RMG Friday: Bingo in the Backyard

Hosted by Kali Kontour, guests will enjoy six bingo games throughout the evening, with the chance to win prizes. Our beautiful backyard will set the stage for exciting drag performances, while guests sip on fruity beverages and participate in an art activity. The night is sure to be filled with laughter, music, art, and long-lasting memories.

Kali Kontour, the sensational drag persona hailing from Oshawa, has been captivating audiences for three fabulous years. With roots firmly planted in her hometown, Kali embodies elegance, sass, and unapologetic charisma. Beyond the spotlight, she champions charitable causes, using her platform to uplift and support her community in true diva fashion.

Enjoy refreshing beverages, fruity coolers, and non-alcoholic options will be available for purchase.

In the lower terrace, enjoy our rock painting station. Take your creation home, or leave it to decorate our garden.

Join us for a tour of RESISTANCE.

Learn more about RMG Fridays.

Backyard Story Time at the RMG

Experience the magic of outdoor story time at the art gallery! Through books, songs, games, and creative activities, storytellers from Oshawa Public Libraries will spark your imagination in The Backyard at the RMG! This event is free and no registration is required.

This event is free and open to everyone. If you have questions about accessing our facilities, please visit this page or contact Hannah at [email protected].

Backyard Story Time at the RMG is hosted by, and offered in partnership with, Oshawa Public Libraries.

Backyard Story Time at the RMG

Experience the magic of outdoor story time at the art gallery! Through books, songs, games, and creative activities, storytellers from Oshawa Public Libraries will spark your imagination in The Backyard at the RMG! This event is free and no registration is required.

This event is free and open to everyone. If you have questions about accessing our facilities, please visit this page or contact Hannah at [email protected].

Backyard Story Time at the RMG is hosted by, and offered in partnership with, Oshawa Public Libraries.

Doors Open at the RMG

The Robert McLaughlin Gallery is celebrating Doors Open in Oshawa on May 3rd. Join us for guided architecture and art tours, explore our various exhibitions, and drop by the shop.

Admission and tours are all FREE!

Join a guided architecture + art tour

11:30 am, 1 pm and 3 pm

Our welcoming Visitor Engagement Assistants will deliver tours of this stunning modern building. Discover the original vision for Oshawa’s public gallery, brought to life in 1969, and how architect Arthur Erickson designed a massive 36,000-square-foot extension that made the gallery what it is today.

Spend time with our exhibitions

Visit our gift shop

The Robert McLaughlin Gallery has a history of supporting and promoting local artists, artisans, and makers. The RMG shop features products from across Ontario, including jewelry, ceramics, books, home goods, and Indigenous designed and manufactured products. Each sale helps support local artisans and our free community programs.

The RMG Shop is located in the lobby of The Robert McLaughlin Gallery.

About Doors Open

Doors Open Oshawa is a free annual event held on the first Saturday in May. This event provides an opportunity to explore Oshawa’s diverse heritage and cultural sites. Attendees are encouraged to spend the day discovering local history, unique Oshawa buildings and spaces while celebrating the communities heritage.

Summer Exhibitions Opening + Launch of the Star Glyph Garden

The RMG is pleased to celebrate three new exhibitions and the launch of the Star Glyph Garden in The Backyard on June 21! Join us for an exhibition tour, art activities, and refreshments. Artists and curators will be in attendance.

1:45pm – Exhibition tour of We are ten thousand hands that plant seeds with Abedar Kamgari
2:00-4:00pm – Hands-on arts activity with Nimra Bandukwala
2:30pm – General exhibition remarks

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

Sharmistha Kar, Walking together (from the series Soft Shelter), 2021. Bunka on tarpaulin, 8’ x 10’. Image credit: Toni Hafkenscheid.

We are ten thousand hands that plant seeds
June 7, 2025 – October 5, 2025

Megan Feheley, Maureen Gruben, Sharmistha Kar, Gloria Martinez-Granados, Soledad Fátima Muñoz, and Nazzal Studio

Curated by Abedar Kamgari

Presented in partnership with SAVAC

Pixel Heller: Emerging Artist Residency Exhibition
June 14, 2025 – August 10, 2025

Curated by Hannah Keating

Supported by the RBC Foundation’s Emerging Artist Project

Pixel Heller, Archiving the Evolution of Culture, photograph, 2024. Photo by Tsemaye Tite.

Wish you were here!
June 21, 2025 – January 11, 2026

Curated by Sonya Jones

Star Glyph Garden
Designed for the RMG’s new backyard by Kai Recollet and Jon Johnson, the Star Glyph Garden is 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 Kai Recollet and Jon Johnson.

Thank you to Acorn Landscaping for their generous support of the Star Glyph Garden.

All Ages Art Activity with Nimra Bandukwala.
Nimra Bandukwala (she/her) is a multi-disciplinary Ecological Artist and community-engaged arts facilitator based in Cambridge, on unceded Attawandaron, Haudenosaunee and Anishinaabe territory. She was born and raised in Karachi and comes from a lineage of women who crafted with what they had, appreciated and grew plants, and valued the lives and stories of materials. She creates paints, dyes, and sculptural pieces with plants, rocks, and shells while exploring cultural and interspecies collaboration with these materials. Her paintings are inspired by motifs from her homeland and folktales from the desert. From 2019-2024 she co-led Reth aur Reghistan with her sister and poet Manahil Bandukwala, a multidisciplinary arts project that researches folklore from Sindh and shares it through writing, poetry, and sculpture (sculpturalstorytelling). She co-published Women Wide Awake: Sculptures, Stories and Poems from Sindhi Folklore with Mawenzi House Publishers (2023) and encounter with Rahila’s Ghost Press (2022). Find her at nimrabandukwala.com and on Instagram @nimrabandukwala.art.

Tom Dean: Roundtable Discussions

Saturday, June 7, 2025
2-5PM, followed by a reception, 5-7PM
Top Top Projects (165 Geary Ave, Toronto, ON M6H 2B8)

Let us know you’re coming!

Roundtable A: Press
2PM
Co-presented with Art Metropole
Featuring: Vincent Bonin, Robert Fones, Peggy Gale, and Luis Jacob

Roundtable B: Space
3:30 PM
Co-presented with the plumb
Featuring: Anthony Cooper, Suzy Lake, Nell Tenhaaf, and Adam Welch

Tom Dean: GOOD-BYE is an exhibition that brings together a rarely seen body of conceptual and sculptural work produced between 1969-1974, when Dean was living in Montreal. Documenting the artist’s extensive and active engagement with the local alternative art scene and broader cultural milieu, GOOD-BYE invites viewers to reevaluate and reflect on the enduring significance of Dean’s work, and this cultural history, in today’s context.

In partnership with Art Metropole and the plumb, we are pleased to convene roundtable discussions around two essential nodes of Dean’s early practice: artist’s press and publications and artist-run spaces. Bringing together an illustrious panel of speakers, the discussions will shed light on the historical context of these movements and activities and reflect on the threads of resonance that are visible, at work, and needed in this present moment.

The event will take place at Top Top Projects (165 Geary Ave, Toronto, ON M6H 2B8) and will be followed by a reception with refreshments.

Let us know you’re coming!

Learn more about the exhibition here.

Mother’s Day Tea

We are so excited to welcome Dine & Style Catering and Events to host Mother’s Day Tea in Arthur’s. Join us for a delightful weekend to celebrate the mothers and caretakers in our lives, whomever they may be. Dine & Style will have a selection of food, and beverages, in a beautiful setting waiting for you.

Spots limited. More details on their website.

Register on their website

On the day of the event, ticketholders will receive 10% off a purchase in our gift shop.

Seniors Art Competition and Exhibition 2025: Opening and Awards Reception

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

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

The Seniors Art Competition and Exhibition is co-hosted by The Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Oshawa Senior Community Centres, and the Oshawa Public Libraries.

Seniors programming has been made possible thanks to the generous support of Sienna for Seniors Foundation.

The Oshawa Art Association’s 57th Juried Art Exhibition: Opening Reception and Awards Presentation

Join us from 6-9pm for the opening reception of the Oshawa Art Association’s 57th Juried Art Exhibition. Awards to be presented at 7pm.

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

RMG Friday: Spring Launch

Welcome back! We launch our 2025 RMG Friday series in partnership with Oshawa Music Week, this evening will feature live music performances, art activities and food from local vendors.

About RMG Fridays
An anchor of the cultural calendar in Durham Region, RMG Fridays are community events that bring together various art forms.  Designed for all ages they feature a variety of live music, performances, exhibition tours, artist talks, and highlight community partners and local businesses.

About Oshawa Music Week (OMW)
Oshawa Music Week is organized by students of the Music Business Program at Durham College. This annual event takes place in April and includes live music showcases, entertainment for music lovers, and music-industry education for aspiring and established music-business practitioners.

About our studio activity
Join local guest artist Chelsea Frattura in the art studio to get your geek on! Dive into the nostalgic world of 8-bit artwork as you design and create your own custom magnet. Using the grid method, you’ll bring your favourite pop culture icons to life—or invent your own design! Perfect for beginners.

Chelsea Frattura is a local artist and arts facilitator specializing in oil painting. Her work focuses on surrealist landscapes, drawing inspiration from the connection between memory and environment.  Passionate about inspiring creativity, Chelsea loves to merge her artistic practice with her role as a facilitator, teaching a wide range of art projects to all ages—from fun, simple crafts to more advanced painting techniques.


About our guest food vendor
Bistro ‘67 offers guests a memorable field-to-fork dining experience, where community, local agriculture and learning come together. Meals are prepared and served by our skilled staff and students who create flavourful dishes inspired by fresh ingredients from the award-winning W. Galen Weston Centre for Food’s own gardens and other local suppliers across Durham Region. 

About the bands

Siobhan Bodrug
Siobhan Bodrug is a singer-songwriter/recording artist from Toronto ON. Her music being a seamless blend of Indie Pop, R&B that her soulful vocals defy her 20 years on the planet. Siobhan has wowed audiences in many venues including opening for indie mainstays Stars and Juno award-winners Dizzy at The Golden Hour Festival, the iconic Rockwood Music Hall in New York City, the legendary El Mocambo, County Pop, and Summerfolk. She was also selected as a Honey Jam artist for 2022. She recently toured across Ontario/Quebec for her debut “Strangers Tour 2024.” She just graduated from Seneca’s Independent Songwriting and Performance program. She has appeared on SiriusXM, MIX97 and performed a live-to-air Christmas special. Her single, “The End Lies Ahead” has over 130k streams on Spotify. The future is bright for Siobhan Bodrug because as “PeopleOfPEC” said in a recent review “Can we just talk for a minute? About how FABULOUS Siobhan Bodrug is? If you have never heard of this powerhouse singer, you soon will! She is FIRE …Her voice is strong and sure, and she has a very strong command of her craft. She is a brilliant young artist”. (source: https://soundcloud.com/siobhanbodrugmusic)

Erica Knox
From upbeat excitement to mellow nostalgia, Erica Knox is reinventing her sound with self-portrayed intimate lyrics about love, life, and identity, alongside catchy hooks, reminiscent of modern day hitmakers Taylor Swift and Julia Michaels.

The 2019 ‘Best Emerging Artist in Canada’ nominee is currently recording her first full-length record with Toronto based producer and musician, Tal Vaisman. Her newest singles ‘Paradise Forever’ and ‘Make Me Happy’ are the first of many to come.

priyana
priyana is a South-Asian queer singer-songwriter from Toronto, Canada. She knew from the age of eight that music was her passion. She has attracted a community online and is known for posting videos combining her ethereal voice with love for crochet! priyana’s indie/folk-pop music draws inspiration from Lizzy McAlpine, Billie Eilish, Noah Kahan, Phoebe Bridgers, and many more. priyana’s debut album little thoughts and latest singles pinky swear, they know it too, and days i’ve cried this year are available on all streaming platforms with more to come soon.

Stefan Palicki
Stef started taking RCM piano instruction at the age of 6. Over the years, he obtained his RCM theory and Grade 7 piano with first class honours. At the age of 12, Stef began taking guitar lessons and that set him on the path toward wanting to be a performing musician. 

During grades 7 and 8, Stef played keyboard, trombone and bass guitar in the school’s Jazz Band. At the end of grade 8 he audition for and was accepted into the Performing Arts Program at O’Neill CVI, where Stef has enjoyed performing in multiple bands and ensembles on a variety of instruments including percussion.

In 2019, Stef began taking part in an Open Jam at The Edge, in Ajax. This cemented his joy for performance in a band dynamic, playing classic rock and blues, live.

Stefan continues to further his music education with private instruction for guitar with Matt O’Rourke at Mattomusic in Courtice Ontario and with online instruction with accomplished guitarist, Chris Bray.

Jack Walker
Jack Walker is a Canadian indie-folk singer/songwriter from Pickering, ON. On June 11, 2021, he released his debut full-length album.  

Jack writes songs with a focus on catchy melodies and poetic lyrics. He has played shows across Canada as well as the US and the UK. Jack’s main focus over the years has been playing live and since COVID-19 has put that on pause, he has shifted to recording and releasing music.  Jack has taken a DIY approach to his recent album, playing every instrument and handling production and mixing duties.