Seniors Art Competition and Exhibition 2026: Opening and Awards Reception

Join us at 2:30pm for the opening reception of That Summer: Seniors Art Competition and Exhibition. Prizes will be awarded in three categories: Novice, Hobby, and Open.

This event is free and open to everyone. If there are ways we can support your participation, please contact Hannah at [email protected].  

The Seniors Art Competition and Exhibition is co-hosted by The Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Oshawa Senior Community Centres, and the Oshawa Public Libraries. Seniors programming has been made possible thanks to the generous support of Sienna for Seniors Foundation.

Oshawa Music Week: Songs Revealed

Songs Revealed is a songwriting competition with the focus to showcase some of Durham Regions’ upcoming talent, which will be judged based on originality, stage presence, songwriting skills and audience engagement.

Join us to witness the action! Enjoy performances across diverse genres, vote for your favourite acts, and hear expert feedback from industry judges.

Free Admission!

Be sure to RSVP using the link below so you don’t miss out.

Meet our artists

Paige O

Paige O signed to Wax Records and is releasing an EP named Baby Teeth this upcoming year. She is an indie folk singer-songwriter from the Durham Region and currently is based in Toronto. She draws inspiration from artists throughout the eras. Paige O is armed with a hauntingly distinctive voice, an ever-growing sonic palette, and a deep love for storytelling. She is making her mark one hauntingly beautiful song at a time.

Evyn Berridge

Evyn Berridge is a songwriter who comes from a life molded by music. He has never lived a day in his life where he was not thinking about a song he loves, one he is working on, or what he can do to expand his relationship with the medium. He has been inspired by artists he grew up listening to and listens to now. Evyn Berridge likes to try and tell a story through song, invoking feelings through his music and writing.

Lauren Carson

Lauren Carson is a rising Canadian Country artist known for her honey-smooth vocals and magnetic storytelling. With recent performances at Cavendish Beach Music Festival and Departure, and a recent single landing on SiriusXM’s Top of the Country, she is capturing the attention of fans and festivals alike. Her new album, Word for Word, blends country roots with indie-folk soul reminiscent of artists like Ella Langley and The Chicks.

Daniel Kuku

Daniel Kuku is a Nigerian Singer-Songwriter based from the Greater Toronto Area. His genre is Afro R&B and he has performed at various events by Speak Your Truth which holds the importance of Art, Identity and Resistance. His recent five-piece EP release is named Lovaman and can be accessed on different music platforms.

SOLACE

Sol Ace “The Digger” is a local artist from Courtice, Ontario. He has been admiring and gaining knowledge from hip-hop culture before it stopped being a culture. Since his grandmother passed, Sol Ace has been putting procrastination to the side, and is embracing the learning from failures and making use of the act of spinning on.

7 Days Away

7 Days Away is a band comprised of six students from the Scarborough Campus of University of Toronto. The band is a newer upcoming band showcasing the genre of rock and pop. The members are Thara and Gywn on vocals, Brody and Adam on guitar, Taimo on bass, and Ian on drums. 7 Days Away performs covers of classic known songs in the realm of rock and pop, alongside their upcoming and new original music.

In Partnership with
Oshawa Music Week

Oshawa Music Week is set to be an electrifying celebration of sound, culture, and creativity from April 7th to 11th, 2026! This dynamic festival – organized by Durham College’s Music Business students- brings together music lovers and industry pros for an unforgettable experience. With over 30 performances across eight stages, the lineup spans Country, Rock, Bollywood, Rap, Hip Hop, R&B, Punk, and Indie, showcasing both local and international talent. From a thrilling songwriters’ competition to high-energy hip hop and Country showcases, plus an insightful music business summit tackling industry challenges, OMW is a must-attend festival that pulses with diversity, excitement, and innovation!

Oscar Cahén: Young in Canada

Join us to learn about Oscar Cahén’s early career in Canada as an illustrator. Guest lecturer Jaleen Grove is a Canadian artist and art historian whose research focuses on the history of illustration in the United States and Canada, illustration research, and periodical studies. She has conducted extensive research on Canadian illustrators and magazines, including authoring the book Oscar Cahén: Life and Work, published by Art Canada Institute in 2015, and two chapters in the major 2017 monograph on Cahén.

Grove will share insights from her ongoing research, offering deeper context for the exhibition Stories in Ink: Illustrations by Oscar Cahén.

Registration encouraged.

Summer Exhibitions Opening: Stephen Andrews, Oliver Husain, and Austin Henderson

It’s summer at the RMG! We have five wonderful new exhibitions to share with you, including solo exhibitions with Stephen Andrews, Oliver Husain, and emerging artist in residence, Austin Henderson. Come celebrate with us!

Curatorial and artist remarks will be delivered at 1:30pm followed by three artist-led exhibitions tours.

Refreshments served.

Also freshly on view from our permanent collection: Stories in Ink: Illustrations by Oscar Cahén and Answering the Call: First Responders in Historic Oshawa.

Take the shuttle bus from Toronto!

Pick up will be at 100 McCaul St (OCADU) at 11:45 am. The bus will leave the RMG at 4pm.

Please RSVP for the opening and/or reserve your spot on the bus here. This event is free and open to everyone. If there are ways we can support your participation, please contact Hannah at [email protected].

Talking Textiles: A Teatime Conversation with Sukaina Kubba and Roxane Shaughnessy

Producers of decorative domestic objects have long borrowed from across cultures and time to create their designs. Attentive to that history, Sukaina Kubba draws from various sources in her own textile-based practice, layering and experimenting with materials and motifs. In her solo exhibition, Not Soft by Nature, she oscillates between research and free-association, weaving together fragments from a range of textiles, including a family rug and multiple artefacts from the Permanent Collection of the Textile Museum of Canada.

In this event, the artist will walk through her exhibition with the Textile Museum’s Senior Curator, Roxane Shaughnessy. Together, they will reflect on the historical and contemporary threads that are alive in this exciting new work and the selection of artefacts on display from the museum. Telling stories and posing questions, Sukaina and Roxane will explore the artist’s approach to archival engagement and draw connections between the creation, care, and presentation of the objects belonging to the museum and those produced by Sukaina and her collaborators.

The talk will begin in the exhibition and conclude with continued conversation over tea and treats. Participants are invited to listen, learn, and share alongside our guests.

Seating will be provided.

This event is free and open to everyone. If there are ways we can support your participation, please contact Hannah at [email protected]. Please register for this event here.

Sukaina Kubba is an Iraqi Toronto-based artist whose work is rooted in material and cultural research, material experimentation, storytelling and drawing connections. Kubba has exhibited at Oakville Galleries, Carleton University Art Gallery, Ottawa, Western Exhibitions, Chicago and Patel Brown, Montreal. In Toronto she has shown work at Venus Festival, two seven two gallery, Patel Brown, Greater Toronto Art Triennial at MOCA , Mercer Union SPACE Billboard Commission, the plumb, The Next Contemporary, Art Gallery of Ontario, and Aga Khan Museum. She has also exhibited in Scotland at Dundee Contemporary Arts, Centre for Contemporary Art, Glasgow, Glasgow International and Kendall Koppe, Glasgow.  Kubba has attended residencies at the International Studio and Curatorial Program, New York and La Wayaka Current, Chile. She is a sessional lecturer in Visual Studies at the University of Toronto, and was previously a curator and lecturer at The Glasgow School of Art.

Roxane Shaughnessy, Senior Curator and Manager of Collection at the Textile Museum of Canada, leads the strategic development and advancement of the Museum’s permanent collection of over 15,000 textiles, and promotes public access and engagement, both digitally and through a community-focused approach to object display.  She has over twenty years of experience curating exhibitions from the collection, including Printed Textiles from Kinngait (Cape Dorset) Studios (2019) whichwonthe 2021 Governor General’s History Award for Excellence in Museums. She is the project lead on the articulation of the Museum’s Collection Development Strategic Plan, developed with a commitment to Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion and centered on community consultation. She holds a Master of Arts in Anthropology.

Emerging Visions Artist Talks

Artist Talks (2025) with Durham College students at The Robert McLaughlin Gallery, May 14, 2025.

Join us at 1pm on May 13th for an artist-led tour of EMERGING VISIONS, an exhibition that presents thesis projects by the third-year graduating students of the Fine Arts Advanced program at Durham College.

We welcome staff and students from Durham College and any members of the public who want to learn more about specific projects and hear about the journey from conception to fabrication to presentation. This event is free and open to everyone.

If there are ways we can support your participation, please contact Hannah at [email protected].

Emerging Visions Opening Reception

The RMG is pleased to present Emerging Visions, an annual thesis showcase featuring work by the graduating class of the Fine Arts Advanced program at Durham College! Join us for an evening of celebration to mark the opening of the exhibition.

Doors at 6:45pm

Remarks at 7:30pm

Refreshments served. Cash bar. This event is free and open to everyone. If there are ways we can support your participation, please contact Hannah at [email protected].

Spring Exhibitions Opening: Sukaina Kubba: Not Soft By Nature and Painters Eleven: Radical Colour

Come celebrate the opening of Sukaina Kubba: Not Soft By Nature and Painters Eleven: Radical Colour on April 11, 2026!

Curatorial and artist remarks will be delivered at 1:30pm in the exhibition Not Soft By Nature.

Refreshments served.

Take the shuttle bus from Toronto!
We’re excited to partner with Mercer Union (1286 Bloor Street West) on this opening event. Starting at 11am sharp, you can join a tour and screening of Alvin Luong’s solo project DEPHINITELY PARADISE at Mercer Union. The film has an approximate run-time of 20 minutes. You’ll also have a chance to purchase a recent publication of Sukaina Kubba’s work, published alongside her exhibition at Dundee Contemporary Arts (DCA) and limited-edition laser etchings by the artist.The bus will leave Mercer Union at 11:45am, returning around 5pm.Be sure to check out Alize Zorlutuna’s billboard installation facing St. Clarens Ave where the bus will pick-up and drop-off.

Please RSVP for the opening and/or reserve your spot on the bus here.

This event is free and open to everyone. If there are ways we can support your participation, please contact Hannah at [email protected].

Public Art as Social Practice: Place-Making, Community Building, and the Possibilities Ahead

In recent decades, public art has evolved far beyond static objects and monuments—it can be playful, participatory, community-centred, deeply contextual, and sometimes even a little weird (in the best way!). Using The Bentway (a public space with year-round programming underneath the Gardiner Expressway) as a core case study, this workshop peeks behind the scenes at how public art is evolving in Canada, and how creative interventions can shape the ways people move, gather, and connect in shared spaces.

In what ways can creative interventions transform how people behave, gather, or perceive public space? How can art foster belonging, dialogue, moments of delight and connection? How do artists and institutions responsibly (and imaginatively) show up within their community? And ultimately: what might the future of public art look like—or what do we hope it could become?

This presentation is for artists and arts workers with an interest in producing, curating, or thinking about public art. Grounded in real project stories, this session offers practical insights into designing responsive public art initiatives. We’ll look at emerging approaches through the lenses of community engagement, social impact, and civic imagination—and consider how artists can help shape more vibrant, connected, and participatory communities in the public realm.

This event is free and will be held online. Please register to attend. If there is anything we can do to support your participation, please reach out to Hannah at [email protected].

Speaker Bio: Megan Kammerer(she/her) is a curator and writer based in Toronto, Canada. She has held various positions with the Blackwood Gallery, Jackman Humanities Institute, Visual Arts Centre of Clarington, Robert McLaughlin Gallery and the Art Gallery of Guelph, where she worked to support critically engaged exhibition programmes across Southern Ontario. Her work has been shortlisted for three exhibition awards, winning an Exhibition of the Year prize from Galeries Ontario / Ontario Galleries in 2023. Kammerer’s research is published by the University of Toronto, where she holds an Honours Bachelor of Arts in Art History. She currently works as a Programming Associate at The Bentway.

The Artist Professional Development Workshop series is generously sponsored by the RBC Foundation.

Stamps and Stickers Workshop

All spots for this workshop have been filled, please email [email protected] to be added to the waitlist.

In collaboration with Ruckus Art Collective, we are hosting a stamp-making workshop!

Join us for a relaxed, hands-on workshop where you’ll create your own eraser stamp from scratch, then turn stamped creations into stickers. In collaboration with Ruckus Art Collective, this session is all about experimenting, learning, and having fun in a chill space!

This workshop is beginner friendly, walking you through each step from designing your stamp to carving it out. Materials and refreshments will be provided. Limited spots, register using the link below.

This event is free and open to ages 16+ with priority consideration given to youth applicants aged 16-29. If there are ways we can support your participation, please contact Farah at [email protected].

Ruckus Art Collective is an Oshawa-based group dedicated to supporting and uplifting the local art community in Durham Region. Through the hosting of events, exhibitions, and collaborative projects, Ruckus provides a platform for artists to share their work, connect with peers, and engage with the broader public. The collective’s mission is to foster creativity, inclusivity, and dialogue while helping to amplify the voices and talents that define the region’s artistic landscape.