Unity Through the Arts: Juried Exhibition 2025 Opening Reception and Awards Ceremony

Come together to celebrate cultural diversity in Durham Region!

Cultural Expressions for CHANGE Inc., in partnership with The Robert McLaughlin Gallery, presents the exhibition “Unity Through the Arts”. This juried art exhibition features artists from Durham Region and the surrounding area.

This year’s theme celebrates cultural diversity—not just as identity, but as the lived traditions, creative practices, and community expressions that shape how culture is shared, interpreted, and passed on. We are seeking artworks that explore and honour diverse cultural experiences, including but not limited to: rituals, storytelling, textiles, food traditions, clothing, language, craft, spiritual practices, and intergenerational knowledge. We also welcome works that reflect lived experiences shaped by migration, displacement, diaspora, or community belonging.

Cultural Expressions for CHANGE Inc. is accepting online artist registrations now until October 3, 2025. Click here to register.

This exhibition is presented in partnership with Cultural Expressions for CHANGE

Unity Through the Arts: Juried Exhibition 2025

Come together to celebrate cultural diversity in Durham Region!

Cultural Expressions for CHANGE Inc., in partnership with The Robert McLaughlin Gallery, presents the exhibition “Unity Through the Arts”. This juried art exhibition features artists from Durham Region and the surrounding area.

This year’s theme celebrates cultural diversity—not just as identity, but as the lived traditions, creative practices, and community expressions that shape how culture is shared, interpreted, and passed on. We are seeking artworks that explore and honour diverse cultural experiences, including but not limited to: rituals, storytelling, textiles, food traditions, clothing, language, craft, spiritual practices, and intergenerational knowledge. We also welcome works that reflect lived experiences shaped by migration, displacement, diaspora, or community belonging.

Cultural Expressions for CHANGE Inc. is accepting online artist registrations now until October 3, 2025. Click here to register.

Opening Reception and Awards Ceremony: October 16, 2025, 6-8pm

Haley Uyeda: RBC Emerging Artist Residency Exhibition

During her residency, Haley Uyeda will produce new works on paper, photo-based works, and site-specific paintings. Considering the premise that we each hold distinctive postures towards, and awarenesses of, our inner and outer worlds, her explorations will centre around the question: how are personal sensibilities formed? As someone who is half-Japanese and half-Newfoundlander, with two artist sisters, she will ponder the forces of predestination and cultivation when it comes to her own sensibility by thinking about her experiences navigating and responding to the world; cultural, social, aesthetic inheritance; decision making; as well as personal inclinations, preferences, morals, and sensitivities.

Artist Bio:

Haley Uyeda holds a Master of Fine Art from York University and a Bachelor of Arts with Honours from the University of Guelph. She has worked as a sessional instructor at York University and exhibited work in Toronto, Montreal, and Halifax. Her work can be found in both private and public collections. Haley currently lives and works in Durham Region.

Learn to Bead: Peyote Stitch Workshop with Olivia Whetung

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 finished piece.

The second workshop (Dec 6) will build on those skills, covering increases and decreases in peyote as well as stitch-in-the-ditch techniques. In this session, participants will create a triangular pendant which can be added to a chain or cord and worn in a variety of ways (as a necklace, keychain, car dangler, bookmark, or more).

This workshop series is free, but registration is limited to 12 participants. Please complete this form to reserve your spot.

If you have any questions or there’s anything we can do to support your participation in this event, please email Hannah Keating at [email protected].

Olivia Whetung is anishinaabekwe and a member of Curve Lake First Nation. She completed her BFA with a minor in anishinaabemowin at Algoma University in 2013, and her MFA at the University of British Columbia in 2016. Whetung works in various media including beadwork, printmaking, and digital media. Her work explores acts of/active native presence, as well as the challenges of working with/in/through Indigenous languages in an art world dominated by the English language. Her work is informed in part by her experiences as an anishinaabemowin learner. Whetung is from the area now called the Kawarthas and presently resides on Chemong Lake.

Courtyard Concerts

We’re pleased to host Courtyard Concerts in our Backyard this fall. Join us on September 17 and October 15 from 1-2pm for this exciting music performance series.

September 17
1 – 2pm

ABBYGABBY is a sister duo who blend catchy melodies, soulful harmonies, and playful energy to create music that’s both heartfelt and fun. Rooted in pop, gospel, and R&B, their songs tell real-life stories and celebrate love in all its forms. Through their music, they aim to create a space where people feel the vibes, connect, relate, and have a good time.

October 15
1 – 2pm

Kromatix_ is the sultry sound of Funky R&B and Neo-Soul reimagined. A singer, pianist, and storyteller from Scarborough, he blends lush harmonies and timeless grooves inspired by
D’Angelo and Stevie Wonder. With a Canada Council–funded debut album on the way, his
intoxicating artistry is set to mesmerize globally.

Courtyard Concerts are free live music series featuring diverse Ontario-based artists. Performances are curated with a focus on diversity, inclusion, and accessibility. Artists range from solo instrumentalists, acoustic singer-songwriters, duos, trios, and full bands.

Courtyard Concerts is made possible thanks to the generous support of Ontario Creates

Par Nair: Exhibition Opening + Artist-led Tour

Help us celebrate the opening of Par Nair’s solo exhibition at the gallery, featuring a new series of large-scale landscape paintings and embroidered artworks.

Remarks will begin at 1:30pm with a musical performance by Hasheel followed by an artist talk with Par. She will reflect on her time in the RBC residency program and share insights into her new work in an artist-led walkthrough of the exhibition.

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

Hasheel is a South Asian Queer Hindustani Classical Musician. He began training at the age of five under his father. He also started playing the bansuri under the guidance of his first teacher and original flautist on the Life of Pi score, Shri Jeetu Sharma. He quickly excelled in both Indian and Western music and started composing and writing his own pieces at the age of thirteen.

Hasheel lived in India to pursue his musical training and is currently a senior student of the legendary Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia. Hasheel has performed around the world and across Ontario. He is also featured in numerous albums and film scores and his collaborations include those with Balkan musicians all the way to electronic House and Drum and Bass artists.

Hasheel pushes gender fashion norms that exist in and outside of India. He often gender bends while wearing clothing inspired by Indian bridalwear. His music mixes hip-hop, electronica, R&B, and Bollywood with a steady undertone of traditional Indian Classical.

Performances have included those with Kailash Kher, Hariharan, Karthik, Shafqat Amanat Ali Khan, Karsh Kale, and for academy award winner A. R. Rahman. He has also headlined stages at Pride Toronto, Small World Music Festival, Basement Bhangra Beyond in NYC, and Iceland Airwaves in Reykjavik. His most recent work includes ‘LIMCA’ and ‘RaagRani’. Released as a spin on Beyonce’s ‘Lemonade’, ‘LIMCA’ is a celebration of Indian culture and queer expression. ‘RaagRani’ is a documentary style music video celebrating the union of his cultural identities.

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

Winter Exhibitions Opening Reception

Join us as we celebrate the opening of three exciting installations at the gallery with guided tours, musical performances, and refreshments. Artists and curators will be in attendance.

Inside, we’re pleased to present Olivia Whetung: inawendiwok, a solo exhibition touring from The Art Gallery of Mississauga. In The Backyard, we’re excited to launch two public art projects: Scott Rogers: Mutualism (Fixed Assets), an ambitious temporary public art installation, and the permanent installation of Couzyn van Heuvelen’s Arctic Char Steaks (2021-2023), which were featured in Couzyn van Heuvelen: CAMP at the RMG.

Come celebrate these amazing artists with us!

Let us know you’re coming!

1:30pm – Formal remarks with artists and curators and a musical performance by Missy Knott


Missy Knott, an Anishinaabe woman from Curve Lake First Nation, is a talented award-winning singer-songwriter. Performing under the name Singing Wild Rice Girl, her music and artistic voice are deeply rooted in her Indigenous culture. Her passion for supporting fellow Indigenous artists led her to found Wild Rice Records, an independent record label based in Nogojiwanong (Peterborough). Through her label, Missy collaborates with community members to help artists at every step of their creative path, from building a strong foundation to developing their unique sound. In addition to her work as a musician and label founder, Missy has used her voice to amplify others. She previously hosted the afternoon drive program on ELMNT FM and even hosted her own pre-recorded show, Pass the Mic. This program highlighted the work and voices of Indigenous community members and artists from across Turtle Island. She is also a board member for the Ontario Arts Council. Beyond her musical endeavors, Missy is a dedicated mother, ricer, educational assistant, and philanthropist who remains an active and proud member of her community.

2:15pm – Join Olivia Whetung (artist) and Mona Filip (curator) in the gallery for a tour of inawendiwok


A member of Curve Lake First Nation and citizen of the Nishnaabeg Nation, artist Olivia Whetung draws upon her experience working on and with the land to create artworks that speak of the interdependence and relationality within our ecosystem. Researching land-based and food de-commodifying movements, Anishinaabe knowledge, and the ecology of her home territory, Whetung presents a series of sculptural installations, digital prints, and three-dimensional beadworks that articulate the vital connectivity between woodland, wetland, and garden environments.

Olivia Whetung: inawendiwok installation at AGM, 2024.

Mutualism 07, discarded Perspex display, metal components, steel rope, nylon
line, bird seed, 2021, 60cm x 18.5cm x 10cm, photo: courtesy of the artist

3:00pm – Join Scott Rogers (artist) and Leila Timmins (curator) in The Backyard for a tour of Mutualism (Fixed Assets)


Mutualism (Fixed Assets) is a new temporary public artwork for the backyard at The Robert McLaughlin Gallery. This ambitious new installation builds on Rogers’ interest in human- built infrastructures for the care and support of non-human beings. Taking the form of a site-responsive bird feeding station, the work is assembled from broken automobile parts scavenged from roads and highways. This reuse of discarded materials connects with the industrial history of Oshawa, while proposing possibilities of ecological renewal out of the wreckage.

In Arctic Char Steaks, Couzyn van Heuvelen renders a staple of Inuit cuisine at an exaggerated scale, creating thick slices of Arctic char from solid steel. The rusted surface coloration mimics the rich orange of the fish’s flesh, while the patina of the metal suggests both preservation and the passage of time.

Beneath the char steaks, the cardboard references the makeshift seating used at summer hunt camps on sea ice—where cardboard offers insulation and a clean surface for processing food. This gesture evokes moments of community, shared labour, and nourishment central to Inuit life on the land.

By combining industrial materials with culturally significant imagery, van Heuvelen blurs boundaries between contemporary sculpture and traditional practices. The work honours food as a site of connection and memory, recontextualizing an everyday necessity within a sculptural language that is both reverent and inventive.

Installation of Couzyn van Heuvelen, Arctic Char Steaks, 2021-2023, steel and cardboard at The Robert McLaughlin Gallery, 2023. Photo by Toni Hafkenscheid.

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

OPG Sunday: Sleepy Animals

In the Studio
This month we explore the works in Olivia Whetung: inawendiwok. We will take note of the artist’s experience working on and with the land. The artworks speak of the interdependence and relationality within our ecosystem. We will be using acrylic paint to mimic textured bark on paper. The studio activity and lobby activity will then be pieced together to create one artwork showing cozy hibernating animals, showing the importance of woodland environments.

In the Isabel Gallery
We will create sleepy animals, curled up in hibernation using oil pastels. Hibernating animals in Ontario include foxes, squirrels, skunks, snakes and more!

Olivia Whetung: inawendiwok installation at AGM, 2024.

About Olivia Whetung: inawendiwok
Whetung’s poignant works solicit our attention and reconsideration of spaces and species that are crucial to biodiversity and to sustainable food production. Tenderly foregrounding our more-than-human neighbours, they remind us that we are not the only ones to benefit from the land’s gifts, nor to suffer from ecological ruin. The exhibition’s Anishinaabemowin title, inawendiwok, loosely translates as “they are related to each other,” emphasizing the ways in which coexistence within the ecosystem is mutually linked.

Click HERE to learn more about this exhibition, and view related events!

Suitable for ages 3+
Free admission, no registration required.

The Robert McLaughlin Gallery is a proud participant in Ontario Power Generation’s Power for Change Project, supporting the areas and people where OPG operates.

Closing Activities: We are ten thousand hands that plant seeds

Installation of We are ten thousand hands that plant seeds at The Robert McLaughlin Gallery, 2025. Photos by Toni Hafkenscheid.

Free admission. Everyone is welcome.
Dive deeper into the themes, histories, and techniques behind the group exhibition We are ten thousand hands that plant seeds. Learn from the artists directly, enjoy a delicious lunch, and experience the exhibition before it closes on October 6.

11am-1pm – “Mapping with Embroidery”
Hands-on workshop with exhibiting artist Sharmistha Kar 16+
This workshop has limited registration, so please save your spot here!

12:30pm-2pm – Lunch
Join us for delicious food from local restaurants! Enjoy RMG’s backyard and meet the artists and curator.

2-4:30pm – “Sounds of Resistance”
Sound Talk + Listening Session with exhibiting artist Soledad Fatima Muñoz
All ages
Drop-in! No registration required.
Refreshments provided.

Sharmistha Kar, Soft Shelter IV (detail), bunka on tarpaulin, 2018.

Mapping with Embroidery
Hands-on workshop with Sharmistha Kar
11am-1pm
Ages 16+
Register here.

While learning the slow and meditative technique of Bunka embroidery, workshop participants will consider ideas of memory, mapping, migration, and movement. Together we’ll ask: how does it feel to experience a new place or to imagine a familiar place in a new way? Sharing stories, and travelling by way of thread across fabric, participants will encounter a unique pace of making, with support from artist Sharmistha Kar.

Sounds of Resistance
Sound Talk + Listening Session with exhibiting artist Soledad Fatima Muñoz
2-4:30pm
All ages
Drop-in! No registration required.

Led by artist Soledad Fatima Muñoz, let’s dive into the sounds of South American resistance. Featuring selections from her personal record collection, the session will focus on the groundbreaking Chilean label, Discoteca del Cantar Popular (DICAP). Founded in 1967 by the Communist Youth of Chile, DICAP became a vital voice for politically engaged musicians whose work was often silenced by mainstream outlets. It played a central role in the Nueva Canción Chilean (New Chilean Song) movement, offering a sonic platform for anti-capitalist expression and cultural resistance. Even after the 1973 military coup and the destruction of its Santiago offices, DICAP’s mission lived on—operating from exile in Paris and Madrid and continuing to release music under the sub-label Canto Libre for Chilean artists in diaspora.

Through an afternoon of shared listening, Soledad Fatima Muñoz will guide us through this sonic history—tracing threads of resilience, memory, and artistic defiance that resonate deeply in her own creative practice.

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

Co-presented with SAVAC (South Asian Visual Arts Centre).

OPG Sunday: Creative Castles

In the Studio
Let’s take inspiration from Building Black Civilizations: Journey of 2,000 Ships by creating our very own treasure maps. Using the ideas of voyaging and fantasy, we will create our own diverse and epic worlds.

In the Isabel Gallery
Inspired by the fantastical architectural landscapes evident in Building Black Civilizations: Journey of 2,000 Ships, we will craft our own castles using paper collage techniques.

Ekow Nimako, Wawa Aba, The Sunrise Dancer (circa 1358), 2022. Courtesy of the artist.

About Building Black Civilizations: Journey of 2,000 Ships
The projects this month are inspired by the exhibition, Building Black Civilizations: Journey of 2,000 Ships. Combining architecture, historical accounts, and fantastical possibilities, Ekow Nimako transcends the geometric form of LEGO® to recreate the 14th century sea voyage of Abu Bakr II.

Learn more about the exhibition, the artist and view related events HERE.

Suitable for ages 3+
Free admission, no registration required.

The Robert McLaughlin Gallery is a proud participant in Ontario Power Generation’s Power for Change Project, supporting the areas and people where OPG operates.