Meet Emerging Artist in Residence Brigitte Sampogna

We are pleased to welcome Brigitte Sampogna to the RMG as part of the RBC Emerging Artist Residency Program. To learn more about Brigitte’s artistic practice and her plans for the incubator lab, visit her profile and read her blog post below!

Just like Annie Lennox sings in Who’s That Girl?, I’m sure many of you will say “who is that odd girl talking to herself in a public, mostly glass studio space at the RMG?” That would be me, Brigitte Sampogna! Unlike her song, however, I am not the other woman; I am the next emerging artist in residence.             

I’ve grown up in Whitby/Oshawa and still reside here. Most of my experiences have been dictated by this suburban landscape. I tend to work with items and material I find around me. Some may call keeping everything that makes you feel a little something hoarding, but I call that being an artist with a mediocre memory, emotional attachment, and a tendency for collection. As the saying goes, you never know what is going to come in handy.

I have found that much of our experiences in life collect on us like clothes on a laundry line, soaking wet, heavy and fresh, but as they slowly dry in the warm hug of the sun they no longer need to be hung. Both the duty of the laundry line and the quest of the clothing has completed. Often, when we have forgotten what we had hanging on the line, we may need to repeat the process with additional care and mending.

During my residency, I will be exploring domestic and suburban spaces through an abstract mapping process, which manifests in accumulation and collection. With found items from nature, home, and the suburban environment, I would like to put a frame around domestic repetition, nostalgic adolescence and locate where in suburbia this all lays. 

I am always down to see friendly faces (and ones considered not as much) so feel free to stop by the studio and have a chat!

National Day for Truth + Reconciliation – September 30th, 2022

Last year our team spent some time considering how we wanted to mark the first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.  We decided to close to the public and take the day for team and self-directed learning.  We began our day by each sharing a personal land acknowledgment using guidance generously given to us by Trina Moyan, nehiyaw iskwew (Plains Cree) artist, writer, and producer; we took time to engage with resources put together by our team, and had opportunities for group learning and discussion. The second half of our day was spent engaging in self-directed learning. For many, this meant diving deeper into the list of resources shared internally and attending local commemorations. For our Indigenous members of staff, it meant unplugging from work and spending the day whichever way they needed to.  Overall, it felt like we were honouring the intention of the 80th Call to Action in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Report. 

Publically, we shared resources with our community that were generously put together by two members of our team, Samuel Powless who worked with us as our Manager of Visitor Engagement until last month, and Erin Szikora, Greenspace Project Coordinator. That list and last year’s statement are here.  Our hope was to provide a starting place – or a place to continue – your own learning.

One of the commitments we made last year was to revisit our land acknowledgment.  It was written internally with support from Leila Timmins, Samuel Powless, Erin Szikora, and myself. Below, I share an annotated version of that land acknowledgement, as a way to demonstrate the learning we have collectively undertaken and to give recognition to the scholars who have helped us along the way.

As this country continues to navigate what this day means, the RMG will once again close to the public on September 30.  We’ve had new members join our team and will once again take the day to learn, participate in commemorations, and continue the conversation around how we – individually and as an organization – can continue to support and advocate for the self-determination of Indigenous communities. 

With thanks,

Lauren

The Robert McLaughlin Gallery is in the treaty lands of the Mississaugas of Scugog Island First Nation. This land has been the traditional territory of the Michi Saagiig Nishnaabeg since 1700; before that time, it was stewarded by various communities belonging to the Haudenosaunee and Wendat confederacies. It is covered under the Williams Treaties and the Dish with One Spoon Wampum.

This area continues to be home to many Indigenous people from across Mishiike Minisi. We recognize the sovereignty of all Indigenous nations and are grateful for the opportunity to learn, live, and work on this land.

We acknowledge that the RMG is in treaty land, and respect our collective responsibility to protect and nurture the land. We also recognize the continuing impacts of colonialism and our responsibilities to redress the ways this has helped shape our organization. We are committed to working to address structural inequities and to centering Indigenous voices in the gallery.

The new RMG website is live!

At the onset of the pandemic, it was clear that while our website provided an opportunity to engage with our audiences digitally, the age of our website limited its use.  We quickly discovered the limitations of our website were going to be restrictive as we shifted to a hybrid of onsite exhibitions (and digital programming. Some information was hard to find, it didn’t allow visitors to explore organically, and we wanted to create a site that truly allowed artists and our collections to shine through.  A new website increase our resiliency, build support for our programs, and be increase accessibility.

With the support of the Ontario Trillium Foundation’s Resilient Communities Fund Grant, the RMG team embarked on a process of designing and building a brand new website. 

Working with the amazing teams over at Puncture Design and Helios Design Labs was incredible.  They took time to understand the RMG, our audiences, and developed ways to encourage website visitors to interact with our content.  The new website invites visitors to explore all that the RMG has to offer through a beautiful, contemporary visual design and a fun and accessible user experience.

As an artist-centered and community-oriented public art gallery in Durham Region, this exciting and dynamic new online space supports our mission to bring people from diverse backgrounds together to engage with art that inspires new perspectives, generates meaningful conversations, and creates a sense of belonging. 

We LOVE our new website and hope you do, too.

Meet Emerging Artist in Residence Jordan Elliot Prosser

We are pleased to welcome Jordan Elliot Prosser to the RMG as part of the RBC Emerging Artist Residency Program. To learn more about Jordan’s artistic practice and his plans for the incubator lab, visit his profile and read his blog post below!

Hello,

I’m Jordan, I was born and raised in Oshawa, where most of my family still resides. I now live and work in Toronto but for the residency will temporarily move into my father’s basement near the hospital.

My work over the past few years has been engaged in mapping out the character of post-industrial life in Oshawa. Subjects for this work have ranged from the childhood objects stored in my mother’s basement to the closure(s) of the assembly plant. These projects are highly personal accounts that use documentary methods to create immersive film and sculptural environments. The work emerges from a set of questions regarding the shifting nature of identity, nostalgia and its regressive/progressive tendencies, and place-making. It is ultimately characterized by a melancholic tone in its futile attempts to discover what if anything has been lost in the past. With both sociological and psychological dimensions, the works interrogate how identity is formed by context and mirrored in objects of attachment.

During the residency I will continue this series by developing a new documentary video and sculpture work investigating a local icon of Oshawa: the famous racehorse Northern Dancer and his home at Windfields Farm. Surprisingly, some people I have spoken to in Oshawa have never heard of the horse even though he has a giant mural in the very center of the town!

A brief history for those who are not familiar:

Windfields Farm was a state-of-the-art facility for the ‘manufacture’ of thoroughbred racehorses nestled in the countryside in north Oshawa at Simcoe and Colin Rds. In 1961, the farm’s success skyrocketed with the birth of Northern Dancer. A “small horse with a big heart,” he would go on to win the top races of his time including the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes, and Queen’s Plate. Following his racing career he became a popular studding horse, siring some of the most successful racehorses of all time. His dominance as a stallion earned him the title “The Sire of the Sires” accounting for the astonishing fact that today the majority of thoroughbred horses are his descendants. In his time, he was a cherished local hero. Northern Dancer died in 1990 and a replacement of his caliber never materialized. With the ailing health of the farm’s owners and global economy in the late 80’s, what was one of the most successful breeding operations in history withered away over the next decade. The farm was sold off to the local University and developers. Today, most of the fields are now suburban communities while the core buildings of the farm, including the cemetery containing Northern Dancer, have been left partially abandoned. For the past decade, Windfields Farm has been held in limbo awaiting plans of heritage conservation by city and University.

You can learn more about Northern Dancer on the farm from this documentary profile found on YouTube: Documentary About Northern Dancer

I’m looking forward to my time with the RMG. If you have a personal story or any insights on Northern Dancer or Winfields Farm I would be eager to chat! Please stop by the artist incubator lab while I’m in residence or reach out to Hannah Keating at [email protected] to set up a meeting with me.

Sharing our new Strategic Plan

For the next three years we’re focusing on connection, creative, and care.

As the RMG’s previous plan, Forging Change Through Creativity, came to an end in 2021, the team embarked a collaborative approach to develop our new strategic plan with PROCESS consultants.   At the onset, the RMG and PROCESS prioritized critically thinking about and meaningfully incorporating equity, inclusion, accessibility, and justice within both the process and the final plan. 

We engaged the full staff team and Board of Directors throughout, completed a public survey, and led a focus group with community partners.  This ensured we were grounding the next three years from a place of common understanding of what we all want for the RMG, for artists, and for our community.

Our values of care; artist-centered and creative; equity and justice; relationship-based and collaborative; accessible and inclusive; accountable and open; led to a vision and mission that resonate with the team, and we hope, with everyone who engages with us. 

Vision

Art cultivates connected and caring communities.

As an artist-centered and community-oriented public art gallery in Durham Region, we bring people from diverse backgrounds together to engage with art that inspires new perspectives, generates meaningful conversations, and creates a sense of belonging.

Mission

We build relationships with diverse artists and communities through art.

The RMG works in collaboration with artists, partners, and audiences to present dynamic and inspiring collections, exhibitions, and programs in an inclusive and equitable environment.

I’m truly proud of the time, thought, and care we put into this plan.  We invite you to explore the full strategic plan and the priorities and goals that we’ve set to help us achieve our vision. 

With gratitude,

Lauren Gould, CEO

Spring Giving Campaign: Summer Camp is back at the RMG!

We’re so happy to be welcoming children back to the RMG for summer camp! Last summer, we partnered with 20 non-profit organizations across Durham Region and delivered a unique, at-home camp experience for children and youth in the region.

We could not have assembled 500 camp boxes filled with art and science, food-related and physical activities, and provide essential support to families in need without your support. Thank you for supporting The Robert McLaughlin Gallery!

This year, we’re asking you to support Summer Camp At The RMG, an initiative that will provide children in Durham Region with engaging and exciting activities in the gallery, hands-on projects in the studio, and lots of active outdoor play. RMG summer camp and classes aim to teach children how to think analytically, question, share, explore their thoughts, and express their ideas through art.

Your donation will help provide additional fine art materials and support to participating youth and free and subsidized spaces to families impacted by the social and economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The boxes were a fantastic way to help encourage new clients to come out to the program. Each family was able to not only receive the camp box, but also get connected with ongoing supports.”

CAREA Community Health Centre, 2021 distributor of Camp In A Box activity boxes

Donate Today!

For corporate giving opportunities and partnerships, please check out our corporate sponsorship page here.

It is through generous supporters like you that we can continue to build community through art and encourage people to experience the world differently.

Canada Helps is another way to make a donation to The Robert McLaughlin Gallery.