Interview with artist Margaret Rodgers

“Hot Topics” blog posts come from the desk of Sam Mogelonsky, our Communications & Social Media Coordinator.

The RMG caught up with artist Margaret Rodgers to discuss her new exhibition Closeups.

The RMG: Can you tell us a bit about yourself?

Margaret Rodgers: As an Oshawa-based artist I am especially interested in local history but my work ranges across subject and medium quite extensively. Recent exhibition activity includes No Man’s Land (Erring on the Mount festival, Peterborough), The Tree Museum: Easy Come, Easy Go (AGP), WhiteOut, TAC Art/Work Gallery, Toronto, and OshawaSpaceInvaders, 2013-14. Earlier works relative to the Closeups exhibition include Out of Time at Oshawa City Hall, Money etc. (installation in a bank vault at 20 Simcoe N Oshawa), and (site/cite/cité/city) SPECIFIC: “The Shwa” a downtown Oshawa project exhibited as RENEWAL at Red Head Gallery Toronto.

I founded the IRIS Group, a collective of women artists, taught at Durham and Centennial Colleges, and was Director/Curator at VAC Clarington. My writing includes Locating Alexandra (Toronto: ECW, 1995) about Painters Eleven artist Alexandra Luke, and various reviews and essays for catalogues, journals and blogs.

In 2008 I organized IRIS in the North Country at BluSeed Studios and Hotel Saranac, Saranac Lake, NY, and showed there again in 2010 and 2013. For 2015, I am Guest Curator of Crossing Borders, an exhibition exchange with BluSeed for VAC Clarington. International exhibition activity includes Deviant Detours, Kunsthaus Gallery, San Miguel de Allende, Mexico and the Beijing World Art Museum, with seven Durham artists.

As a member of Heritage Oshawa I worked on DOORS OPEN and organized Heritage Week events at the Oshawa Centre.

Margaret Rodgers’ studio

RMG: Where did you get the idea for Closeups?

MR: I have always found it interesting that our photos are peopled with strangers who happen to be there in the background and to speculate on where our own images have ended up incidentally. In the IRIS at Bola show and later in Out of Time at City Hall I drew from images that included the 20 Simcoe N. environs–once a bank, then Burns Jewellers, Tribal Voices, and Bola. There was also a photo of a pub that existed there before the bank, and in all of the pictures there are people on the street, rarely posing but caught anyway, tiny and frequently blurred images that I found fascinating to contemplate.

In 2011 I installed Money, etc in the vault there. Subsequently we held an IRIS at Bola show in the store, and the following year The IRIS Group rented the space to create our own work and hold a series of workshops. Through exploring the building I found these old battered jewellery trays that had been used when Burns Jewellers was the owner. It was IRIS member Jan Prebble who suggested hanging them by their handles, and with permission from the manager we used a few in the workshops. When I was asked to make art relating to the Bouckley collection I thought that the trays would make perfect bases for the historic subject matter and got permission from the owner John Aquilina to take them.

RMG: What other artists have influenced your career/artistic practice?

MR: I am a huge Joyce Wieland fan for her gutsy exuberance and her use of any medium that fit her purpose. Also Gerhard Richter, but who isn’t? I studied with Krzysztof Wodiczko in a tiny Trent class that he called The Crown Donut School of Cultural Studies . His projected interventions were just becoming famous, and his brilliance was obvious. I think the idea of using unconventional methods and media probably comes mostly from him.

RMG: What is your favourite image from the Thomas Bouckley Collection?

MR: I loved all of the ones I worked with, since I pored over the collection trying to make choices, the images of children are particularly appealing but the entire collection is engrossing.

Margaret Rodgers, Fireman and Fan, Prospect Park 1900, 2014

RMG: What draws you to using historical photographs in your work?

MR: I think it comes from looking at similar photographs in my family collection, trying to see into the past and think about those long gone relatives, who they were and what they were like. I have inherited albums from a dear aunt who was born in 1890 and who told me many stories about her early life. In the 1980s I did a series based on this personal history, and have been thinking about it again.

Also my son and I visited Thomas Bouckley one time when he lived in Bond Towers. I remember his apartment being crowded with photo equipment and his stories about bribing the garbage collectors to watch for any discarded photographs. We were thrilled to meet him since we loved his books.

Working on Heritage Oshawa also brought home the great loss that the city has suffered in the destruction of its earlier architecture. While there is definitely something about sentiment and nostalgia, both frowned upon in the art world, incidentally, there is also this desire to reach into the past and establish a connection to what once was.

RMG: What do you hope visitors will take away from seeing the exhibition?

MR: In terms of the photographic work of art, consideration is also given to point of view, to the photographer’s choices, to the overall cultural construct in play. It’s always interesting to contemplate the unseen, the undocumented. We are given images that show a busy prosperous city, or families at leisure. I tried to find that person off to the side, or engulfed in a crowd. I would like people to think about the images within the context of a comfortable middle class, but to understand that this would have been only a part of society.

Aside from simply appreciating the artworks of themselves, I hope they will have fun with it, make a game out of trying to match the Bouckley pieces with the figures I have pulled from them, and enjoy a bit of our local history.

Closeups: Margaret Rodgers
Selections from the Thomas Bouckley Collection

23 January – 7 May, 2015
Opening: RMG Fridays, 6 February, 7-10pm
Artist talk with Margaret Rodgers: Sunday 22 February, 1-3pm

Interview with Running On Empty Curator Heather Nicol

“Hot Topics” blog posts come from the desk of Sam Mogelonsky, our Communications & Social Media Coordinator.

The RMG caught up with Running on Empty’s guest curator Heather Nicol for a quick chat about the exhibition and her artistic practice.

RMG: Firstly, please tell us a bit about who are you and your curatorial/ artistic practice?

Heather Nicol: I’m an artist and independent curator based in Toronto. I’ve created exhibitions for gallery spaces, but more often I work in what might be considered off-site locations, such as underutilized or repurposed urban spaces. My installations often are cited in public places, such as large atriums or, for example, in the great Hall of the Union station. Also in unusual exhibition venues, such as an crumbling rail terminus in Buffalo, a three-story carriage house in upstate New York, or in a château, in France. I am very excited about a large-scale public art project coming up in March, in lower Manhattan’s Winter Garden, an enormous barrel vaulted interior space opposite the new World Trade Center.

RMG: What was the inspiration behind Running On Empty? Oshawa has a long history with the car – does this play into your exhibition at all?

HN: Architecture or geography serve as a point of departure in my curatorial work. I am interested in ways that the histories and physical properties of exhibition spaces impact the reception of the art that is presented in them.

So, yes, Oshawa’s, and the Robert McLaughlin Gallery’s history with the automobile industry afforded me the opportunity to pursue an idea that had been percolating concerning cars as a mediating force in our relationship with the landscape.

RMG: How did you select the artists in the exhibition?

HN: I seem to have a strange habit of keeping a lookout for potential off-site exhibition venues as I go through life, whether it’s a vacant warehouse or decommission school. I have thought that a wonderful old-fashioned gas station near where I live would be a terrific place to create a show about cars, and have kept an eye on it for years, wondering it it might close or be up for rent. Ironically, it’s up for rent right now!

From from the beginning of my thinking about this show, I hoped to include the famous traffic jam sequence from Jean-Luc Godard’s 1967 film “Weekend”. I saw the film in my early 20s, and that particular imagery has apparently been tucked away in my mind for years. It is quite fantastic.

Early on, I thought of some of the artists that are in Running On Empty, including Kim Adams and John Massey. I met Elinor Whidden while on a residency in Newfoundland, and Ioved the way she links cars and highways with historical notions of landscape. Her work inspired a shift in my musings about this possible show, away from auto bodies, toward the idea of the car as transportation device, particularly in relationship to the vast landscapes of Canada. I have previously worked with Monica Tap and Seth Scriver, both of whom have works that are very well suited to this idea – Seth’s film was made in collaboration with Shayne Ehman. I saw Asphalt Watches at its premier at TIFF, and was especially enthusiastic about the way it links with the Godard movie. I was interested in locating an artist who worked with taxidermy animals, in part inspired by a close friend’s terrifying account of hitting a bear, and the ensuing encounter with the animal’s body. It was through online research that I discovered Montreal based Kate Puxley, whose work “TransCanada” is a wonderful addition to the project.

RMG: We love the exhibition play list – can you please tell us more about it?

HN: It began with the titles for the show, Running On Empty, which is a 1977 song by Jackson Browne. That tune captures the groove of road trips, and for me, memories of listening to songs on car radios. At the same time, it refers to the ominous under belly of our relationship to cars – our reliance on fossil fuels, the environmental impacts, etc. The idea of running out of gas, both figuratively and metaphorically, seemed perfect for this show.

Last fall I spent an enjoyable afternoon with three dear friends with whom I took a road trip to the Maritimes thirty years ago. It was actually a cycling trip, but who’s counting wheels! the four of us began brainstorming the rich history of songs on the subject. Solidifying this spontaneous list-making experience, with the song’s names hastily written on paper towel, into a document for the exhibition catalogue felt like a wonderful extension of the way I approach curating, which is from the position of an artist. I take pleasure in bringing form to whimsical notions, and hope our readers will enjoy it. The playlist is not historically researched, it is a simple expression of our collective memories at that particular moment in time.

Images
Stills from film Asphalt Watches, Shayne Ehman and Seth Scriver
Monica Tap, One-second Hudson no. 4, 2007
Kate Puxley, from the series Trans-Canada, 2011-ongoing

Interview with Pete Smith – The first Gallery A A.I.R.

“Hot Topics” blog posts come from the desk of Sam Mogelonsky, our Communications & Social Media Coordinator.

From December 1, 2014 to February 1, 2015, Gallery A will welcome its first Artist in Residence (A.I.R.) Pete Smith. The RMG caught up with Pete to discuss his upcoming residency and plan of work while at the RMG. Keep watching this space for updates on his project or visit the gallery! For more information about his project, visit www.jmdrp.ca  

RMG: Hi Pete! Firstly, who are you? What is your work about?

PS: I am an artist, writer and educator who lives in Bowmanville. Primarily rooted in painting (and the discourse that surrounds it’s contemporary production), my work negotiates the intersection between the analogue and digital, the painterly and the graphic, the human and the post-human. In this sense, I consider my works metaphors for the overall digital presence in contemporary life.

RMG: What inspired you to make work?

PS: My current interest in digital technology as a conduit for image making came through a course I was asked to teach at OCAD University. In this class, I was required to learn the Adobe Flash animation program. It ended up completely changing my art practice (and really my life, quite frankly.)

RMG: Why were you interested in the Gallery A residency at the RMG?

PS: I was approached about the program last winter, and it sounded like a lot of fun. As an educator and a parent, I’m pretty limited in terms of artist residency opportunities. Consequently, I’ve never done one before. The fact that it was at such an amazing public institution with such a rich history of supporting Canadian abstract painting made the opportunity even more exciting. It sounds kinda trite and cliché, but I really am just so happy to be here.

RMG: What will you be doing during your residency? What do you hope to achieve?

PS: Hopefully a whole lot. Elizabeth Sweeney, (Manager of Public Programs and ArtReach), asked me to do something I hadn’t done before… So I’m definitely doing that here. The basic idea is that I will be remixing the RMG’s permanent collection of works by Jock Macdonald. Originally, my show was supposed to run in February concurrently with that exhibition. Things have changed a bit from that (it now opens in January), but there will still be some overlap with the Macdonald survey show. Linda Jansma and I will be giving our talks on same day.

RMG: Can you tell us a bit more about your Jock Macdonald re-mix video? What was the inspiration for it and how did you make it?

PS: The Jock Macdonald animation is called “JMDRP_2(Double Parker Mix)”. It was made in flash animation. The music is a mash-up I made of a Charlie Parker song. It’s two versions of the same song that have had their time signatures manipulated played over top of each other at the same time. All of the imagery that I make during my 9 week residency will be rooted in still imagery selected from this animation. JMDRP stands for Jock Macdonald Remix Project.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NavQPS1tMOU]

Video stills taken from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NavQPS1tMOU&feature=youtu.be. Copyright Pete Smith, 2014.

Pete Smith is an artist, critic and sometimes curator based in Southern Ontario. He has exhibited his work extensively since completing his BFA from York University in 1998 and his MFA from the University of Guelph in 2007. Recent solo exhibitions include: Blind Carbon Copy at P | M Gallery in Toronto (2012), New Drawings at Colorida Gallery in Lisbon (2012), Newspaper Drawings at Joan Ferneyhough Contemporary in North Bay, Ontario (2010) and Proverbs for Paranoids at Elissa Cristall Gallery in Vancouver (2009). Smith has given public presentations on the state of contemporary painting as well as on his own work at The University of Western Ontario (2009), OCAD University (2007), The University Art Association of Canada Conference (2007) and the University of the Fraser Valley (2008). His writings on art have appeared in Canadian Art and Border Crossings magazines. He has held teaching positions at The University of Guelph, The University of Western Ontario and The University of Toronto. Currently, he is a lecturer in the Drawing and Painting Department at OCAD University. Visit www.petesmith.ca.

Vintage Oshawa Photo Blog

“Hot Topics” blog posts come from the desk of Sam Mogelonsky, our Communications & Social Media Coordinator.

Have you visited vintageoshawa.tumblr.com? Every Thursday for #ThrowBackThursday we will be posting a photograph from the Thomas Bouckley Collection on the blog, as well as on our facebook page. These are amazing images that show the exciting history of our community.

The Collection was donated to the RMG by the late Thomas Bouckley, amateur historian and collector of Oshawa’s history. The entire computerized collection comprises over 2,300 historical photographs of Oshawa and about 100 works are featured in three exhibitions per year. Click here to Browse the online database.

The Vintage Oshawa blog is a place to share Bouckley historical images, as well as a place for residents of Oshawa to share their vintage photographs of Oshawa’s past, helping to create a visual history of the city. Please submit your images and caption information to help us grow this online collection. Questions? Submit your photo!

Image: R.S. Williams Piano Workers, 1910

The Launch of jockmacdonald.org

“Hot Topics” blog posts come from the desk of Sam Mogelonsky, our Communications & Social Media Coordinator.

Starting at the RMG in September, I had the amazing opportunity to work on a brand new website for the upcoming Jack Macdonald exhibition. In collaboration with the Vancouver Art Gallery and Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, we have launched of a project specific website at jockmacdonald.org for the upcoming exhibition Jock Macdonald: Evolving Form.

The special project website had a complicated brief. It needed to detail the artist’s life with an extended timeline, have a live drawing tool, as well as ad interactive gallery of artworks. Additionally, it had to be bilingual and have a responsive design so it would work across all platforms – desktop, tablet and mobile. This would be the first time the artist’s works are available online in an interactive, web-based format so we needed help to ensure the website was done in an exciting and accessible way.

To achieve this task, the RMG worked with the design and development studio Junction Design to complete the custom website. Junction design is a leading Toronto based visual identity, user experience design and development studio that is committed to helping organizations bring innovation and interactivity to their audience. We are thrilled with the website and are hoping to see engagement with this tool as visitors learn more about this important Canadian artist across Canada, and the world.

Visit the website at jockmacdonald.org and learn more about the artist and his amazing works! Evolving Form is the first major retrospective of the artist’s work in over thirty years and is a fresh look at the influential artist’s career. The exhibition will be on display at the RMG from 31 January until 24 May, 2015.

So what’s Ello?

“Hot Topics” blog posts come from the desk of Sam Mogelonsky, our Communications & Social Media Coordinator.

Ello – It’s the newest social media on the block this month. Everyone has been talking about the developer’s approach to creating a social media platform that not only looks good, but functions without generating advertising revenue as a primary goal.

Ello was originally built by a group of seven well-known artists and programmers as a private social network. Over time, so many people wanted to use Ello that they built a public version of Ello. The network is still in the beta stage, but new features and users are being added every day. The main user appeal, apart from the streamlined design functionality, is that Ello does not sell ads or sell personal data to third parties.

After reading a bit about Ello, and playing around with it a bit myself, I decided to add the RMG to the community and be an early adopter of this network. So if you’re on Ello, come say hello and follow us at https://ello.co/thermg

Sneak Peaks: Pan Am Games!

“Hot Topics” blog posts come from the desk of Sarah Felgemacher, our
Communications & Social Media Co-ordinator.

In 2015, Toronto will be host to the Pan American/Parapan American Games, the third largest international multi-sport tournament behind the Olympic Summer Games and the Asian Games. Six thousand athletes from 41 participating countries will compete in 36 sporting events at over 30 venues across 16 municipalities.

That’s a wonderfully wide scope, and the General Motors Centre (GM Centre), Oshawa, will be a host venue for a one month period over July and August, 2015. The stadium at the heart of the City will be the competition grounds for the boxing and weightlifting events. This means the next 15 months will be a thrilling time of preparation, and the RMG is excited to be involved in such a momentous event!

Be sure to save Friday, 11 July on your calendar! The City will be hosting a one-year countdown event at the GM Centre – children’s activities, boxing and weightlifting activation stations and live musical performances are just a few of the events scheduled for the evening. Join us as we countdown to the festivities! The event kicks off at 5pm.

Beginning in May 2015, the RMG presents an exhibition featuring contemporary works focusing on the theme of boxing. What better way to get in the spirit of the games than to see a creative view of athletics?

Pete Doherty, Niagara Falls Memorial Arena, Niagara Falls, Ontario, 2003.

The next year will be in inspirational time in Oshawa. This is an opportunity to showcase what our City and community is about and we are excited to be a part of it all!

For more information about the One-Year Countdown and future events: http://www.oshawa.ca/panam/default.asp

For more information on the Pan American/Parapan American Games in Toronto 2015: http://www.toronto2015.org/

For volunteer information: http://www.oshawa.ca/panam/join.asp

Hot Topics: Community Curates II

Hot Topics comes from the desk of Jacquie Severs, Manager, Communications & Social Media

At the RMG our statement of purpose indicates we are dedicated to sharing, exploring and engaging with our communities through the continuing story of modern and contemporary Canadian art. There are many ways in which we do this, but from my office, a large part of the sharing, exploring, and engagement I work on is digital and social.

I recently worked with Assistant Curator Sonya Jones on developing our second Community Curates project. Last time, we developed a weekly survey through our blog, and voting determined the outcome of an exhibition. We felt that approach was successful but getting people to come back and vote every week for ten weeks wasn’t the easiest task. When managing a social community it isn’t advisable to drown people in repetitive requests week after week! So this time, we decided to make the voting a one-time survey that we could host on our website.

We’re a few weeks into promoting the survey through social media and gathering responses. I love looking over some of the data that is collected. We’ve had responses from Canada, the United Kingdom, France, and the United States. That means we’ve engaged international audiences in our Canadian art collection, and I think that’s a very important part of what makes social media so powerful for museums and galleries. Going back to the original intent, engaging with our communities, it is important to recognize that for art museums our communities is defined not just as our local community of Oshawa, the Durham Region, the Greater Toronto Area, Ontario and beyond, it is also the larger international community of people interested in art.

Social media has changed how museums and galleries can communicate and share art with fans and friends around the world. And we want to hear from you!

Have your say in the Community Curates II survey, and help select the works for an exhibition at the RMG.

Community Curates II

The RMG & Akimbo Chat About Public Art

Via Akimbo.com

AKIMBO is co-hosting a TweetChat with The Robert McLaughlin Gallery about PUBLIC ART

RMG Photo by Michael Cullen

Wednesday, November 28, 1pm EST

A TweetChat is an online discussion broadcast via Twitter.

On Wednesday, November 28 at 1pm EST, Akimbo’s Social Media Director James Fowler and The Robert McLaughlin Gallery’s Manager of Communications & Social Media Jacquie Severs will be in online discussion with people from coast to coast and … YOU. Get online and have your say about public art in Canada. What is your favourite piece of public art in your city? What it its role? Who should pay for it? Do we have enough? What challenges are there in allocating space for public art? What considerations are made in selection? Should there be a public art curator for a city? All this and more will be up for discussion.

Here are the details:

What:	#AkimboChat is a monthly twitter-based discussion around various arts related interests.
When:	Wednesday, November 28th, 1:00-2:00pm EST and then the last Wednesday of every month.
Where:	On Twitter – Follow @Akimboart for more information.
Who:	Anyone can participate! Artists, arts workers, galleries, museums, curators, cultural institutions and anyone who appreciates the arts are all welcome to participate and have their say.
Why:	It’s a great way to connect and share ideas with other arts professionals and art lovers, internationally and in real-time.
How:	Starting at 1pm we will be asking a series of questions around the month’s topic for participants to answer, debate and discuss. We will ask a question every 10 minutes to give time for everyone to respond. Be sure to include the hashtag #AkimboChat so we can capture all the responses.

Here’s an example of how the conversation might go:

@Akimboart Q1 What are your favourite art galleries?#AkimboChat

@CoolArtist A1 I love @SuperGallery because they feature emerging artists #AkimboChat

@PhotoBug33 A1 @PhotoGallery @PhotoSpace and @SnapShotGallery #AkimboChat

@Akimboart Q2 Where do you find out about art events in your area? #AkimboChat

@AndyWarhol A2 oh-wow that’s a good question… I’m not sure. #AkimboChat

@ArtLover A2 Why through Akimbo of course! #AkimboChat

An easy way to follow along with the conversation is to login to the discussion via www.tweetchat.com You will be asked to login to your twitter account and then what hashtag (#) you would like to follow (in this case it will be #AkimboChat). Tweetchat.com will then offer a feed like a chat room for you to follow along and will auto-insert the #akimobchat hashtag for you. If the conversation is moving too quickly, you can scroll back and it will pause the feed for you to catch up.

Our topic for November 28: Public Art

Please help spread the word by using the sharing buttons above and by tweeting about it using the hashtag #Akimbochat If you have any questions about how to participate, please email us at [email protected]

We look forward to tweetchatting with you on Wednesday, November 28th at 1pm EST!

Hot Topics – Creative Social comes to the RMG

Hot topic posts come from the desk of Jacquie Severs, Manager, Communications & Social Media

The RMG was proud host to Creative Social: Oshawa, last Thursday, 28 June. This came as a result of a conversation I had with Dana Jackson, the very first time I met her at an RMG Friday event. She was enthusiastic about that event series, and knew the RMG would be the perfect Oshawa host for this event that travels through the Region of Durham. Dana told me that Creative Social events encourage entrepreneurs, artists and other members of Durham Region’s creative community to come together to connect, inspire one another and develop new business opportunities.

The Oshawa event was fortuitously timed. Our CEO Gabrielle Peacock, along with RMG Curator Linda Jansma, City of Oshawa staff, engineers and City Council had been working on a plan to arrange and accept an extended loan-to-gift of a significant outdoor sculpture called Upstart II by Clement Meadmore. For my part, I had been using Photoshop to imagine where the sculpture might end up and how it would look. Also, I was doing my best not to spoil the surprise by telling, or tweeting, the news to anyone. Here’s one of those photo composites.

The sculpture will be conserved and prepared for installation over the summer, with its official unveiling during Culture Days this fall, on Friday 28 September at 2pm. It will be approximately located as pictured above.

Photo by Marina Osmond: Gabrielle Peacock announcing Upstart II

The event was jam packed, with presentations from Oshawhat Magazine editor Erin Elliott, Oshawa Downtown Development Office David Tuley, Members from the Spark Centre, Skopworks, and of course Dana from Creative Social and Kerri King, Tourism Manager for Durham Region, who partnered in the event.

Photo by Marina Osmond: Erin Elliott talks about the immediate and overwhelming popularity of Oshawhat.ca

David Tuley has been working on bringing a Creative Centre to downtown Oshawa for some time. It first hit my radar two years ago when the RMG hosted a workshop by Artscape, who are a Toronto-based organization who help transform old properties (like the Wychwood Barns for example) into new, creative spaces. I was able to participate in this event and some of the discussions that have followed, and have been hoping and wishing the right pieces would fall into place. These sorts of spaces allow for small not for profit organizations, artists, craftspeople, designers and others to rent small spaces for varying amounts of time. There are examples across the world of successful shared spaces like this. It’s exciting to see one come to Oshawa.

With the addition of Independent Project Managers, David was able to announce the shared space would become a reality. A naming competition was announced, and the $500 prize was awarded at the event to the winning entry from local artist Margaret Rogers, for her name The Core.

Photo by Marina Osmond: David Tuley talks about his big ideas.

After the talks, a film collective called The Goldfish Pool showed their time lapse film of Oshawa called Oshawacentric.

[vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/44571321 w=500&h=283]

The crowd stuck around to mix and mingle, share ideas and come up with ways to collaborate. And eat some of Mad Café’s treats.

Photo by Marina Osmond: Treats from Mad Café

The next Creative Social is to be held in Ajax at another creative space reuse example, the St. Francis Centre for Community, Arts & Culture. This centre, built in the former St. Francis deSales Church (built 1871) is newly retrofitted and can serve as a community performance, meeting, and reception space. I am looking forward to attending to check out the beautiful building it all its restored glory. This community project had team members two years ago at the Artscape event I mentioned. They were excited to launch this space.

Photo of the St. Francis Centre via Toronto Observer

In industrial communities, creative thinking about space reuse serves as just one symbol of transformation. Public sculptures serve as symbols as well. These symbols aren’t just visual references though. They are physical examples of revived communities, ones whose members pull together to create action, to improve lives, and to bring arts in culture into the day-to-day experiences of all community members. It’s an exciting time to be involved in the revitalization of Oshawa, especially in the downtown core. See some of the links below to learn more about some of these projects.

Learn about the artist Clement Meadmore and Upstart II

Creative Social

Oshawhat.ca

Artscape

The Art of Transition

St. Francis Centre for Community, Arts, and Culture

Spark Centre

The Goldfish Pool

Marina Osmond Photography

Mad Café

Archibald’s Estate Winery

Downtown Oshawa in Transition: