Special Events

Transference: A performance by Vanessa Godden

Nov 1, 2024, 7:00 PM - 8:00 PM

Transference is a performance by RBC Emerging Artist in Residence Vanessa Godden. Throughout the performance, Godden will submerge their body in containers of different sizes filled with salt water. The artist’s movement, and the resulting sounds, will interact with a sound composition produced in collaboration with Markham-based Visual and Sonic artist, James Knott. The composition includes audio collected by Godden during their residency at the RMG, field recordings from Trinidad and Tobago, experimental steel pan recordings, and a choir of sounds collected from Queer and Trans loved ones. The performance serves as a bridge between Godden’s Non-Binary Queer diasporic existence in the West and the lineages of movement instigated by colonization of South Asia and the Caribbean.

Vanessa Godden, Transference (2024), performed at the 7a*11d International Festival of Performance Art, October 13, 2024. Image by Henry Chan.

The RBC Emerging Artist Residency Program is generously sponsored by the RBC Foundation’s Emerging Artist Project.

The artist thanks the Canada Council for the Arts for their support of this work.

Upcoming Events

Workshops

Learn to Bead: Peyote Stitch Workshop with Olivia Whetung

Nov 22, 2025, 1:00 PM - Dec 6, 2025, 4:00 PM

This two-part workshop is presented alongside Olivia Whetung: inawendiwok and will teach beginner and advanced-beginner geometric peyote stitch skills. In the first workshop (Nov 22), participants will learn basic peyote stitch including flat even-count peyote and even-count tubular peyote. This session will focus on learning the skills and producing test swatches rather than producing a […]

Talks & Tours

Hortense Gordon: Life + Art

Nov 27, 2025, 7:00 PM - 8:00 PM

Join Curator of Collections, Sonya Jones, to learn about the life and art of artist Hortense Gordon. Hortense Gordon was an important artist linked to the beginnings of abstract painting in Canada and a founding member of Painters Eleven, Ontario’s first abstract painting group (1953-1960). Jones will discuss Gordon’s compulsive drive towards what was new […]

Workshops

Reflections On An Emerging Art Career with Karen Kar Yen Law

Dec 4, 2025, 7:00 PM - 8:00 PM

Artist Professional Development Workshop Series Free. Registration is required. Join artist, and former RMG artist-in-residence, Karen Kar Yen Law for an evening of reflection and discussion on her emerging art career. From graduating during a pandemic to applying to open calls to creating new artwork, Karen will speak on the ways she has navigated the […]