Fall 2026 Programming at the Workers Arts & Heritage Centre

For the Fall 2026 season, WAHC presents a solo exhibition by Anahí González and launches our second installment of renewed heritage exhibits, Work In Progress: Survival and Dignity. Visit the website to view all program offerings. Admission to WAHC is free and accessible.

Carritos Hechos En Saltillo Para Canadians (2023), Anahí González. Image courtesy of the artist.

Anahí González: Para Ayer/Due Yesterday

September 11 – December 11, 2026
Opening Reception: Friday, September 18, 6:30 – 9:00pm
WAHC’s CUPE/SCFP Gallery, Hamilton

Para Ayer/Due Yesterday explores the urgency that shapes labour within trade and production networks connecting Mexico and Canada. The title comes from a common expression in Mexican workplaces: para ayer (“due yesterday”), a phrase used when something is expected immediately—as if it should have been finished yesterday.

Through photography, installation, and participatory works, González examines how trade agreements, supply chains, and cross-border industries shape the conditions that make urgency part of everyday work.

About the Artist

Anahí González is a Mexican photographer and artist based in London, Ontario. Through photography, installation, and participatory practices, she explores migration, labour, identity, and everyday systems of exchange, with a focus on Mexican labour for/within Canada. She holds a Doctorate in Art and Visual Culture from Western University, with previous studies in Canada, Mexico, and Spain. In 2021, she received Mexico’s Sistema Nacional de Creadores de Arte grant, Jóvenes Creadores program. Her work has been exhibited and screened across Canada, Mexico, the United States, Norway, Spain, and France.

Care Work Makes All Other Work Possible, © 2025 Kwentong Bayan Collective. Image courtesy of the artists.

Work in Progress: Survival and Dignity

August 6, 2026 – December 17, 2028
Opening Reception: Friday, September 18, 6:30 – 9:00pm
WAHC’s OPSEU/SEFPO Gallery, Hamilton

How do working people obtain the necessities of life while doing work essential to the functioning of society?

A group of six labour and activist histories capture how workers have organized to create dignified lives in their communities. They include building thriving working-class neighbourhoods, sex workers nurturing community care, and organizing movements to support racialized and migrant workers.

Work In Progress: Survival and Dignity includes contributions from community curators Emily Power, Kwentong Bayan Collective, Huckleberry Point Collective, and Scarlett Gillespie AKA Jelena Vermilion.

Join us Friday, September 18, 6:30 – 9:00pm for a joint Opening Reception alongside Anahí González’ Para Ayer/Due Yesterday.

Work In Progress: Survival and Dignity is presented in partnership with the Hamilton Community Foundation.

Artists in Residence: Anahí González and Katie Lawson

July – November 2026

Anahí González and Katie Lawson, in their capacity as members of the Creative Food Research Collaboratory (CFRC), are WAHC’s 2026 Artists-in-Residence. With help from local community partners, their arts-based residency research will explore food security, food justice, food sovereignty, and migrant labour in the Hamilton region.

On October 8, they will integrate their findings into a catered public program, fostering community engagement and conversation through an arts-based workshop. Full details coming soon.

Follow WAHC’s social media accounts for updates on their residency.

Images (left to right, top to bottom): The Employee of the Month, and The Next One, and The Next One… (2024), Artcite, Window, Windsor, ON; Photo documentation by Jel Media. Founding Celebration Ribbon Cutting (2024), Caroline Co-op; Image courtesy of Emily Power. Pigment making process detail; Image courtesy of Michelle Peraza. Workshop led by Katie Lawson and Maria Simmons as part of Bread, Butter, Tea, Soup (2024) at ArtLAB, London ON, curated by the Creative Food Research Collaboratory; Photo: Dickson Bou.

Join WAHC for free public programs this Fall 2026 season

Opening Reception | Para Ayer/Due Yesterday and WIP: Survival and Dignity
Friday, September 18, 6:30 – 9:00pm
Complete with a performance by Anahí González, and community curators in attendance including Emily Power, Kwentong Bayan Collective, Huckleberry Point Collective, and Scarlett Gillespie AKA Jelena Vermilion.

“Local” Food, Migrant Labour: Residency Reflections
Thursday, October 8, 6:30 – 8:30pm
A catered arts-based program with Artists-in-Residence Anahí González and Katie Lawson. Full program details coming soon.

Natural Pigment Making with Michelle Peraza
Saturday, November 28, 1 – 4pm
Participants will learn how to make pigments with soil as a way to make sustainable paints, connect with land, and reflect on experiences of work, migration, and rest.

Acknowledgments

Work In Progress is made possible through the Alfred & Joan Robertshaw Memorial Fund of the Hamilton Community Foundation, the Atkinson Foundation, and supporters of WAHC’s Legacy Fund.

WAHC’s annual artists residency program is supported by the incite Foundation for the Arts.

WAHC acknowledges the Ontario Arts Council, the City of Hamilton, the Province of Ontario, the Canada Council for the Arts, CUPE National, Canada’s Building Trades Unions, OPSEU/SEFPO, the Provincial Building and Construction Trades Council of Ontario, and Teamsters Local Union 879 for their support of our exhibitions and ancillary programs.

Workers Arts & Heritage Centre
51 Stuart Street
Hamilton, ON L8L 1B5
wahc-museum.ca

Public Hours:
Wednesday – Friday, 10am – 4pm
Saturday, 12pm – 4pm

Workers Arts and Heritage Centre is an accessible space. For more information, visit wahc-museum.ca/accessibility.

Find us on Instagram and Facebook.

Image Descriptions:
1. A red, frayed piñata car parks in a cracked parking lot.
2. Illustrated figures hold up a banner that reads, “Care Work Makes All Other Work Possible”. A monarch butterfly flies above them.
3. Four images collaged into one include a woman with a worried face sitting with a piñata goose, people cheering at a ribbon cutting ceremony, hands reaching for bread, and a wooden table with mason jars, tools, and pigment splayed about.