- MacLaren Art Centre

Death Café

Robyn Clarke — Tue, 26 May 2026 16:27:20 +0000

Tracy Lavigne is a Registered Nurse and one of the Palliative Pain and Symptom Management Consultants with the North Simcoe Muskoka Hospice Palliative Care Network. Tracy is a dedicated healthcare professional with extensive experience in palliative care across all sectors, including community, acute care, and frontline nursing, She has supported the palliative care needs of those from newborn to older adult. Her background also includes specialized roles as a palliative care navigator and educator, giving her a broad and compassionate understanding of the patient and family journey. Tracy’s focus is on the full palliative care experience, recognizing that comfort extends beyond physical and practical needs to include social, spiritual, and psychological well-being. She is known for demonstrating compassion and kindness while fostering greater understanding and commitment to quality palliative care throughout the region.

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Working with Archives: Artist Talk with Peyton Keeler-Cox & Molly Steels

Robyn Clarke — Sat, 23 May 2026 14:43:21 +0000

Peyton Keeler-Cox is a Barrie–based photographer and artist. Captivated by documenting the human condition and experience through uncovering themes of memory, grief, space, and relationships. Peyton has completed her BFA in Image Arts at Toronto Metropolitan University. Her practice stems from investigating and activating the archive and seeking truth and understanding in the world and people around her. She is driven in being a vessel for others and exposing the deeper complexities in the feelings and relationships we each have.

Molly Steels is a Toronto-based artist and arts administrator originally from Bradford, Ontario. By worldbuilding in tandem with family archives, Steels blends the past into the present. Here, she creates surreal conceptual spaces using photography as a tool for connection across time. Steels’ work has been exhibited in galleries and festivals across Canada, including The Aurora Cultural Centre, Sankofa Square, Artspace TMU, Gallery 44 and Contemporary Calgary during Exposure Photography Festival’s International Open Call. Steels holds a BFA in Photography and a minor in Sociology from Toronto Metropolitan University.

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Healing in Colour: A Community Art Workshop on Black Health

Robyn Clarke — Tue, 12 May 2026 18:06:16 +0000

Andrew Mattis is a multi-disciplinary visual artist in Innisfil, who works primarily in oil paintings. His practice spans realism, figurative, abstract, and still life. His works blend emotional expression and technical skill. Alongside fine art, he creates graphic design, custom lettering and commissioned works that unite creativity with practical design.

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Summer 2026 Opening Reception

Robyn Clarke — Wed, 06 May 2026 14:35:19 +0000

Date: Thursday, June 25, 2026
Time: 6:30 – 9 pm (opening remarks at 7 pm)
Cost: FREE, registration encouraged but not required

Join us to ring in a new season of exhibitions for the Summer/Fall season!

About the exhibitions:

Sadko Hadžihasanović: the water’s edge, here at noon: Sadko Hadžihasanović’s recent paintings on copper plates and objects consider his relationship to home, memory, and the enduring connections between his life in Bosnia and Canada.

Michelle Sound: We all go home to the stars: Cree and Métis artist Michelle Sound explores motherhood as a complex field of relation shaped by family, language, land, and community.

Christina Leslie: The Album: Christina Leslie examines the family archive as a sourcebook, asking how photographs shape what can be known about a life, especially when the archive is marked by absence as much as presence.

Peyton Keeler-Cox: Questions Nobody Asked Me: Centring on the home and life of a late family friend, Keeler-Cox presents contemporary photographs and archival images that examine memory, grief, care, and chosen family.

Illusory Images: Experience Sovfoto: a collection of over 20,000 press photos from the Soviet Union’s diligent propaganda campaign over World War II and its aftermath.

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The Wednesday Poets: Poetry Meets Visual Art

Robyn Clarke — Wed, 06 May 2026 14:04:16 +0000

Clare Bolton is a writer and workshop facilitator. Her poetry and prose have been published in a variety of anthologies. An associate member of the League of Canadian Poets, Clare recently published her first chapbook, The Dead are in the Guest Room.

Clare is excited to share poetry in a gallery space surrounded by the artwork of Marlene Hilton Moore. Inspired by her Celtic heritage and the presence of wonder found in the natural world, she strives to create poetry that is clear and true.

Dorothy Sjöholm holds an MFA in Creative Writing from UBC where she studied under Susan Musgrave. Her stories and poems have been published internationally in various literary journals, and her most recent book is a novella in verse (why the telephone stopped ringing. Piquant Press.2019). She enjoys hosting workshopping sessions in her home and has recently completed two new manuscripts. She is delighted to have this opportunity to respond to the evocative art of Hilton Moore.

Kathleen Wildman is a poet who hopes to never stop evolving as a writer. She has facilitated writing workshops and gratefully learned from many incredible writers including, Libby Scheier, Susan Musgrave and Molly Peacock. Marlene Hilton Moore’s work has been a gift to be inspired by for this event. Kathleen is glad to be a part of The Wednesday Poets who share her love of words.

Jeanette Winsor is a graduate of the Humber School for Writers in Toronto and has been imagining and writing for as long as she can remember. Her short stories have appeared in several publications, including CanWrite Anthology and The Antigonish Review. She is the author of three novels in The Silver Cape Cove Series, as well as a biography. She looks forward to sharing her poetry—sparked by the inspiration of The Wednesday Poets—alongside the exhilarating work of Marlene Hilton Moore.

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May Opening Reception

Robyn Clarke — Tue, 21 Apr 2026 18:47:16 +0000

In Collaboration With Our Community Partners

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Nature’s Colours: The slow art of dyeing with natural materials (Adults 18+)

Robyn Clarke — Wed, 11 Mar 2026 17:47:56 +0000

Katie Green is a local Barrie artist with a passion for community and bringing art into all areas of life, ranging from public to personal and useful to decorative. Building community, sharing experiences and supporting the next generation of artists keep her inspired in her own art practice. She operates from the idea that art is an experience that can positively impact people’s everyday lives. She works across multiple mediums including textiles, pen and ink, and printmaking, most recently the Risograph.

Pushing the boundaries between different mediums as well as playing with the line between useful design and decorative art informs her art practice. Her work is playful with a sense of whimsy and she is drawn to bright colours especially fluorescent pink. She uses recognizable symbols and icons like gesturing hands and arrows as well as text to explore ideas of the human experience. Her art has an element of advocacy as well as humour.

Her journey to becoming a practicing artist has been long and winding. She believes every diversion from working construction, playing varsity basketball, living in a ski town and most recently health challenges affecting her energy and vision, has added to her ability to navigate being an artist and increased her ability to support the arts community.

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BRIGHT 3: Brightening Barriers

Robyn Clarke — Tue, 10 Mar 2026 15:21:15 +0000

January Paige (she/her) is a Queer, Georgian Bay Metis painter, bead worker and writer, living and creating in what is currently referred to as Barrie, Ontario. Using bold, organic linework and bright, flat colors her work often explores themes of nature, community and generational healing as she is inherently influenced by her ancestors and the language of the land, working in collaboration with her younger self.

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Mosaic Tables (Adults 18+)

Robyn Clarke — Thu, 05 Mar 2026 23:47:20 +0000

My name is Anastasiia, and I am a professional monumental and visual artist, with my greatest passion being mosaic art. I work with materials such as marble, stone, and stained glass, transforming them into modern artworks and one-of-a-kind interior pieces. I love creating works — whether abstract, figurative, or portrait — and I am especially happy when they bring joy to people.

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