Looking back in honour of Durham Region Pride!

In 1972, Paul Bennett (Director, 1969 – 1972) was “asked” by the Board of Directors to resign because of his sexuality.

This is a part of the Gallery’s history we are not proud of. What we are proud of is how far we’ve come: that we have exhibitions that boldly address queer issues; that we can work closely with our queer community in developing relevant and required programming; that we support queer creatives and make space for their vibrancy.

This week is Pride in Durham Region. This week (and everyday) it’s important to live as proudly as you can, and support others as they do. We invite everyone to celebrate with us at RMG Fridays: Pride with live music from I. M. Brown & The Transcendents and film screenings, openings for new exhibitions, and much more.

Leila Timmins joins the RMG as Curator and Manager, Exhibitions and Collections

The Robert McLaughlin is excited to announce that Leila Timmins will be joining the Gallery as Manager and Curator, Exhibitions and Collections. In this new role, she will be replacing Linda Jansma who is retiring after 28 years at the gallery.

Previously Curator of Exhibitions and Public Programming at Gallery 44 in Toronto, Leila is dedicated to working with community to contribute to important conversations happening around and through art.

At Gallery 44, Timmins produced over 60 exhibitions and public programs with over 100 artists from across the country and abroad while working tirelessly to build the gallery’s audience and increase online engagement.

Accessibility is also an important part of Leila’s curatorial practice. Her work with Workman Arts, CAMH, Tangled Art + Disability, and numerous other groups and collectives has contributed to conversations around reducing barriers and increasing access.

“I am thrilled and honoured to be joining the team at the Robert McLaughlin Gallery. I’ve long admired the way the RMG centres relationship-building at the core of its operation, working closely alongside artists and community. I look forward to continuing the important work the gallery has done to build greater accessibility, equality and inclusiveness into all aspects of its programming.” says Timmins

“We’re very excited to have Leila at the RMG and working in Durham Region. She was selected from a pool of candidates nationally and abroad because her passion for community building is determined, which is demonstrated in her impressive list of experiences and accomplishments. Get ready, Durham.” says Donna Raetsen-Kemp, CEO, of the new arrival.

Her writing has been published in notable publications including FUSE Magazine and C Magazine, and was awarded the Emerging Cultural Leader Award by Artist-Run Centres and Collectives of Ontario (ARCCO) in 2017.

Leila starts at the RMG on June 11.

An event everyone is welcome at – RMG Fridays: Pride

Recently, The Robert McLaughlin Gallery made the decision to step away from Pride Durham in organizing RMG Fridays: Pride.

The RMG is committed to building and maintaining safe and accessible space so that the arts can be shared and enjoyed with the entire community. We also works closely with members of our communities, representative organizations, and groups when developing programming and exhibitions to ensure we are meeting the needs of our community.

At a recent meeting held by Pride Durham, members of our queer and racialized communities came forward to express their concerns and explain their requirements for safe space, including their stance on uniformed police walking in the parade. Pride Durham made a decision to move forward with plans that oppose those needs. Doing so holds the potential to compromise safe space and excludes those voices from the upcoming celebration. This does not align with the RMG’s values.

The Robert McLaughlin Gallery believes Pride is a celebration of resistance and resilience, differences and the vibrancy that come with being queer. Though intimately linked at times, Pride is about finding yourself not your profession. We invite the entire community to come together, whether in celebration or support, as the people they were born as.

We also understand that the uniform may be viewed as a symbol of years of oppression and the enforcement of laws that oppress many queer and racialized peoples. While the police are invited to participate in plain clothes, the presence of uniforms may be a barrier to access for many.

We hope to work with Pride Durham in the future, in ways that are safe, respectful, and healing for the community.

To learn more about the upcoming RMG Fridays: Pride event click here.

Q&A with Sonya Jones, Curator of Collections

Sonya Jones, previously Associate Curator, is now taking on a new role at the Gallery as Curator of Collections. In this new role, Sonya will lead the management, care and exhibition of the RMG’s collections, including the Permanent Collection, Thomas Bouckley Collection, and library and archives.

What is it that you love about working with the collections?

I love sharing the collection with the community, whether that’s through exhibitions, tours or our online database. I also love collecting and sharing stories about each work – it gives you a whole different perspective and appreciation. While curating is definitely the highlight of my job, I absolutely love collections management. I’m lucky I get to do both. Also, it never gets old walking into the vault!

In your opinion, what makes our collections special?

While we have a huge variety of artwork, historical, contemporary, mediums, styles etc, the part of the collection that sets it apart from other permanent collections is the large number of Painters Eleven we have, over 1,000 works. We have visitors come specifically to see Painters Eleven, for example just this week we had someone come all the way from Halifax just to see works by Painters Eleven.

In your new role, what do you look to do with the collection exhibitions?

I’m looking forward to connecting with our community through the collection and finding new ways for public engagement.

Do you have a favorite piece in the Permanent Collection? In The Thomas Bouckley Collection? Why?

Joseph Sydney Hallam (Canadian, 1899 – 1953); Rainy Weekend; 1946; oil on masonite; Gift of Paul Hallam, 2002

It’s so hard to choose just one! There are too many amazing works to choose from. I tend to have weekly favourites. One that I recently came across that left an impression was Joseph Sydney Hallam’s Rainy Weekend. This resonated with me because I saw it right after the most recent ice storm, which was a weekend where my family was stuck indoors. Despite grumbling at first, we soon took full advantage of spending quality time together. Like in Rainy Weekend, there’s a comfort and feeling of home just being together even if you are just in the same room doing your own thing. The weather forced us all to slow down, be present and be together. So that was that week’s favourite!

For the Bouckley Collection, I’ve always been drawn to the candid images, the ones that capture a moment rather than posed. For example, one of people walking down King Street during road construction. The majority of the photographs in the collection were taken for documentation purposes, so the candid photographs are extra rare and special.

Reagan Kennedy responds to Edward Curtis

This is an excerpt from Reagan’s full response, which can be seen off of the lobby at the gallery.

[…]

It is important to consider that at the time of Curtis’ career Indigenous populations throughout the continent had already suffered the severe effects of colonialism. It is because of this that many believe there is some validity to Curtis’ claim to be photographing a peoples who were “vanishing”. However, this language has also served to promote ideas that Indigenous people do not exist, and often prevents non-Indigenous peoples from really seeing us. Curtis was also known for his techniques of editing his images, often removing signs of modern technologies from his Indigenous subjects to promote ideas of primitivism. Additionally, he was known for stealing sacred items from communities which he would then travel with and place on his subjects in other territories.

Outside of these controversial and problematic components of his work, many of us are still drawn to these images. I am drawn to Picking Blueberries because of these complexities, and because the image appears more candid than some of Curtis’ more obviously staged works. I feel a sense of calmness and humanity when I look at this photograph. Due to the effects of colonisation and colonial policies, many of us feel disconnected and deterritorialized from our communities and traditional ways of knowing. These ways of knowing, such as the berry harvest taking place in this image, reflect ways of knowing that strengthened and maintained our relationship to the land, to our families and communities. Some of us learned and still carry these ways of knowing, some of us are mourning the loss of these practices and are trying to learn.

By reflecting upon Picking Blueberries from the RMG Permanent Collection I hope visitors take the opportunity to revisit how we have been seen and unseen, but also how we have been disconnected and how we can reconnect.

-Reagan Kennedy

National Philanthropy Day: AWCCU Financial

Philanthropy is you and me, doing what we can, where we are and with what we have. National Philanthropy Day® celebrates the charitable work that EVERYONE does to make a difference in their communities —what you do from the heart makes a difference!

National Philanthropy Day is recognized on Nov. 15, but we celebrate what you do throughout the year. You make a difference every day!

Meg Cox from AWCCU chats with the crowd about the imprtance of community building events.

The Robert McLaughlin Gallery is a place where emerging talents explore and develop their skills, where children build confidence, explore their imagination and where families can create together. We’re able to do this better than ever before with the support of AWCCU Financial.

AWCCU Financial generously provides funding for RMG Fridays. Enjoyed by over 3,100 people last year, their support has had immeasurable impact not only to those members who have been given the opportunity to share, explore and engage in the arts, but also to the local businesses and organizations who display their purpose.

“It’s about bringing people together and making things happen in Oshawa, Durham. It just gets bigger from there”. Meghyn Cox, AWCCU Financial

We are proud to say we are a partner with AWCCU Financial.

National Philanthropy Day: Ontario Power Generation

Philanthropy is the love of humankind, and National Philanthropy Day® celebrates the charitable work that EVERYONE does to make a difference in their communities. Whether you donate or volunteer (or both!), young or old, no matter how much you give or what causes you support—what you do from the heart makes a difference!

National Philanthropy Day is recognized on Nov. 15, but we celebrate what you do throughout the year. You make a difference every day!

The Robert McLaughlin Gallery would like to acknowledge the annual support received from the Ontario Power Generation (OPG).

The OPG Corporate Citizenship Program has supported the RMG in our pursuit to provide informal learning of abstract art, encourage collaboration, increase understanding of art fundamentals, and enhance the learning and quality experience between adult and child. OPG Second Sunday’s have been enjoyed by over 5,000 families because of this partnership.

When we bring together the passion and commitment of our partners, we push the boundaries of what is possible. We are proud to say we are a partner with OPG.

Not your typical art class

The RMG is rolling out 21st century learning

21st century learning is an exciting, new and impactful educational model that’s developed around an understanding of 21st century skills and knowledge; like the role technology plays in day-to-day life, being adaptable and collaborative, thinking independently and critically, and effective communication.

We’re really thrilled to be bringing this learning model to the RMG’s programming. With this new cross-curricular approach to art making, kids explore big issues with depth and meaning through a variety of imaginative exercises, sharing ideas and discussions enable them to think critically. They’ll be up and moving, acting, singing, sharing and exploring their creative capacity.

By encouraging a ‘culture of participation’ and inviting collective contributions and innovations, we’re hoping to inspire people to take control of their learning through creative and artistic expression.

Check out our new and upcoming programming for kids and adults here.

When Margaret met Alexandra

By: Raechel Bonomo

The career of an artist is contingent on change and evolution. An artist may grow through, or in reflection of, societal deviations and of course, the ones within themselves. Like Picasso in his Blue Period, in which the artist drew inspiration from poverty and his own personal suffering, these vicissitudes often reveal themselves through creation of work and are then consumed by the audience. But eventually, things for Picasso changed and subsequently so did his work – made evident by is successive Rose Period.

Art has the power to create a dialogue between its creator and its viewer. It’s a special kind of relationship, one that artist, writer and curator Margaret Rodgers developed with Painters 11 member, Alexandra Luke (1901 – 1967) through her work.

Luke has been a familiar face in many of Rodger’s projects, from her 1995 book, Locating Alexandra, to most recently as a guest curator of Legacies: Luke, McLaughlin, Donovan and MacGregor, currently on exhibition at the Robert McLaughlin Gallery (RMG).

When Rodgers first began exploring the life of Alexandra Luke [born Margaret Alexandra Luke], she believed that her and Luke were quite similar.

“I thought, ‘my name is Margaret too, I work in my attic too, came to artmaking as a professional later in life [and also] juggle family and other duties,’” says Rodgers. “Upon deeper study, I came to see the enormous gulf between an Oshawa society matron, married into the McLaughlin family, and middle-class me.”

This initial draw is what led Rodgers down the rabbit hole of what she describes as a “fascinating” fall through Luke’s work and life. In Legacies, Rodgers worked with contemporary artists, Teri Donovan and Gwen MacGregor to create modern work that reflects and celebrates the career of Luke and her contemporary, Isabel McLaughlin (1903 – 2002).

“Connecting the past to the present sets up a level of identification and understanding that enlarges the experience for everyone,” says Rodgers. “Luke and McLaughlin have a new audience in contemporary terms while Donovan and MacGregor can connect to the historical.”

As a curator, Rodgers found herself armoured with the variety and form that various kinds of artistic talent can take.

“I had no idea what each artist would decide to do, and invited them because of the kinds of work they had previously made,” says Rodgers. “Both Donovan and MacGregor rose to the challenge of riffing off Luke and McLaughlin. I like the way that Donovan has chosen to flesh out the life stories of Luke and McLaughlin, while MacGregor has created a path forward in two inclusive and diverse projects that speak to a variety of gender-related issues. I couldn’t be more pleased with the exhibition.”

Often in Rodgers’ own work, she reaches back into history and pulls out inspiration, merging it with current societal themes, such as socio-historical issues and systems of belief and cultural traditions.

“I have a deep interest in our local heritage and have done a fair amount of work that relates to Oshawa’s past,” says Rodgers. “Right now, I’m digging into my own family history to look at how people lived in late-Victorian/early 20 century Canada and making connections between life in small-town Ontario and how we live today.”

Even after a successful career as a writer, artist and curator, Rodgers isn’t retiring any time soon. Although she has declared that isn’t “hitting the ground running each day” anymore, there’s no stopping the ever-evolving work of Margret Rodgers.

“Each series [I’ve done] has engrossed me when I was doing it, and then once it’s been realized, there is a fadeout to make room for the next thing.”

You can catch Legacies: Luke, McLaughlin, Donovan and MacGregor at the RMG now until January 7, 2018.

In Memory of Lotti Thomas

“I first met Lotti Thomas through her work. I was volunteering at the art gallery at the Scarborough campus of the University of Toronto in the later 1980s and installed one of her amazing lithographs in a group exhibition of alumni. I actually ended up buying the work for my own nascent collection.

Lotti would show her work in a solo exhibition in the fall of 1990 at the RMG and that’s where I got to know her as a person. She was passionate about Canada and its histories—histories both real and imagined. Coming from the small country of the Netherlands, the breadth and depth of Canada never ceased to amaze her and she explored many parts of it over the years. We were privileged, most recently, to install her beautiful lithographic construction Canada West, the Last Best West in the Durham Reach project that began the RMG’s 50th anniversary celebrations this past January.

Lotti died on August 3 and leaves a legacy in her artistic practice that combined the historic arts of her home country with her imaginings of the wilds of Canada. She will be missed by all her knew her.”

Linda Jansma