Onsite Gallery, OCAD University

Illustration by Ayonti Mahreen Huq

From Community to Gallery: Exploring Contexts of Socially Engaged Art

Wednesday, March 19, 2025 | 5:00 – 7:30pm
Onsite Gallery, Toronto
Visit the registration page

In Spring 2024, a group of racialized and gender diverse artists came together in a creative research process to explore relationships to identities, both personal and collective. Attend a screening at Onsite Gallery of the documentary film about their group exhibition, followed by a panel dialogue on the dynamics of socially-engaged arts across community and gallery spaces.

From Community to Gallery: Exploring Contexts of Socially Engaged Art coincides with Onsite Gallery’s current exhibition Fortitude/Fragile guest curated by Magda González-Mora.

Also on view at Onsite Gallery are The Delaney Family Emerging Curator’s Prize: Presence in a past or undetermined future. and Coco A. Lynge | Up Front: Inuit Public Art @ Onsite Gallery.

About the Panelists

Bert Whitecrow is a 2-spirited Anishinaabe multidisciplinary artist from Seine River First Nation (Jiima’aaganing). Their work centres visual storytelling, preserving and practicing ancestral knowledge, explorations of Indigenous futurisms, and their relationship to place.

Gloria O’koye (Glowz) uses the power of her voice to tap into the creativity and ingenuity of the voiceless and unheard in our society. As a multidisciplinary artist she draws on the power of storytelling and artistic expression to shed light on social and cultural realities.

Neshat Neishabouri is an Iranian multidisciplinary artist and designer. Her work is often an exploration/inquiry into topics of Southeast Asian Identity, socio-political censorship, and our spiritual connection to land.

Olympia Trypis is a self-taught, multidisciplinary artist, who uses artwork and natural materials to express themselves and relate to the world around us. They are passionate about using art to heal relationships with ourselves, community, Mother Earth and all of our relations. We do not own the land; the land owns and sustains us.

Susan Jama is an art worker with over 5 years of experience leading community engagement and public arts programming with strong grassroots experience. She is the Programs and Community Coordinator at Onsite Gallery. Susan has worked with various institutions that approach heritage in a community-minded manner including Toronto Ward Museum (TWM) and Black Artists’ Networks in Dialogue Gallery & Cultural Centre (BAND). She graduated with a Masters of Museum Studies from University of Toronto and completed her Bachelor in Psychology & History at York University. She currently serves on the Museum Education Roundtable board as co-treasurer.

About the Moderator

Blessing O. Nwodo is an award-winning storyteller and feminist activist, who works in various mediums, including film, fiction, poetry, nonfiction, and more. She holds an MFA from the University of Guelph. When she’s not relishing fashion, she can often be found pulverizing the patriarchy. She is working on a collection of speculative fiction, and a novel.

Onsite Gallery is generously supported by The Delaney Family

About Onsite Gallery
www.ocadu.ca/onsite
Onsite Gallery, OCAD University’s flagship professional gallery, presents contemporary, Indigenous, and public art and design to advance knowledge creation and stimulate local and international conversations on the urgent issues of our time.

Onsite Gallery
199 Richmond Street West
Toronto, ON M5V 0H4

Gallery Hours
Wednesday: 12 to 7 pm
Thursday to Saturday: 12 to 5 pm

Gallery admission and all events are free.

Onsite Gallery is an accessible venue with all-gender, single-user washrooms.
» Detailed accessibility information found here

About OCAD University (OCAD U)
OCAD University (www.ocadu.ca) is Canada’s university of the imagination. Founded in 1876, the university is dedicated to art, design and digital media education, practice and research and to knowledge and invention across a wide range of disciplines.

Contact Information:
Susan Jama
Programs & Community Coordinator, Onsite Gallery
susanjama@ocadu.ca

Stay Connected:
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram