Making Methods at RMG Fridays

Our fall RMG Fridays event series has been announced. The lineup includes exhibition openings, book readings and launches, short film screenings, and more, all set alongside the incredible live music performances you’ve come to expect! We’ve got even more in store, so stay tuned as we add new components to each event as we move closer to the date.

Friday 6 September is our first fall RMG Fridays and it is another busy event!

The opening of the exhibition Making Methods is the centrepiece. The artists Becky Ip, Mark Stebbins and Sam Mogelonsky will all be present to discuss their work.

The event also celebrates the opening of Community Curates II, a new exhibition of works from our permanent collection that were recently selected by our community through an online survey!

The Isabel McLaughlin Gallery will host the musical guests Isla Craig and Native Other (formerly called The Louder Sounds). Isla was recently profiled by BlogTO as a “breakout band.” Read more about her work here.
Native Other are a young emerging band from Oshawa. We’re excited to host both of these performances.

At the event we’ll also help kick off the OshawaSpaceInvaders art exhibition pop-up event. OshawaSpaceInvaders places contemporary art is temporary spaces. In mid-September, six groups of artists will take over vacant retail spaces in downtown Oshawa and fill them with diverse artwork. You can learn more about this group by visiting their blog, and pick up a schedule of events and map at RMG Fridays in September.

As always, RMG Fridays is free to attend and is open to all ages. A cash bar is available at the event. The gallery is open 7-10pm, with a new Nutshell Tour (a quick 10 minute tour) each month, starting at 7:15pm.

Join the RMG Fridays September event page on Facebook for regular updates.

The Curator’s View: Oshawa Show and Shine

This post comes from Sonya Jones, Assistant Curator and Curator of The Thomas Bouckley Collection.

Every Wednesday evening during the summer months in Oshawa, the downtown hosts Show and Shine, where local car enthusiasts display their vehicles and gather to interact. In the past, it has been located at the Queen’s Market but this year it is in the civic parking lot just north of the RMG. The RMG is excited to be right next door and have changed our extended hours to Wednesday nights, instead of Thursdays, to welcome Show and Shine visitors to the gallery. To compliment this summer event, a Thomas Bouckley Collection exhibition on the automotive history of Oshawa is being featured in the E.P. Taylor Gallery.

Composite photo of Robert McLaughlin and his two sons, Robert Samuel and George W, both of who played significant role in bringing the carriage business into the automotive business. 1898

The Thomas Bouckley Collection contains a rich ensemble of photographs that tell the story of how the McLaughlin’s brought the auto industry to Oshawa. In 2008, my first year working at the gallery, the 100^th anniversary of the McLaughlin Motorcar Company, and the release of the McLaughlin-Buick was celebrated. One of my first projects was a commemorative exhibition to coincide with the release of a Canada Post stamp highlighting Col. Sam McLaughlin’s contributions to the auto industry, for which the Thomas Bouckley Collection contributed images.

McLaughlin Carriage Co. and Motorcar Co. employees at the Richmond and Mary Street plant, 1908

With the state of the auto industry today, it is important to once again look back on the history and relevance of the industry to this community. The struggles and uncertainty of Oshawa’s General Motors of Canada was outlined in a Globe and Mail article this weekend, GM Canada’s Foggy Road Ahead. As much as we are reminded about the importance of the industry to the community’s current economy, historically, the industry played a key role to the growth and success of Oshawa. Like the commemorative stamp, the photographs in this summer’s exhibition, Oshawa’s Automotive History, remind us of Col. Sam McLaughlin’s contributions to the auto industry and his endless generosity to Oshawa.

McLaughlin-Buick down at the lake, c. 1915

On view until the end of August, this exhibition celebrates Oshawa’s long connection to the auto industry and the people who made it happen.

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:

Downtown Oshawa Farmers’ Market

Downtown Oshawa Sidewalk Sale

Downtown Oshawa BIA

The City of Oshawa