Agnes Etherington OFF Centre!

Agnes’s nomadic program adventure of exhibitions, site-specific installations, performances, lectures, screenings, workshops and more continues as construction for Agnes Reimagined begins.

Building relationships while rebuilding the art centre, the fall 2024 “off-centre” program finds its grounding in partnerships, co-commissions and collaborations in Kingston and elsewhere:

@ Toronto Biennial of Art

Flatbread Library
September 21 – December 1, 2024
Toronto Biennial of Art (TBA), 158 Sterling Road, 9th Floor, Toronto, ON

Agnes can’t wait to see Sameer Farooq’s Flatbread Library shared with audiences from all over the world at TBA 2024! Sameer was the Stonecroft artist-in-residence—curated by Agnes’s Curator of Contemporary Art, Sunny Kerr—working away (and hanging out) in Kingston to produce this co-commissioned project. Moving flatbreads to-and-fro, mentoring young artists, and experimenting with and for flatbreads-of-the-world to honour and trace their origins, migrations, transformations, and commonalities, Sameer’s research-intensive project comes to life at TBA through the caring considerations of biennial co-curators Miguel López and Dominique Fontaine.

@ City Park, Kingston

Talkin’ Back to Johnny Mac 2
October 20 – 24, 2024
City Park, Corner of King Street East and West Street, Kingston, ON

In Agnes’s hometown, Kington, it’s time to revisit the former site of a John A. Macdonald statue. Nine years after Erin Sutherland’s prophetic project that anticipated the dismantling of colonial monuments, she returns to reorient the remaining platform toward future possibilities. In collaboration with Agnes’s Associate Curator, Care and Relations, Sebastian De Line, Erin brings back artists Leah Dector, David Garneau and Peter Morin from TBTJM #1 together with artists Jimmie Kilpatrick and Juliane Okot Bitek for spoken word performances, collaborative karaoke and more. FYI: the John A. Macdonald statue was taken down on June 18, 2021, through efforts of local community activists and a motion passed by Kingston municipal council. Visit the exhibition page for more information.

@ Museum London

Ukutula: Our Timeless Journeys
November 21, 2024 – May 11, 2025
Museum London, 421 Ridout Street North, London, ON

It’s been an incredible journey to reimagine Agnes’s 2021 exhibition With Opened Mouths, curated by Agnes’s Associate Curator, Arts of Africa, Qanita Lilla, now in 2024 as Ukutula (singing, in isiZulu). In chorus with artists Anthony Gebrehiwot, Jill Glatt, Jessica Karuhanga, Camille Turner and Winsom Winsom, the powerful works of Agnes’s Justin and Elisabeth Lang collection of African art sing. Artworks think together and differently about what it means to come to this place called Canada from elsewhere and to settle in a place with such an unsettling history. Lifting spirits in a choir of Ukutula, we soar.

@ Agnes Reimagined Construction Site

Tracing Kingston’s Solidarities III: Stories Out Loud
September 2024 – ongoing
36 University Avenue, Kingston, ON

Agnes leaves its mark! Conceived by Agnes’s Associate Curator, Arts of Africa, Qanita Lilla, in collaboration with artist, Alejandro Arauz, this iterative project pursues ongoing research into intersecting histories of Kingston. Emerging from collective collaging workshops that brought forth personal stories and other archives, this billboard series of large-scale, wheat-pasted prints now animates the hoardings of Agnes Reimagined’s construction site.

LAL Everywhere (please): Kingston’s on the tour

Workshop + Performance with LAL
Workshop: September 16, 2024, 2–4pm ET
Rideau Building, 207 Stuart Street, Kingston, ON

Performance: September 17, 2024, 7pm ET
Next Church, 89 Colborne Street, Kingston, ON

In a local Kingston church, Agnes lovingly hosts acclaimed musical collaborative LAL. A workshop focused on creating and recording a musical background with found sounds and bodies (hands, mouths, feet!) as well as poetry / spoken word / abstract word pieces as a collaborative process (No previous experience necessary!) precedes a performance co-presented with Skeleton Park Arts Festival as part of LAL’s international tour.

Workshop curated by Nasrin Himada, Associate Curator of Academic Outreach and Community Engagement, in partnership with Yellow House.

As an Open Secret

Open Secret | A Fidai Film
September 21, 2024, 4:30pm ET
The Screening Room, 120 Princess Street, Kingston, ON

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Open Secret with Guest Curator Nataleah Hunter-Young
Screening & Conversation: October 26, 2024, 1pm ET
The Screening Room, 120 Princess Street, Kingston, ON

Open Secret is an ongoing series composed of screenings, conversations, artist talks and workshops conceived by Agnes’s Associate Curator, Academic Outreach and Community Engagement, Nasrin Himada. Fall’s iteration includes Kamal Aljafari’s A Fidai Film and a guest-curated film screening programmed by Nataleah Hunter-Young (Western University, Toronto International Film Festival, Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Film Festival).

Agnes @ The Isabel

The Dutch in the Americas: A lecture by Dr Stephanie Porras
November 15, 2024, 6-7:30pm ET
Isabel Bader Centre for Performing Arts, Kingston, ON

With footholds in North America, the Caribbean, South America, and along the west coast of Africa, the Dutch played a vital, yet understudied role in the early modern Americas. Outlining how the Dutch colonial project in the Americas both diverged and overlapped with their competitors, this year’s annual Isabel and Alfred Bader Lecture in European Art considers the central role these “Dutch” artists, artworks and material goods played in the Americas, presenting an alternate view of the colonial Americas. Registration required.

Curated by Suzanne van de Meerendonk, Bader Curator of European Art in celebration of Bader Day at Queen’s.

AGNES Etherington Art Centre
AGNES.queensu.ca

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Situated within territories of the Anishinaabek, Haudenosaunee and Huron-Wendat, AGNES is a curatorially-driven and research-intensive professional art centre proudly serving a dual mandate as an internationally recognized public art gallery and pedagogical resource at Queen’s. By commissioning, researching, collecting and stewarding works of art, and by exhibiting and interpreting visual culture through an intersectional lens, AGNES creates opportunities for participation and exchange across communities, cultures, histories and geographies.

AGNES is committed to anti-racism. We work to eradicate institutional biases and develop accountable programs that centre artistic expressions and lived experiences of Black, Indigenous and People of Colour. AGNES promotes 2SLGBTQIAP+ positive spaces.

Image credits:
1. Agnes façade during demolition August 14, 2024
2. Where’s Agnes graphic by Vincent Perez
3. Farooq working on Flatbread Library. Photo: Viara Mileva