The Neighbours Project ART HIVE with the LivingRoom

“We can only learn about creativity through our own experience of it.”

Shaun McNiff

The RMG and the LivingRoom Community Art Studio welcome all of our neighbours with warmth and openness to help us activate The Neighbours Project ART HIVE between 12-3:30pm on the Fridays listed below. You’re invited to use our free art materials to explore your creativity through self-expression. Together, as artists, we will work alongside and with one another to co-create a vibrant cultural ecosystem. Join us in this adventure of Creative Human-ing and learn why making art matters!

The Neighbours Project ART HIVE is part of The Neighbours Project. To learn more about the project, please visit the exhibition page.

This event will be facilitated at the following times:

  • Friday January 12, 2024, 12-3:30pm
  • Friday January 19, 2024, 12-3:30pm
  • Friday January 26, 2024, 12-3:30pm
  • Friday February 2, 2024, 12-3:30pm
  • Friday February 9, 2024, 12-3:30pm
  • Friday February 16, 2024, 12-3:30pm

What to expect:

  • These drop-in events are free.
  • You’re welcome to come and go as you please.
  • Coffee, tea, and light snacks will be served.
  • Everyone is welcome; no art experience required.

The RMG is located at 72 Queen Street, Civic Centre in Oshawa, across from the McLaughlin Branch of the Oshawa Public Libraries. The Neighbours Project ART HIVE is in Gallery A, which is located on the lower level of the RMG. It is accessible by stairs or elevator. Between the elevator and Gallery A, you’ll pass our public washrooms. We have an accessible single-stall washroom as well as gender-inclusive multi-stall washrooms. Read more about our facilities here.

What is an art hive?

Art Hives are spaces that enable people of all ages to participate in free public relaxation. They are safe, accessible spaces that support creative community development through art-making experiences that foster connection and personal well-being. In an Art Hive, traditional hierarchies, processes, and ways of being can be deconstructed and re-imagined in playful, personal, and compassionate ways.

“At the center of everything we call ‘the arts,’ and children call ‘play,’ is something which seems somehow alive.”

Lynda Barry

The Neighbours Project ART HIVE will be facilitated by The LivingRoom’s Mary Krohnert and the RMG’s Hannah Keating and Erin Szikora.

Mary is an actor, art therapist and social arts practitioner with over 25 years of experience in intersectional community engagement through the arts. Founder of the LivingRoom Community Art Studio, she is a graduate of The Toronto Art Therapy Institute, Toronto Metropolitan University, and has studied Art Hives at Concordia University under the founder of the movement, Dr. Janis Timm-Bottos. Her work is driven by a deep appreciation of the human story, and the many ways it can be communicated, acknowledged, and honoured in our efforts to live, learn, work, and engage with greater authenticity, sustainability, and joy. The LivingRoom and its related projects offer practical opportunities for citizen artists of all ages, abilities and walks of life to explore how processes of creative self-expression can be integrated into day-to-day life for the benefit of all.

Hannah is an Associate Curator at The Robert McLaughlin Gallery where she coordinates the RBC Emerging Artist Residency program, curates exhibitions and public programs, and works with community partners. She holds a bachelor’s and master’s degree in Art History from Carleton University and has previously worked at Artspace, the Winnipeg Art Gallery, the University of Manitoba School of Art Gallery, and the Art Gallery of Peterborough. Hannah is curious about relationships of all kinds and passionate about supporting artists. She is a writer and deep thinker who believes in the power of art to forge connections, provoke conversation, and hold deep truths about the human condition.

Erin is an Associate Curator at The Robert McLaughlin Gallery. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Fine Art and Art History from the University of Toronto and a master’s degree in Art History from OCAD University. She has previously worked at the University of Toronto, Art Gallery of Guelph, Art Canada Institute, OCAD University, the McMaster Museum of Art, and Brock University. Her work is motivated by a deep interest in how personal storytelling can lead to collective liberation. She believes strongly in the power of art to change the world and is excited to live into the future we dream up together.

Visit The Neighbours Project exhibition page to learn more.

We want to express sincere gratitude to our partners and collaborators for their support: The Back Door Mission, The Gap Committee, The LivingRoom Community Art Studio, April Hind, and Selena Hind.

Do you have any questions? Please get in touch by emailing hkeating@rmg.on.ca and eszikora@rmg.on.ca.

The Neighbours Project: Community Celebration

Please let us know you’re coming! Click this link to RSVP: https://thermg.typeform.com/to/Dkm48KdZ.

The Robert McLaughlin Gallery believes we have a responsibility to participate in the creation and maintenance of a healthy community. For over a year, we have been working with community members and partners on an initiative called The Neighbours Project to explore how we could extend care to some of our closest neighbours who have experience with housing precarity or homelessness, including those working to reduce barriers and offer direct support. The work itself was grounded in relationship building and took many forms, including closed onsite events and participation in community meetings and other offsite activities. From December 9, 2023 to February 18, 2024, The Neighbours Project will take up physical space at the RMG as an installation in Gallery A.

At this event, we invite the wider RMG community to join us in our creative visioning and accountability. Here’s what you can expect at this event:

  • Stories from community leaders with lived experience of homelessness
  • Interactive art-making with The LivingRoom Community Art Studio
  • Food + conversation with project partners, collaborators, and other community members

The Neighbours Project is co-produced by representatives of the RMG, Back Door Mission, The Gap Committee, and The LivingRoom Community Art Studio. It will be installed in Gallery A from December 9, 2023 – February 18, 2024.

To learn more about the project, please visit the exhibition page.

This event is supported by TD Bank Group through the TD Ready Commitment and The Regional Municipality of Durham.

Do you have any questions? Please get in touch by emailing hkeating@rmg.on.ca and eszikora@rmg.on.ca.

How to Price Your Artwork

This event will be held on Zoom. It is free and open to everyone, but registration is required. Click here to register.

Deciding how much you should charge for your artwork can feel like a shot in the dark, but artists Chrissy and Kyle of Spark Box Studio have developed a pricing system that dives into the nitty gritty. In this workshop, they will share how they determine fair prices for their work. With appreciation for the nuance of this complex topic, you’re invited to join our conversation. Chrissy and Kyle will answer questions about applying this system to your own practice and offer tips for talking about the value of your art with others. 

About the Facilitators

Thirteen years ago Chrissy Poitras and Kyle Topping opened Spark Box Studio, a social enterprise, artist residency and community printmaking studio; committed to addressing cultural and social needs by fostering, supporting and promoting individuals working in the arts.

They created a practice rooted in resource sharing and collaborative exchange. They built a safe, nurturing environment that has hosted over 450 artists from around the world and brought together hundreds of community members to expand their understanding of creativity and professional practice.

Since the pandemic they have been re-envisioning their creative practice and learning how to nurture the shared sense of place virtually that was created in their studio and residency. They have been doing so through a variety of online programs: Artist Confessional, Flat Files, The Art Discourse and Love Letters. All of these video series open up the doors of their studio to the public, encourage collaborative exchange and build connections with artists in their community.

In addition, they are multidisciplinary artists who work collaboratively on community art installations and public art projects; most notably with organizations such as Crazy Dames, The Department of Illumination, Kick Start Arts, Critical Mass and the Gladstone Hotel.

Closed captioning and live transcription will be available through the built-in Zoom CC and Transcription features. ASL Interpretation can be arranged upon request. Please contact Hannah Keating at hkeating@rmg.on.ca to submit an interpretation request by November 8, 2023. All efforts will be made to fill a request, but if an Interpreter cannot be secured, we will let you know before the event takes place.

Is there anything else we can do to support your participation? Please reach out to Hannah at hkeating@rmg.on.ca.

The RBC Emerging Artist Residency Program at the RMG is generously supported through the RBC Foundation’s Emerging Artist Project.

What We’ve Learned Installing Our Art

This event will be held on Zoom. It is free and open to everyone, but registration is required. Click here to register.

Artists Chrissy and Kyle of Spark Box Studio have experience presenting their work in all sorts of conventional and unconventional settings. From community engaged projects to murals to pop up events, they have collaborated with other artists and each other to bring their work to different audiences. Offering tips and answering questions, they will facilitate a reflective conversation to share some of the experiences they’ve had and the lessons they’ve learned installing artwork in various settings.

About the Facilitators

Thirteen years ago Chrissy Poitras and Kyle Topping opened Spark Box Studio, a social enterprise, artist residency and community printmaking studio; committed to addressing cultural and social needs by fostering, supporting and promoting individuals working in the arts.

They created a practice rooted in resource sharing and collaborative exchange. They built a safe, nurturing environment that has hosted over 450 artists from around the world and brought together hundreds of community members to expand their understanding of creativity and professional practice.

Since the pandemic they have been re-envisioning their creative practice and learning how to nurture the shared sense of place virtually that was created in their studio and residency. They have been doing so through a variety of online programs: Artist Confessional, Flat Files, The Art Discourse and Love Letters. All of these video series open up the doors of their studio to the public, encourage collaborative exchange and build connections with artists in their community.

In addition, they are multidisciplinary artists who work collaboratively on community art installations and public art projects; most notably with organizations such as Crazy Dames, The Department of Illumination, Kick Start Arts, Critical Mass and the Gladstone Hotel.

Closed captioning and live transcription will be available through the built-in Zoom CC and Transcription features. ASL Interpretation can be arranged upon request. Please contact Hannah Keating at hkeating@rmg.on.ca to submit an interpretation request by November 8, 2023. All efforts will be made to fill a request, but if an Interpreter cannot be secured, we will let you know before the event takes place.

Is there anything else we can do to support your participation? Please reach out to Hannah at hkeating@rmg.on.ca.

The RBC Emerging Artist Residency Program at the RMG is generously supported through the RBC Foundation’s Emerging Artist Project.

Curatorial Tours: CAMP

Join Associate Curator Erin Szikora for a guided tour of Couzyn van Heuvelen’s solo exhibition “CAMP“.

Thursday Curatorial Tours are free and open to everyone. They provide deeper insight into the themes, context, and content of our exhibitions. Seating options are available. For more information about access and our facilities, please visit rmg.on.ca/visit/ or contact Hannah Keating at hkeating@rmg.on.ca with any specific requests.

No advance registration required.

Alexandra Luke: Life and Art

Refreshments served. Open to the Public. Registration encouraged.

Join us to learn about the life and art of artist Alexandra Luke. Guest lecturer Margaret Rodgers (artist, curator, writer) is the author of the book Locating Alexandra. Alexandra Luke (i.e. Margaret McLaughlin, 1901-1967) was an important artist linked to the beginnings of abstract painting in Canada and a founding member of Painters Eleven, Ontario’s first abstract painting group (1953-1960). Rodgers will share her knowledge and research about Alexandra Luke to compliment the current exhibition at The Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Alexandra Luke: Push and Pull, on view until January 14th.

Noah Scheinman: Exhibition Opening and Panel Talk

Please join us to celebrate the opening of HEAVY/WATER/MACHINE by RBC Emerging Artist in Residence, Noah Scheinman. Let us know you’re coming with an RSVP.

Gathering with collaborators and researchers, the artist will speak about his relationship to the toxic legacy of Canada’s post-nuclear landscape. The conversation will bring together different perspectives on the interconnected networks of ecosystems and industry that constitute our environment and invite the panelists to respond to some of the questions posed by Noah’s exhibition.

Refreshments will be served following the panel.

ABOUT THE PANELISTS

Warren Harper is a curator, researcher and project manager currently based in Toronto, Canada. He has worked with and held various positions at arts organisations and institutions across the UK and in Canada. Currently, Warren is a PhD researcher at Goldsmiths, University of London, UK, where he is working on a curatorial research project exploring his home county of Essex’s role in Britain’s nuclear story.

Katie Lawson is a curator and writer based in Toronto. She was a curator for the Toronto Biennial of Art, working with Candice Hopkins and Tairone Bastien on the inaugural 2019 and 2022 editions. She has also curated exhibitions at Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery (2024); Images Festival (2023); MacLaren Art Centre (2021); the Art Museum at the University of Toronto (2018); the Art Gallery of Ontario (2018); Y+ Contemporary (2017), and RYMD Reykjavik (2017). Katie is a graduate of the Master of Visual Studies Curatorial program at the University of Toronto, where she previously completed her Master of Arts in Art History. She is currently working towards a PhD in Art and Visual Culture at Western University, with an interest in contemporary art and climate change. Lawson was awarded the Hnatyshyn Foundation Fogo Island Arts Young Curator Residency in 2023.

David Mowat has spent the past 30 years working in various capacities at the First Nation level, in Winnipeg, Waabaseemoong, Scugog Island and Alderville. As a researcher, writer, youth worker, economic development officer, consultation specialist, Band councilor and most recently as the elected Chief of Alderville First Nation, Dave has remained committed to the positive advancement of his communities. His passion remains researching and understanding the treaty, military and settlement history of southern Ontario as it pertains to Alderville but also the Mississauga Nation as a whole. This acquired knowledge over decades, including his academic pursuits in the study of history, allows Dave to defend the Mississauga Anishinabeg presence in southern Ontario with confidence and commitment. Dave is also a long-time blues musician/singer, having taken up the harmonica back in the early 1980s not long after relocating to north end Winnipeg. He still plays professionally in Toronto and south-central Ontario, which balances his political and historical interests. As a traditional wild rice harvester too, he is a staunch defender of this aboriginal right across our treaty areas. In the wake of the Williams Treaties Settlement Agreement Chief Dave’s main intent was and continues to be to secure the settlement for Alderville both for the immediate and long-term viability of the community. Along with his wife Janet and their granddaughter Brooklyn, Dave lives in the home he built in Alderville (24 years ago), adjacent to his beloved Black Oak Savanna and Tallgrass Prairie, where he and Janet also raised their 3 children.

Laura J. Murray, a settler scholar raised in Toronto, is Professor of English and Co-Director of the Graduate Program in Cultural Studies at Queen’s University. She has worked across a wide range of topics including copyright law, media history, and Indigenous history, and methodologies including oral history, walking tours, and podcasts. She is co-lead with Dorit Naaman on a multi-year SSHRC-funded project titled “A Totem Pole on a Pile of Garbage: Contending with Environmental and Colonial Violence in Kingston, Ontario.” Her most recent publication is “We Are the Ones That Make the Treaty”: Michi Saagiig Lands and Islands in Southeastern Ontario” (Ethnohistory 70 (3), 2023, pp. 231–258).

Ryan Osman is a Mauritian Photographer and Water Resources Specialist based out of Wasaga Beach, Ontario. His work sits at the intersections of environmentalism and photojournalism. He endeavors to bridge his work to the many underrepresented and marginalized communities whose access to the arts, nature, and sports, have been historically, and continually denied. Over the years, he has worked with a variety of BIPOC athletes, environmental organizations, communities, and individuals to showcase their work/talents, as well as learn, and listen to their ideas, issues, and stories.

Ryan works as a Field Photographer and Water Resources Specialist for the NGO Water First, which collaborates with Indigenous communities in Canada to address local water challenges through education and training. He is a member of the Board of Directors and the Artist Collective of Uplift Black Centre for Social Justice and Inclusion in Simcoe County. In 2021, he won the international “Greatest Wave” surf photography contest organized by Surf the Greats, Ripcurl Canada and Aquatech Imaging Solutions. In the Fall of 2021, 7 photos from his collection “Further North” were featured in the “Past, Present, Pause” exhibition at the Be Contemporary Gallery in Innisfil. In 2022, Ryan joined the Call to Action #83 Project. Inspired by Canada’s Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Call to Action #83 brings together 14 Indigenous and non-Indigenous Simcoe County artists to share stories, gain understanding and collaborate on a linked series of artworks related to the theme of Truth and Reconciliation.

Noah Scheinman is an emerging multidisciplinary artist and filmmaker with a background in architecture and design. His creative work has been presented in various group contexts, and in 2020 he had a solo exhibition at Modern Fuel Artist-Run Centre. His project Tomorrow’s Geology Today (2019) was selected for the City of Kingston’s annual public art commission, bringing together his interests in infrastructure, ecology, and waste in the form a large-scale photo essay and two sculptures which investigated the region’s history of resource extraction. Scheinman was an Emerging Artist in Residence at the Banff Centre (2020) and has participated in experimental residencies organized by the Agnes Etherington Art Centre (2021), and Artscape’s Creative Placemaking Lab in Ottawa (2020). Before completing a Master of Visual Studies in Studio Art at the University of Toronto, he studied literature at McGill University and sculpture at the Ontario College of Art and Design. In parallel to his current artistic projects, which include the production of a feature-length film about the forestry industry and a sculptural intervention at the site of a former municipal landfill, he is working towards a PhD in Geography at Queen’s University, where he researches the political ecologies and networked arrangements of contemporary logistics.

Seating will be available. If there is anything else we can do to support your participation, please reach out to Hannah at hkeating@rmg.on.ca.

CAMP: Exhibition Opening and Fall Feast

CANCELLED
Please note that this event has been cancelled. If you require further information, please reach out to info@rmg.on.ca.

Celebrate the first day of fall with us! The RMG invites you to attend the opening reception of Couzyn van Heuvelen’s solo exhibition, CAMP, with an artist talk, and fall feast in our newly re-opened Backyard.

Registration for the feast is now full, but everyone is welcome to join us for the opening reception from 3-5pm. We hope to see you there!

Remarks and an artist talk + tour with Couzyn will take place in the exhibition around 3:30pm. Dinner will be served around 5pm. 

While you’re here, we’re also happy to open and celebrate two new permanent collection exhibitions: About Time and Alexandra Luke: Push and Pull. Check them out!

We are pleased to offer this event during Oshawa’s CONVERGENCE festival, an exciting music and art experience in downtown Oshawa.

For information on our facilities, please click here. If you have questions about the event or other requests, please email Hannah at hkeating@rmg.on.ca.

Civic Conversations: Speculative Mapping for the Star Glyph Garden

With Karyn Recollet and Jon Johnson

This event is free and open to anyone, but registration is limitedto 12.

Please register to save your spot!

Speculative Mapping for the Star Glyph Garden is a gathering for setting intentions and asking questions about what is possible when we are led by an ethic of care. Designed for the RMG’s new backyard, the Star Glyph Garden will be a rock garden that welcomes visitors to consider the constellation of people and more-than-human beings that make up this community. The design itself is informed by Indigenous storytelling, as well as the future-oriented cosmology and landing practices of Karyn Recollet and Jon Johnson.

This event is the first in our new Civic Conversations series, which asks: What are we willing to risk to protect, strengthen, and nourish our world and each other? We invite artists and activists from various disciplines to guide us towards stirring questions that challenge us to converse honestly about what is at stake in the way we relate to ourselves, each other, and the places where we live.

Within the context of the RMG’s newly renovated backyard space, this event will provoke thinking and conversation around settler gardening practices and the distinct potential the Star Glyph Garden holds for radical relationality. As a group, participants will be led through a lightly curated mapping process. Karyn will offer prompts that invite reflections and will gather participants into relation. Ephemeral fragments will be left on the site as offerings of love and promise in preparation for the planting of the rock garden, which will take place at a later date.

Participants will be invited to join the artists and gallery staff in a picnic lunch.

Please come prepared to be outside with appropriate clothing, sun protection, and water. The RMG is delighted to provide all participants with a boxed lunch. We have seating and picnic tables, but if you wish, you may choose to bring a picnic blanket for lunch.

For information on our facilities, please click here. If you have any questions about the event or other requests, please email Hannah at hkeating@rmg.on.ca.

Karyn Recollet (Cree, born in Sturgeon Lake First Nation, SK, Canada; lives in Toronto, ON, Canada) is an Assistant Professor in Women and Gender Studies at the University of Toronto. An urban Cree scholar/artist/writer, Recollet’s work focuses on urban Indigenous art-making practices as complex forms of urban glyphing- expressing an expansive understanding of land pedagogy that exceeds the terrestrial. Recollet is in conversation with dance choreographers, Black and Indigenous futurist thinkers, and Indigenous and Black geographers as ways to theorize and activate relationality through forms of land-ing in rupturous times.

Jon Johnson’s research is focused on urban land-based Indigenous Knowledge in Toronto and their representation through oral and digital forms of storytelling. He works actively within Toronto’s Indigenous community in his capacity as a lead organizer for First Story Toronto, an Indigenous-led community-based organization that researches and shares Toronto’s Indigenous presence through popular education initiatives such as storytelling tours of the city and its freely-available smartphone application.

This program is supported by TD Bank Group through the TD Ready Commitment, The City of Oshawa, and The Regional Municipality of Durham.

In Conversation with Aaron Jones

Join artist and designer Jair Kale in conversation with RMG exhibiting artist Aaron Jones. Talking as friends and creatives, Jair and Aaron will discuss Aaron’s exhibition, “Fountain of Dreams” and the ideas and influences layered within this new body of work.

Fountain of Dreams is an immersive installation of video, audio, and photo murals that considers the spatial and multi-sensory qualities of haunting and remembrance. Playing with physical and conceptual layers, the exhibition is interested in the interplay between permeable borders – geographical and generational – and between dream states and wakefulness.

This event is free and open to everyone. Please register here.

Seating will be provided for all guests.

For more information on our facilities, please click here. If you have questions about the event or other requests, please email Hannah at hkeating@rmg.on.ca.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Aaron Jones describes himself as an image-builder who reconfigures materials from books, magazines, newspapers and personal photos into new characters and realities. His collages and photo-based installations are a form of self-and world-exploration; he uses paper as a medium, where rips and tears become painterly brush strokes. Through a cathartic practice of constructing and deconstructing, Jones joins opposing visuals and colours in search of ‘peace’; a spiritual satisfaction. Recently, Jones has been exploring his birthplace of southern Ontario. The circumstances of the last two years have sparked a consideration of how he might survive off his own basic skills and natural resources. Jones has been exploring the natural landscape, as well as researching plants, wildlife, and the natural conditions near his mother’s home in Pickering, to understand their offerings and inner workings. His new intimately scaled, figurative collages are set against large-format pictures of rural landscapes and a video performance, contrasting scale and the ethereal with the real.

Born 1993 in Toronto, Jones graduated with a BA from OCADU in 2018. His work has been included recently in a special project for Nuit Blanche and the Art Gallery of Ontario’s We Are Story: The Canada Now Photography Acquisition exhibtion. He’s also been included in the exhibitions Three Thirty at Doris McCarthy Gallery, From the Ground Up at NIA Centre for the Arts, Ragga NYC at Mercer Union, all in Toronto, and Propped at Oakville Galleries, Oakville, ON. Jones was awarded The Gattuso Prize for his exhibition Closed Fist, Open Palm for the 2020 CONTACT Photography Festival.

Aaron Jones is represented by Zalucky Contemporary, Toronto.

Jair Kale, born and raised in Claxton Bay, Trinidad, grew up in a nurturing nuclear family. Throughout his childhood, he often accompanied his mother to her classes while she pursued her Master of Social Work. During this time, any literature with creative writings captivated his imagination, laying the foundation for his artistic journey and that which would become a cherished pastime, the quest for knowledge.

Embracing multiple artistic facets, Kale emerged as a talented poet, photographer, and designer. His work reflects a keen eye for colour and negative space, a defining aspect evident in his photography and design projects.

Driven by a vision that juxtaposes geographic societies to highlight their parallels and distinctions, Kale delved into exploring the coexistence of diverse cultures in ways outside of the status quo. Holding significant depth, his work encourages viewers to contemplate the nuance and metaphors in the intricate beauty of human relationships.

Kale writes lyrics for Toronto artists, designs clothing for Brands featured in Adrift Skateshop, and recently he has exhibited an installation, Blue Crabs from Claxton Bay at Project1616, an artist run gallery/project space in Toronto. He received his AdvDip as a Fashion Management graduate from George Brown Casa Loma in 2021. Currently living and working in Toronto, he aspires to provoke perception and challenge stereotypical ideologies.

We’d like to thank TD Bank Group through the TD Ready Commitment for their sponsorship of Fountain of Dreams.