in all an exceptional lineup for an art event. An unbelievable one for a fundraiser.

All of us at The Autists and the Geneva Centre for Autism would like to extend a gigantic welcome to all five of these incredible talents, and a profusion of thanks for their generosity.

Oh, and very nice work, Charles.

Gifted, awarded and much celebrated Canadian artist Wallace Edwards has agreed to donate a work of his art — as yet to be determined — to The Autists for auction at our May 2nd, 2010 extravaganza.

The creator, author and painter of Alphabeasts, Mixed Beasts, Painted Circus and numerous other award-laden children’s publications, agreed to the donation yesterday.

Known for his refreshingly unconventional imagination and an ability to get its progeny down on canvas or paper with vivid precision, Wallace has worked hard to establish his reputation as one of Canada’s premier artists.

Born in Ottawa, a graduate of the Ontario College of Art, he works mainly in watercolours and pencil, skillfully blending techniques ranging from cartooning to scientific illustration. His works are in public and private collections, books, magazines and on public display all over North America.

Wallace has received a great many awards, ranging from the Governor General’s Literary Award (Children’s Book Illustration) for Alphabeasts (2002) and the Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Children’s Book Award as well as the Amelia Frances Howard-Gibbon Illustrator’s Award for Monkey Business (2004) to the Independent Publisher Book Award (IPPY) Gold Medal (for best children’s picture book, age 7 & over) in 2007 for The Extinct Files (2006).

All of us at The Autists extend a warm welcome aboard to Wallace and thank him profusely for his kind donation.

More big news: Canadian art legend Charles Pachter has agreed to act as Gala Art Auction Curator for The Autists 2010.

This means several very good things for our event:

• The Autists stands to benefit from the credibility conferred upon it though having such a major force and persona in the art world as Mr Pachter handling so vital a portion of our event
• The quality of works selected for sale in the Gala Art Action component of The Autists will be superlative
• The likelihood of attracting high-calibre working artists to donate works to our cause increases substantially
• The level of interest from prospective donors, as well as event sponsors, can be expected to rise significantly

From all of us at The Autists, welcome aboard, Charles!