CultureDays2025 Archives - MacLaren Art Centre

Art Crawl 2025

Robyn Clarke — Tue, 30 Sep 2025 14:21:30 +0000

Date: October 2, 2025

Time: 10:00 am – 1:00 pm

Cost: Free! Registration encouraged

Locations: The Campus Gallery at Georgian College and the MacLaren Art Centre

Event Schedule:

10:00 am: Tour of An Alternative to Simplicity, guided by Z’otz* Collective artists, at The Campus Gallery (Georgian College, Barrie Campus, D140)

11:00 am: Break to travel to MacLaren Art Centre and grab lunch

12:00 pm: Bring or buy your lunch and artist talk by Suzanne Morrissette, followed by a tour of her exhibition, The Shape of Transference.

Hungry for art? Take an extended lunch break and join an Art Crawl! Meet at The Campus Gallery (Georgian College, Barrie Campus, D140) for a special guided tour of the exhibition, An Alternative to Simplicity by Z’otz* Collective.

Artists Nahúm Flores, Erik Jerezano, and Ilyana Martínez create site-specific installations with drawing, painting, sculpture, and animation to consider the role of transformation: both in space and within their collective creative process. Informed by their Latin American heritage, mythology and narrative, and a playfully collaborative investigation of the vast approaches to mark-making, the gallery will be the canvas for their stories and gestures to emerge. Then, head over to the MacLaren Art Centre, and bring your lunch for a seated presentation by artist Suzanne Morrissette followed by a tour of her exhibition, The Shape of Transference.

Morrissette presents an intimate meditation on how different forms of knowledge are passed along. Using reclaimed clay, animation, layered sound, and drawing, the artworks map personal, entangled ways of knowing: embodied, inherited, experienced, and studied. Arising from moments of reflexive questioning about how to carry oneself amidst profound global shifts, The Shape of Transference is an invitation to pause, to sit with things that unfold slowly, and to find meaning in making.

You are welcome to join the full Art Crawl or to drop-in at whichever point works best for you.

After the guided tours, you are welcome to explore other exhibitions on view at the MacLaren Art Centre. If you are in need of a car ride between the two venues, please contact christina@maclarenart.com, and we will do our best to coordinate one for you. This event is a participating program in Culture Days, a national three-week festival celebrating arts, culture, and heritage across Canada.

Image Credit: Z’otz* Collective, A Way of Commuting, mixed media on paper, 2025
Suzanne Morrissette, Grief Plates, 2025, reclaimed clay with glazes, various dimensions.

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Clay Canoes: Holding What is Heavy

Robyn Clarke — Wed, 27 Aug 2025 19:00:26 +0000

Tanya Gluvakov is a mixed-nation Mohawk woman with roots and family from Six Nations. Her motivation to teach, create and help with Indigenous medicine resurgence projects comes from her connection to her grandmother Betty, who taught her she could stand up and do hard things. She owns and operates Roots + Raven.

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Drawing the People of Barrie

Robyn Clarke — Wed, 27 Aug 2025 15:50:15 +0000

When traditional and digital artist Linda Laforge isn’t creating heirloom portrait commissions, she’s painting and writing. She is a storyteller. Her original work melds portraiture with her love of Celtic knot design to tell the stories of her subjects, mainly climate activists and heroic figures offering visual commentary on this time we live in. Look for opportunities to learn Procreate and Affinity from her soon.

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Bannock-Making and Knowledge Sharing

Robyn Clarke — Wed, 20 Aug 2025 14:32:03 +0000

Shelly Genereaux is an Anishnaabe woman who is a member of the Saugeen First Nation #29, which is located on the shores of Lake Huron. She is also a member of the Eagle clan. She holds a B.A in Psychology and a B.Ed. from York University. Shelly considers herself a life-long learner as her next aspiration is to earn a master’s degree. Currently she is working as the Restorative Justice Coordinator at the Barrie Native Friendship Centre. In this position, Shelly is using art-based projects to help clients to reconnect with their Indigenous identities. Genereaux works with community members to achieve their potential, which she finds fulfilling at this stage in her life. She aspires to find ways to engage and promote a culturally accepting society. One project in particular is Awenen Giin: Who are You. This project connects Indigenous people to their Indigenous culture and histories, whom all share a common loss and story as a result of the Residential school system.

Josie Fiegehen is a mixed Anishinaabe woman from Batchewana First Nation. She belongs to the Eagle clan and is a multi-disciplinary artist working in Barrie. Her work centre’s around community and land-based learning. Josie currently works as the Cultural Resource Coordinator at the Barrie Native Friendship Centre and is passionate about making community connections through art practice.

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Keepin’ It Blue

Robyn Clarke — Fri, 15 Aug 2025 13:59:15 +0000

Dr. Jill Price is an interdisciplinary artist and educator grateful to be living on the traditional territories of the Anishinaabe Odawa, Ojibwe, and Potawatomi Nations in Barrie, Ontario. Inspired by years spent playing on the beach as a child and competitive beach volleyball player, Price works at the intersection of art, ethics, ecology and aesthetics to explore how creatives can help to UN/make harm so that art becomes a service that ushers in acts of care and repair.

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Doors Open MacLaren!

Robyn Clarke — Fri, 01 Aug 2025 20:13:20 +0000

Date: Saturday September 27, 2025
Times: 11:00 am OR 2:00 pm
Location: MacLaren Art Centre
Cost: Free, Drop-in

In celebration of Culture Days, the MacLaren is excited to participate in Doors Open Barrie! Join us for a special opportunity to get an intimate look inside our Prints & Drawings Room, followed by a fun printmaking workshop in the PIE Education Centre!

Guided by MacLaren Curatorial Assistant Yasmeen Kazak, visitors will view selected artworks as well as the entirety of the Prints and Drawings Room as a space where part of the MacLaren’s prints, drawings and photos are stored and cared for.

MacLaren Education Officer Christina Mancuso will then guide participants in creating a variety of textured prints using Gelli plates, inspired by the amazing artworks just seen! This is fun for all ages!

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Panel Discussion: Walking, Water, and Waste

Robyn Clarke — Fri, 01 Aug 2025 15:43:38 +0000

Recently completing a SSHRC funded research-creation PhD in Culture Studies at Queen’s University, Dr. Jill Price is an interdisciplinary artist, curator, and educator grateful to be living on the traditional territories of the Anishinaabe Odawa, Ojibwe, and Potawatomi Nations in Barrie, Ontario. Sensitive to global systems of extraction, production, dissemination, and discard that contribute to racial and economic hierarchies of ecocide as well as the interacting material entanglements of human and more-than-human bodies, Price’s thesis From Unsettling to UN/making outlines how ‘all art is Land art,’ as it is from, across, and into the earth all matter travels. Now working at the intersections of art, ecology, ethics, aesthetics, and activism to examine at what point everyday activities such as walking, writing, planting, and cleaning become art and art becomes service, Price employs methods of deconstruction, de-alienation, decentring, degrowth to help decolonize her perspective and resist colonial, industrial capitalist and patriarchal ways of knowing and being that have and continue to create physical and psychological harm.

Tegan Moore works in sculpture and installation to question the built environment and its relationship with the body through granular, intuitive, and research-based investigations. Her practice embraces the perpetual use of discarded material, complicating their time and value flows and the dominant systems they circulate within. Recent exhibitions were presented at Centre CLARK, Montréal, Galerie Nicolas Robert, Montréal, Canadian Cultural Centre, Paris, YYZ Artists’ Outlet, Toronto. Holding a BFA from Emily Carr University and an MFA from Western University, she is now based in Tio’tià:ke / Mooniyang / Montréal. Moore also works collaboratively with plastic pollution research group The Synthetic Collective and co-organizes the project space SUPPORT.

Melissa De Young is Chief Executive Officer at Pollution Probe. She brings nearly twenty years of experience tackling environmental issues, fifteen of them dedicated to advancing Pollution Probe’s mission through programming, policy, and advocacy. Before stepping into the CEO role, Melissa steadily progressed through key leadership positions with the organization, including Vice President, Director of Policy and Programs (leading the Circular Economy and Water Programs), and Project Manager. In these roles, she addressed a broad range of issues—from environmental health and chemicals management to Great Lakes and freshwater management, circular economy and transportation.

A certified Project Management Professional (PMP), Melissa has extensive experience in designing, implementing and overseeing policy and environmental protection initiatives and public engagement campaigns and in developing clear, actionable strategies to address a range of complex environmental challenges. Notable initiatives under her leadership have included the Great Lakes Plastic Cleanup, Plastics Pathway, Electric Mobility Adoption and Prediction, and the development of an innovative machine learning tool in support of adaptive watershed management.

Melissa holds a Master of Environmental Studies from York University and an Honours bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Toronto.

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Art for Lunch with Suzanne Morrissette

Robyn Clarke — Wed, 23 Jul 2025 17:31:07 +0000

Photo by Jeneen frei njootli

Suzanne Morrissette, PhD (she/her) is a Red River Métis artist, curator, and scholar who is currently based out of Toronto. She is currently Assistant Professor at OCAD University where she teaches in the Indigenous Visual Culture BFA program, and in the Criticism and Curatorial Practices MFA program. As an arts-based researcher Suzanne’s interests include: reciprocal and gift economies, equity and diversity, as well as culturally informed governance models in the arts. As an artist she works across media to produce artworks that reflect upon metaphors for the knowledege. She holds an MFA in Criticism and Curatorial Practices from OCAD University and a PhD in Social and Political Thought from York University.

Recent artistic projects include: ENTendre, a solo exhibition at a space gallery (toronto), to notice, a 150’ installation of light and shadow for Nuit Blanche Etobicoke, and an audio-visual commission by imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival called Where they begin I continue.

Her solo exhibition What does good work look like? opened at Gallery 44 (Toronto) in 2022 and travelled to C’CAP (Winnipeg) in 2023. Recent curatorial projects include: How can I know you?, a group show about the agency of land-based material at the Art Gallery of Burlington, and Otakosik Tapwa’win, an interactive online oral history project with Indigenous artists in Winnipeg from the 70s, 80s, and 90s. She has published with cmagazine. Her forthcoming book But have we arrived? explores the liberalism’s failed promises to Indigenous artists and is contracted to ARP Books with a planned for release in late 2025.

Morrissette’s father’s parents were Michif-and Cree-speaking Metis with family histories tied to the Interlake and Red River regions and Scrip in the area now known as Manitoba. Her mother’s parents came from Canadian-born farming families descended from United Empire loyalists and Mennonites from Russia. Morrissette was born and raised in Winnipeg and is a citizen of the Manitoba Metis Federation.

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Interplay Improv Jams

Robyn Clarke — Thu, 12 Jun 2025 19:47:12 +0000

Photo courtesy of Simcoe Contemporary Dancers.

Simcoe Contemporary Dancers (SCD) is a dynamic not-for-profit dance company rooted in artistic collaboration and community engagement. Dedicated to serving Simcoe County, SCD fulfills a dual role as both a creator of contemporary dance and presenter of dance as an art form. By fostering the creation, curation, and presentation of dance, SCD aims to make a profound and enduring impact on the performing arts scene in Barrie and beyond.

Photo courtesy of Brianna Maltais

Brianna Maltais’ journey in music and dance spans across Canada, the United States, and Europe, where she studied alongside esteemed tap dancers and musicians. The pinnacle of her training includes, international mentorship from tap dance master Heather Cornell at her Tap Labs in Michigan, and Improjazz workshop in Greece. Recent performances include appearances with The Skyliners Big Band at the Barrie Jazz and Blues Festival and Dance Against the Wind, produced by Vintage Taps Company, starring Brenda Buffalino. Dedicated to enriching the tap dance community, Brianna is part of the 2024 Toronto International Tap Dance Festivals production team, and teaches young tap dancers locally. Currently, she is engaged in Heather Cornell’s Legacy Project, supported by the Canadian Arts Council, focusing on musical collaboration, with mentorship from tap dance professionals Dianne Walker, Max Pollack, and pianist Andy Milne.

Photo courtesy of Joe Adamick

Joe Adamick is a percussionist. Passion, energy and rhythmic flexibility would best describe his performance. Over the past 40 years, He has worked in an endless variety of settings and genres including jazz (trio, quartet etc) musical theatre productions, Big band, Indie Band, wedding band, and dance group accompanist.  Joe is a true supporter of the arts and has organized many fundraisers for fledgling performers, cancer research as well as donating his performance skills to assist Team Broken Earth sending a medical team to Guatemala.

Photo courtesy of Kasandra Chiaromonte

Kasandra Chiaromonte was introduced to the world of dance as a toddler through her mother who owned a dance studio. She instantly fell in love with dance and has trained in ballet, tap, acro, jazz, lyrical, and hip hop. Kasandra took a break from dance to pursue a post-secondary education and received a diploma in Early Childhood Education from Georgian College and spent a few years in her field. Kasandra is thrilled to once again be creating through contemporary dance and movement. Dance has been, and always will be an integral part of her life.

Photo courtesy of Billie Ainsley

Billie Ainsley is a contemporary dancer and emerging artist from Barrie, Ontario. With a passion for movement and storytelling, Billie has trained in a range of dance styles and continues to develop her practice through performance and collaboration. She is dedicated to creating meaningful connections with audiences and contributing to the growth of the local arts community.

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