Join us for artmaking and community connection in The Neighbour’s Art Hive!
Each session is led by a passionate and talented local artist-educator who will guide creative exploration while fostering a warm, inclusive, and welcoming space for all participants. All experience levels are welcome.
Sessions are hosted from 11am–2pm in Gallery A.
Sessions
🟆 Saturday, January 17, 2026: Collage & Zines with Hayde Esmailzadeh
🟆 Saturday, January 24, 2026: Expressive Arts: Exploring Paper Sculpture Techniques with Carol Knowlton-Dority
🟆 Saturday, January 31, 2026: Storytelling Drawing: Comic/Zine with Anoosh Mubashar
🟆 Saturday, February 7, 2026: Collage & Zines with Ruckus Art Collective
🟆 Saturday, February 14, 2026: Learn How to Bead on Fabric with Leequette Santiago-Hinds
🟆 Sunday, February 15, 2026: Acrylic Pour Painting with Melissa Dipchand
What to expect:
- These drop-in events are free.
- You’re welcome to come and go as you please.
- Engagement is flexible. Participants may take part in the artist-educator’s activity or engage independently within the Hive.
- Everyone is welcome; no art experience required.
- Participants are welcome to take their projects with them or hang them up for everyone to enjoy!
The Neighbour’s Project, installed at The Robert McLaughlin Gallery (February 2024).
The Neighbour’s Project, installed at The Robert McLaughlin Gallery (February 2024).
The RMG is located at 72 Queen Street, Civic Centre in Oshawa, across from the McLaughlin Branch of the Oshawa Public Libraries. The Neighbour’s 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 safe, accessible spaces that enable people of all ages to participate in free public relaxation. In an Art Hive, traditional hierarchies, processes, and ways of being can be deconstructed and re-imagined in playful, personal, and compassionate ways.
The Neighbour’s Art Hive is a temporary installation at the RMG that transforms the gallery into an active studio space with help from the LivingRoom Community Art Studio. Outside of these facilitated sessions, we also invite all our neighbours to drop in any time during operating hours to make use of the free art materials on their own time.
The Neighbour’s Project, installed at The Robert McLaughlin Gallery (February 2024).
January 17
Collage & Zines with Hayde Esmailzadeh
Join us for a creative and collaborative day of collage and zine-making. We’ll dive into zine-making and use drawing, writing, and collage to create your own self-published piece to share beyond the workshop. In addition, you will have the option to contribute to a collective group zine that will be kept at the Art Hive. All materials included. No experience necessary.
Hayde Esmailzadeh, also known as Zadeh, is a ceramicist, sculptor, and mixed-media creator. She is the editor-in-chief and co-creator of Zene Magazine, an independent publication focused on self-publishing and platforming emerging and underrepresented voices in contemporary art and culture. With a background rooted in hands-on making and storytelling, Hayde’s work focuses primarily on material exploration and community-driven publishing.
January 24
Expressive Arts: Exploring Paper Sculpture Techniques with Carol Knowlton-Dority
Participants are encouraged to explore their own voice as they experiment with a wide variety of paper sculpture techniques. Through guided discovery and problem solving challenges participants can discover many ways to cut/tear, curl, roll, fringe, fold, pleat and attach paper.
Participants are welcome to explore the techniques and materials as they choose, or they may make a piece of artwork in response to prompts such as: create an expressive face, an alien or a magical garden.
Carol Knowlton-Dority is a Toronto-based visual artist whose work explores the evolving nature of emotional experience. Themes of love, loss, desire, resilience, and hope shape her practice, inviting viewers into a compassionate and reflective encounter with the deep interior life we all share.
In addition to her studio practice, Carol creates Expressive Art experiences for children, adults, multi-generational and special interest groups. She has led workshops for Government of Canada: New Horizons for Seniors, INNoVA: Inclusive Solutions for an Enhanced Workforce, City of Toronto: (Clark Centre for the Arts, Public Health, Shelter, Housing and Support Division, Special Events, Cedar Ridge Creative Centre), Scarborough Arts, Friends of Guild Park and Gardens, University of Toronto, St. John the Divine Convent, Jaya Yoga and throughout the Toronto District School Board.
January 31
Storytelling Drawing: Comic/Zine with Anoosh Mubashar
Learn how to create a mini zine or regular zine for a creative storytelling outlet with a wide variety of materials to fit your artistic expression!
Anoosh is a Toronto-based artist and a recent graduate from OCAD University. She enjoys working in many media, especially painting, printmaking and storytelling. The human mind inspires her and expresses her art through familial stories of nostalgia and growing pains. Her large-scale paintings often draw inspiration from her Pakistani background, particularly through the intricate scarf patterns found in traditional Pakistani scarves, which expose areas of culture that impact identity, relationships, power dynamics, and self-expression. She enjoys incorporating bold, vivid colours into large-scale, multi-panel paintings, featuring delicate images that explore the contradictions found in everyday life.
February 7
Collage & Zines with Ruckus Art Collective
Artists will have the opportunity to explore an array of materials, techniques and themes through the resources of the Art Hive and the skill sharing of their peers. Participants are welcome to work on their solo practice, but are encouraged to contribute their creative vision to a community collage destined to join the artworks living within the Art Hive. Whether you’re a collage fanatic looking for inspiration, a creative curious to explore a new medium, or simply searching for a lively studio to be enveloped in, come buzz with Ruckus at the Art Hive!
Ruckus Art Collective is an Oshawa-based group dedicated to supporting and uplifting the local arts community in Durham Region. Through the hosting of events, exhibitions, and collaborative projects, Ruckus provides a platform for artists to share their work, connect with peers, and engage with the broader public. The collective’s mission is to foster creativity, inclusivity, and dialogue while helping to amplify the voices and talents that define the region’s artistic landscape.
February 14
Learn How to Bead on Fabric with Leequette Santiago-Hinds
Using bead on fabric, participants are invited to explore their own patterns and ideas.
Leequette “Lala” Santiago is an American Canadian visual artist and founder of Santiago Studios. Her work explores her southern identity, spirituality and familial dynamics through a mixture of traditional mediums and textiles.
She uses her craft as a means of storytelling and personal reclamation, especially following her postpartum identity loss. Her process consists of meticulously weaving together mediums, playing with compositions and fiddling with light until she finds something that plays on the viewers senses.
She has been awarded the Emerging Artist Award (2021), The Robert McLaughlin Gallery Award (2023), The Robert McLaughlin Award Gallery (2024) and The Visual Artist Creation Project Grant from the Ontario Arts Council (2025).
Her work has been featured by Pampers, QuickBooks Canada, and in public art across Ontario. She is focused on expanding her exhibition and public art practice.
February 15
Acrylic Pour Painting with Melissa Dipchand
This activity will introduce participants to acrylic pour painting, also known as fluid art, an abstract technique where thinned acrylic paints are poured onto a surface to create dynamic patterns, cells, and marbled effects without traditional brushwork. Accessible to beginners, the process encourages playful experimentation with colour, flow, and movement, resulting in striking and unpredictable outcomes.
Melissa is an experienced arts educator and community-focused facilitator based in Durham Region. Over the past two years, she has served as a Lead Instructor for the Robert McLaughlin Gallery’s March Break programming, where she designs and delivers fun, highly engaging creative experiences for children and families. She also brings more than twelve years of teaching experience through Crayola: IMAGINE Art Academy. Deeply committed to building meaningful community connections, Melissa believes art is a powerful vessel for bringing people of all ages, abilities, and lived experiences together. Her practice centres on creating welcoming, inclusive environments where creativity becomes a shared and connective experience.
In partnership with The LivingRoom Community Art Studio, The Neighbour’s Art Hive is generously supported by the Ontario Trillium Foundation.
