Upcoming Events
RE:FUEL – Creation Session
Join us for our RE:FUEL - Creation Sessions, a free workshop series where individuals come together to unleash their creativity in the collaborative environment of Cultivate Art Commons.
This session features “Make Your Own Bookmarks,” with basic materials provided, though participants are encouraged to bring in supplementary materials to enhance their experience. With a focus on connection and collective inspiration, this program celebrates the power of community-driven creation.
Remembering Resistance: Revolution of the Heart and the People’s History Project
OPIRG Kingston is a local organization for community-based research, education, and action for social and environmental justice. Since 1992, we have worked to preserve and present local histories of activism and social movements that are so often left out of mainstream history. Our People’s History Project brings these stories out of the archives and into various forms of interactive media including art, essays, and walking tours.
Join us at Cultivate Art Commons to learn more about how artists and non-artists alike can interact with (and make) history. Using the 2021 anti-colonial Revolution of the Heart movement as a case study, we’ll discuss how art can be used to present a counter-history and how archives can help us in our current struggles for justice.
Lunch & Learn
Join us for the second session in Lunch & Learn, our members-only workshop series at Cultivate Art Commons designed to support and inspire each other’s growth through meaningful conversation and peer-to-peer learning!
What does it mean to look closely at a work of art; how do we look beyond a work’s surface? Join Board Director Madeleine Dempster in this Lunch & Learn session to explore these questions, learn a little about 18th century French art, observation, and visual analysis all through the creative, collaborative practice of collaging. No artistic experience or art historical knowledge is required!
ABOUT THE FACILITATOR
Madeleine Dempster is a PhD candidate in Art History at Queen’s University where her research focuses on the art collections of eighteenth century French artists and architects. Her work is generously funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. She holds a Master’s in Art History from Queen’s University, in which she explored the art market connections between France and Canada and the Fond Desjardins. Madeleine is passionate about interdisciplinary research and arts-based community engagement. When she is not researching or exploring galleries and museums, Madeleine is out hiking, birding, and camping!
Meditation in the Gallery with Jay Vidyarthi
Join us for a guided meditation that invites you to experience art slowly, openly, and with fresh attention. Led by mindfulness facilitator Jay Vidyarthi, this session offers a gentle way to connect with the artworks at Cultivate Art Commons through presence, curiosity, and reflection.
After a brief introduction, participants will be guided into the present moment before mindfully wandering the gallery. As you observe the artworks, you’ll be invited to notice what arises—sensations, thoughts, and feelings—without the need to analyze or interpret. Using the art as an anchor for awareness, the meditation creates space for deeper engagement with the exhibition and with your own inner experience.
No prior meditation experience is required—just bring your curiosity and openness.
This is a monthly program held on the last Friday of each month from 10–11am. The meditation is 30 minutes long followed by an optional 30 minutes of discussion and reflection.
Please Note: This session is not a therapy program. Jay Vidyarthi is a trained mindfulness facilitator, not a licensed therapist, and offers meditation using a trauma-sensitive approach that emphasizes care, consent, and personal agency.
ABOUT JAY VIDYARTHI
Jay Vidyarthi is the award-winning author of RECLAIM YOUR MIND and founder of Still Ape. With over 15 years of meditation practice—including extended retreats, monastic training, and facilitator training—his work and ideas have helped improve the wellbeing of millions. He's taught major organizations, community groups, and one-on-one. His ideas have been featured by places like Harvard, MIT, TED, Psychology Today, CNN, Mashable, Vice, and Fast Company. Learn more at jayvidyarthi.com
Remix Revelations
The Remix Revelations is an engaging artist talk featuring the talented Artists-in-Residence of The Remix Residency, offering a behind-the-scenes look at their creative journeys this August. Join us for an inspiring afternoon as they share insights from their residency experience and unveil the work they developed during their time at Cultivate Art Commons.
Learning for Liberation
Looking to cultivate a creative community of learners? Well, look no further! In collaboration with the Kingston Frontenac Public Library, Cultivate Art Commons is co-hosting the Learning for Liberation Book Club.
In The Serviceberry, author Robin Wall Kimmerer invites us to think about how to orient our lives around gratitude, reciprocity, and community, based on the lessons of the natural world. As Indigenous scientist and author of Braiding Sweetgrass, Robin harvests serviceberries alongside the birds, and she considers the ethics of reciprocity that lies at the heart of the gift economy. How, she asks, can we learn from Indigenous wisdom and the plant world to reimagine what we value most?
For our first Learning For Liberation session, we’re inviting folks to join us for an evening of discussion surrounding abundance, reciprocity, gift-economies and other themes of the book, whilst creating cyanotype prints!
This program exists to create a welcoming space for collective learning and art-making, critical conversation, and community connection through books that explore liberation, history, justice, creativity, and social change. Together, participants will engage with diverse voices and ideas, reflect on lived experiences, and imagine more caring, equitable futures.
On the first Tuesday of each month, folks will come together to discuss the book at hand, whilst participating in a hands-on art activity.
10 copies of each book will be available through the Kingston Frontenac Public Library. All art activity materials are provided.
This program is generously funded by the Community Foundation for Kingston & Area.
Opening Reception
Join us for the Opening Reception of our Fall Exhibitions, including Charmaine Lurch’s Wild Bees, Lux Gow Habrich’s Threaded Palms, Threaded Stars, and Racquel Rowe’s First I was the Horizon.
RE:FUEL – Creation Session
Join us for our RE:FUEL - Creation Sessions, a free workshop series where individuals come together to unleash their creativity in the collaborative environment of Cultivate Art Commons.
This session features “Cyanotype Fabric Prints” with basic materials provided, though participants are encouraged to bring in supplementary materials to enhance their experience. With a focus on connection and collective inspiration, this program celebrates the power of community-driven creation.
Meditation in the Gallery with Jay Vidyarthi
Join us for a guided meditation that invites you to experience art slowly, openly, and with fresh attention. Led by mindfulness facilitator Jay Vidyarthi, this session offers a gentle way to connect with the artworks at Cultivate Art Commons through presence, curiosity, and reflection.
After a brief introduction, participants will be guided into the present moment before mindfully wandering the gallery. As you observe the artworks, you’ll be invited to notice what arises—sensations, thoughts, and feelings—without the need to analyze or interpret. Using the art as an anchor for awareness, the meditation creates space for deeper engagement with the exhibition and with your own inner experience.
No prior meditation experience is required—just bring your curiosity and openness.
This is a monthly program held on the last Friday of each month from 10–11am. The meditation is 30 minutes long followed by an optional 30 minutes of discussion and reflection.
Please Note: This session is not a therapy program. Jay Vidyarthi is a trained mindfulness facilitator, not a licensed therapist, and offers meditation using a trauma-sensitive approach that emphasizes care, consent, and personal agency.
ABOUT JAY VIDYARTHI
Jay Vidyarthi is the award-winning author of RECLAIM YOUR MIND and founder of Still Ape. With over 15 years of meditation practice—including extended retreats, monastic training, and facilitator training—his work and ideas have helped improve the wellbeing of millions. He's taught major organizations, community groups, and one-on-one. His ideas have been featured by places like Harvard, MIT, TED, Psychology Today, CNN, Mashable, Vice, and Fast Company. Learn more at jayvidyarthi.com
The Poetics of Making Pollen Grains and Seeds
Explore the intersections of art and science through slow, hands-on, collaborative artmaking. This workshop invites participants to consider how we are intricately connected to one another, the land, the air, and the countless life forms that move alongside us.
Inspired by the quiet beauty of pollen grains and seeds, we will turn our attention to their extraordinary microscopic world through a meditative creative practice that encourages curiosity, reflection, and collective making. Together, we will learn, play, and grow while exploring the hidden structures that sustain life.
Participants will learn simple wire-bending and weaving techniques to collaboratively create abstracted forms inspired by pollen grains and seeds. Each individual gesture will become part of a larger collective artwork, embodying the interconnectedness at the heart of the workshop. Alongside the collaborative installation, each participant will create a small sculptural piece to take home as a personal reminder of the experience.
ABOUT THE FACILITATOR
Charmaine Lurch is a Caribbean Canadian conceptual artist whose multi-modal practice spans sculpture, installation, drawing, performance and public art. Grounded in Black geographies and ecological justice, her work explores relationships between human and more-than-human life, through materials such as charcoal, wire, steel, as well as the use of light, and shadow. Lurch’s work has been presented at major institutions including the Royal Ontario Museum, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, the Art Gallery of Jamaica, and the Art Gallery of Ontario, and appears internationally through institutions such as Global Affairs Canada. She is a professor at Humber College in the Faculty of Digital Creative Arts and is an educator committed to community-engaged, interdisciplinary learning.
Learning for Liberation
Looking to cultivate a creative community of learners? Well, look no further! In collaboration with the Kingston Frontenac Public Library, Cultivate Art Commons is co-hosting the Learning for Liberation Book Club.
Inspired by the hit song by clipping. (comprised of Daveed Diggs, William Hutson, and Jonathan Snipes), The Deep by Rivers Solomon is a powerful Afrofuturist novella about a society of merfolk called the wajinru. They are the descendants of pregnant African women who were thrown overboard from slave ships during the Middle Passage. To survive their traumatic origins, the society lives in blissful forgetfulness, relying on a single "Historian" to hold the entirety of their shared memories.
For this Learning For Liberation session, we’re inviting folks to join us for an evening of discussion surrounding living in “the wake” of the history of the Middle Passage (theory from Christina Sharpe) whilst creating collages in reflection of themes from The Deep!
This program exists to create a welcoming space for collective learning and art-making, critical conversation, and community connection through books that explore liberation, history, justice, creativity, and social change. Together, participants will engage with diverse voices and ideas, reflect on lived experiences, and imagine more caring, equitable futures.
On the first Tuesday of each month, folks will come together to discuss the book at hand, whilst participating in a hands-on art activity.
10 copies of each book will be available through the Kingston Frontenac Public Library. All art activity materials are provided.
This program is generously funded by the Community Foundation for Kingston & Area.
Taking Care with Christina Battle
Artmaking takes time, labour, finances, and resources, and when faced with the realities of life, especially those that involve caring for others, access to the time needed to develop and maintain an artistic practice can become strained. In this workshop, we’ll spend time thinking through strategies for aligning artistic practice with the realities of one’s life; we’ll ask ourselves what we want to be doing with our (limited) time and how that may, in turn, align the focus of one’s practice. An emphasis on ‘taking care’ will drive our discussion—taking care of others, taking care of ourselves and taking care to consider the potentials of artistic practice.
As part of this workshop, we’ll spend time making postcards to later mail to one another as reminders to take care. Postcard-making packages will be mailed to participants in advance of the workshop—supplies are limited and will take some time to travel to you.
Please note, participants must be based in Canada in order to receive mail-out supply packages. Registration closes on September 21st.
This workshop is made possible by the Iva Speers Fund for Art Education.
ABOUT THE FACILITATOR
Christina Battle is an artist, curator, and writer based in amiskwacîwâskahikan (Edmonton), within the Aspen Parkland: the transition zone where prairie and forest meet. Her practice focuses on thinking deeply about the concept of disaster: its complexity, and the intricacies entwined within it. She looks to disaster as a series of intersecting processes including social, environmental, cultural, political, and economic, which are implicated not only in how disaster is caused but also in how it manifests, is responded to, and overcome. Battle’s practice prioritizes collaboration, experimentation, and failure; she has exhibited internationally in festivals and galleries as both artist and curator.
RE:FUEL – Creation Session
Join us for our RE:FUEL - Creation Sessions, a free workshop series where individuals come together to unleash their creativity in the collaborative environment of Cultivate Art Commons.
This session features “Clay Photo Magnets” with basic materials provided, though participants are encouraged to bring in supplementary materials to enhance their experience. With a focus on connection and collective inspiration, this program celebrates the power of community-driven creation.
Meditation in the Gallery with Jay Vidyarthi
Join us for a guided meditation that invites you to experience art slowly, openly, and with fresh attention. Led by mindfulness facilitator Jay Vidyarthi, this session offers a gentle way to connect with the artworks at Cultivate Art Commons through presence, curiosity, and reflection.
After a brief introduction, participants will be guided into the present moment before mindfully wandering the gallery. As you observe the artworks, you’ll be invited to notice what arises—sensations, thoughts, and feelings—without the need to analyze or interpret. Using the art as an anchor for awareness, the meditation creates space for deeper engagement with the exhibition and with your own inner experience.
No prior meditation experience is required—just bring your curiosity and openness.
This is a monthly program held on the last Friday of each month from 10–11am. The meditation is 30 minutes long followed by an optional 30 minutes of discussion and reflection.
Please Note: This session is not a therapy program. Jay Vidyarthi is a trained mindfulness facilitator, not a licensed therapist, and offers meditation using a trauma-sensitive approach that emphasizes care, consent, and personal agency.
ABOUT JAY VIDYARTHI
Jay Vidyarthi is the award-winning author of RECLAIM YOUR MIND and founder of Still Ape. With over 15 years of meditation practice—including extended retreats, monastic training, and facilitator training—his work and ideas have helped improve the wellbeing of millions. He's taught major organizations, community groups, and one-on-one. His ideas have been featured by places like Harvard, MIT, TED, Psychology Today, CNN, Mashable, Vice, and Fast Company. Learn more at jayvidyarthi.com
Altered States
Enter a space where physical and digital media collide. In this open house, the New Media Workspace will be open to participants to experiment with projection, lighting, augmented reality, and sound to transform a physical artwork. Create immersive environments, disrupt the visual surface, and explore how technology can reshape perception. Participants will co-create an interactive installation that pushes beyond the physical artwork.
Learning for Liberation
Looking to cultivate a creative community of learners? Well, look no further! In collaboration with the Kingston Frontenac Public Library, Cultivate Art Commons is co-hosting the Learning for Liberation Book Club.
Future Me is Fat by cartoonist and author Mollie Cronin follows a fat girl’s time-travel escapades through space, time, and diet culture! Told through sci-fi and autofiction, our heroine visits past selves, family histories, and distant futures to confront diet and body trends for some big fat adventures of her own.
For this Learning For Liberation session, we’re inviting folks to join us for an evening of discussion surrounding body image, diet culture, fat liberation, and imagining more expansive futures for ourselves whilst we create short comic strips with guidance from Mollie Cronin herself!
This program exists to create a welcoming space for collective learning and art-making, critical conversation, and community connection through books that explore liberation, history, justice, creativity, and social change. Together, participants will engage with diverse voices and ideas, reflect on lived experiences, and imagine more caring, equitable futures.
On the first Tuesday of each month, folks will come together to discuss the book at hand, whilst participating in a hands-on art activity.
10 copies of each book will be available through the Kingston Frontenac Public Library. All art activity materials are provided.
This program is generously funded by the Community Foundation for Kingston & Area.
RE:FUEL – Creation Session
Join us for our RE:FUEL - Creation Sessions, a free workshop series where individuals come together to unleash their creativity in the collaborative environment of Cultivate Art Commons.
This session features “Beaded Flower Keychains” with basic materials provided, though participants are encouraged to bring in supplementary materials to enhance their experience. With a focus on connection and collective inspiration, this program celebrates the power of community-driven creation.
Ethical Artists: Exploring Integrity and Consent in the Artmaking Process with Abby Nowakowski
In this workshop, Abby Nowakowski will lead us through an open discussion on value-driven practices and the power of bringing your own set of morals into the work you do. We will touch on ways you can work against capitalistic modes of making while still financially sustaining your artistic career, the vital role of radical consent in reciprocal relationships, and how we can fight for creative thinking by avoiding AI and moving towards more human-centred approaches.
We will draft our own code of conduct, which, like all good guidelines, will be a living document that grows and evolves alongside you. It will be a piece of writing that reflects your artistic ethics, that you can return to over and over again. This might be a short poem, a confident statement, or a set of rules that guide you in advocating for yourself and your practice.
Together we will dream up what a truly ethically responsible practice might look like, and imagine a system that could support these new ways of working.
ABOUT THE FACILITATOR
Abby Nowakowski is a queer artist based in the wetlands of Central Frontenac between the Mississippi and Tay River watersheds. In their practice, they are constantly questioning how their artwork can be used as an activist tool and contribute to the collective creative building of sustainable futures. Abby explores themes of transformative justice, belonging, and hopefulness. Learning lessons from the natural world, Abby often leans towards local flora and wildlife as powerful examples of community building and resistance.
Opening Reception
Join us for the Opening Reception of RE:MEMBER 2026 – Annual Members’ Show & Sale.
Meditation in the Gallery with Jay Vidyarthi
Join us for a guided meditation that invites you to experience art slowly, openly, and with fresh attention. Led by mindfulness facilitator Jay Vidyarthi, this session offers a gentle way to connect with the artworks at Cultivate Art Commons through presence, curiosity, and reflection.
After a brief introduction, participants will be guided into the present moment before mindfully wandering the gallery. As you observe the artworks, you’ll be invited to notice what arises—sensations, thoughts, and feelings—without the need to analyze or interpret. Using the art as an anchor for awareness, the meditation creates space for deeper engagement with the exhibition and with your own inner experience.
No prior meditation experience is required—just bring your curiosity and openness.
This is a monthly program held on the last Friday of each month from 10–11am. The meditation is 30 minutes long followed by an optional 30 minutes of discussion and reflection.
Please Note: This session is not a therapy program. Jay Vidyarthi is a trained mindfulness facilitator, not a licensed therapist, and offers meditation using a trauma-sensitive approach that emphasizes care, consent, and personal agency.
ABOUT JAY VIDYARTHI
Jay Vidyarthi is the award-winning author of RECLAIM YOUR MIND and founder of Still Ape. With over 15 years of meditation practice—including extended retreats, monastic training, and facilitator training—his work and ideas have helped improve the wellbeing of millions. He's taught major organizations, community groups, and one-on-one. His ideas have been featured by places like Harvard, MIT, TED, Psychology Today, CNN, Mashable, Vice, and Fast Company. Learn more at jayvidyarthi.com
Indigenous Holiday Market
Join us for the 3rd Annual Indigenous Holiday Market, a vibrant celebration of community, creativity, and cultures. This event will feature handmade beadwork, art, skincare, and gifts from talented Indigenous makers just in time for the holiday season!
Hosted in partnership with Flint and Maple.
Makers Market
This market will showcase local artists and makers, offering them a platform to sell their creations and connect meaningfully with the community.
RE:FUEL – Creation Session
Join us for our RE:FUEL - Creation Sessions, a free workshop series where individuals come together to unleash their creativity in the collaborative environment of Cultivate Art Commons.
This session features “Recycled Magnets” with basic materials provided, though participants are encouraged to bring in supplementary materials to enhance their experience. With a focus on connection and collective inspiration, this program celebrates the power of community-driven creation.
Meditation in the Gallery with Jay Vidyarthi
Join us for a guided meditation that invites you to experience art slowly, openly, and with fresh attention. Led by mindfulness facilitator Jay Vidyarthi, this session offers a gentle way to connect with the artworks at Cultivate Art Commons through presence, curiosity, and reflection.
After a brief introduction, participants will be guided into the present moment before mindfully wandering the gallery. As you observe the artworks, you’ll be invited to notice what arises—sensations, thoughts, and feelings—without the need to analyze or interpret. Using the art as an anchor for awareness, the meditation creates space for deeper engagement with the exhibition and with your own inner experience.
No prior meditation experience is required—just bring your curiosity and openness.
This is a monthly program held on the last Friday of each month from 10–11am. The meditation is 30 minutes long followed by an optional 30 minutes of discussion and reflection.
Please Note: This session is not a therapy program. Jay Vidyarthi is a trained mindfulness facilitator, not a licensed therapist, and offers meditation using a trauma-sensitive approach that emphasizes care, consent, and personal agency.
ABOUT JAY VIDYARTHI
Jay Vidyarthi is the award-winning author of RECLAIM YOUR MIND and founder of Still Ape. With over 15 years of meditation practice—including extended retreats, monastic training, and facilitator training—his work and ideas have helped improve the wellbeing of millions. He's taught major organizations, community groups, and one-on-one. His ideas have been featured by places like Harvard, MIT, TED, Psychology Today, CNN, Mashable, Vice, and Fast Company. Learn more at jayvidyarthi.com
Lunch & Learn
Join us for the first session in Lunch & Learn, a new members-only workshop series at Cultivate Art Commons designed to support and inspire each other’s growth through meaningful conversation and peer-to-peer learning!
Facilitated by Cultivate Art Commons Executive Director Maddi Andrews, this inaugural session will explore the history and role of artist-run centres in Canada. Together, we’ll discuss what artist-run centres are, why they emerged, who they serve, and how they continue to foster community exchange, cross-disciplinary collaboration, and collective care. Whether you’re new to artist-run culture or looking to deepen your understanding, this informal conversation offers an opportunity to learn more about the networks and values that shape artist-led spaces.
ABOUT THE FACILITATOR
Maddi Andrews is an artist and art educator based in Katarokwi/Kingston. She is currently employed as the Executive Director of Cultivate Art Commons, where she seeks to create opportunities for community exchange, cross-disciplinary collaboration, and collective wellness. Maddi completed her Master’s in Art History at Queen’s University in 2021, and previously received her Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Art History and a Certificate of International Studies from Queen’s University in 2019.
Community Picnic
To celebrate the community we're growing together, join us for a Community Picnic on July 25th at 4pm. Bring a dish, snack, or treat to share, and spend the afternoon connecting with friends and neighbours. We'll also be adding new pieces to our community quilt, inviting everyone to leave their mark and become part of this shared creative project.
We'll gather on the grassy field beside the Tett Centre for Creativity & Learning. If the weather doesn't cooperate, we'll meet indoors at Cultivate Art Commons instead.
We can't wait to gather with you!
Mending Ways: Learn to Mend Clinic
Every garment has a story, and a good mend means that story isn't over. Join Wild Bobbin for a hands-on introduction to the hand stitching techniques you need to keep your favourite clothes and textiles in your life longer.
This free two-hour clinic is open to complete beginners and will walk you through the most common mending repairs, step by step.
You'll leave with new skills, printed take-home resources, and a clearer sense of how to tackle the item you brought with you.
Space is limited to 20 participants. All supplies are provided. No previous hand sewing skills required.
TECHNIQUES YOU'LL LEARN
Threading your needle & the anchor stitch — the foundation of every hand repair, and why to skip the knot.
Running stitch — your go-to for closing gaps and reinforcing seams in a pinch.
Ladder stitch — the invisible mend for lined jackets, stuffed animals, puffy coats, and anything you can't turn inside out.
Backstitch — a stronger, slightly stretchy repair for broken seams.
Replacing a button — properly, with a post, so it actually stays.
WHAT'S INCLUDED
Guided instruction through each technique with printed reference sheets to take home.
All tools and materials; sample fabric, needles, thread, scissors, and pins.
Time at the end to discuss a specific item you have that requires mending and get guidance on how to approach your repair.
WHAT TO BRING
Curiosity, patience and intention.
You’re welcome to bring one item that needs mending — a shirt with a broken seam, a sweater that's lost a button, a stuffy that's seen better days — whatever's been sitting in the “I’ll fix it one day” pile.
There may not be time to complete the repair during the workshop, but the goal is to make sure you leave knowing exactly how to do it yourself.
ABOUT WILD BOBBIN
Wild Bobbin is a fabric and sewing studio reimagining the garment sewing experience in downtown Kingston, Ontario. They're not just selling fabric and notions; they're building a movement that celebrates making, mending, and passing on both skills and creations for years to come.
With sewing classes for all levels, PDF pattern printing, open studio sewing spaces and many exciting events throughout the year, Wild Bobbin is the place where makers of all levels are welcome to learn, create, and connect.
For more information about Wild Bobbin, visit our website [www.wildbobbin.com] or follow us on Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/wildbobbin/]
Meditation in the Gallery with Jay Vidyarthi
Join us for a guided meditation that invites you to experience art slowly, openly, and with fresh attention. Led by mindfulness facilitator Jay Vidyarthi, this session offers a gentle way to connect with the artworks at Cultivate Art Commons through presence, curiosity, and reflection.
After a brief introduction, participants will be guided into the present moment before mindfully wandering the gallery. As you observe the artworks, you’ll be invited to notice what arises—sensations, thoughts, and feelings—without the need to analyze or interpret. Using the art as an anchor for awareness, the meditation creates space for deeper engagement with the exhibition and with your own inner experience.
No prior meditation experience is required—just bring your curiosity and openness.
This is a monthly program held on the last Friday of each month from 10–11am. The meditation is 30 minutes long followed by an optional 30 minutes of discussion and reflection.
Please Note: This session is not a therapy program. Jay Vidyarthi is a trained mindfulness facilitator, not a licensed therapist, and offers meditation using a trauma-sensitive approach that emphasizes care, consent, and personal agency.
About Jay Vidyarthi
Jay Vidyarthi is the award-winning author of RECLAIM YOUR MIND and founder of Still Ape. With over 15 years of meditation practice—including extended retreats, monastic training, and facilitator training—his work and ideas have helped improve the wellbeing of millions. He's taught major organizations, community groups, and one-on-one. His ideas have been featured by places like Harvard, MIT, TED, Psychology Today, CNN, Mashable, Vice, and Fast Company. Learn more at jayvidyarthi.com
Skeleton Park Arts Festival
Join the amazing Cultivate Art Commons Ambassadors at the Skeleton Park Arts Festival! They’ll be offering free, hands-on art activities for all ages, along with friendly guidance on how you can get involved with your local artist-run centre in Katarokwi–Kingston.
Writing to Mend, Mending to Write: A Creative Writing Workshop with Alanna Veitch
Mending encompasses practices that weave together, repair, and/or assemble a self and fractured world. It makes space for diverse ways of knowing, with an intention to make something of the present moment in ways that tend to its complex histories.
I am affected by change, the uncertainty of things, and moments that, however fleeting, leave lasting impressions. My creative practice can be described as a kind of poetic mending, through which image and poem are assembled to make something of the complexity of fleeting yet enduring encounters. The encounter marks an edge—whether real or imagined—where bodies meet and can work together to mend and reconfigure the limits signified by that edge.
To think critically about the edge as a site of meeting and mending, I turn to Sara Ahmed’s (2014) theory on the cultural politics of emotion. She argues how emotions work to bind and give texture to the surfaces of our bodies; they form an economy in which bodies and meanings are stuck together.
This workshop is an opportunity to tend to wounds, cracks, or adhesions, and to write as a method for mending, repairing, and/or building community. Rather than cure—that fantastical promise which leaves no space for lifelong disablement, past wounds, or reconfigured selves—this workshop aims to generate a multi-textual and practical mending praxis of care and world-making.
About Alanna Veitch
Alanna Veitch is an interdisciplinary disabled poet-artist and scholar living in Katarokwi/Kingston, where she is completing her PhD at Queen’s University. Her work grapples with disability and the embodied politics of emotion, its affect, and the aesthetics of uncertainty and hope. Veitch is affected by change, by the uncertainty of the future, by moments that endure in their spontaneity. She writes out of necessity, bringing poetic text and image together to register the complexity of emotions which circulate between, shape, and bind us to one another. She has performed at local events, with publications in literary arts and academic sites including Atlantis, Critical Disability Discourses, Syphon, Critical Studies, and Union Gallery. Veitch’s doctoral work uses research-creation to give shape to an affective economy of disability.
Meditation in the Gallery with Jay Vidyarthi
Join us for a guided meditation that invites you to experience art slowly, openly, and with fresh attention. Led by mindfulness facilitator Jay Vidyarthi, this session offers a gentle way to connect with the artworks at Cultivate Art Commons through presence, curiosity, and reflection.
After a brief introduction, participants will be guided into the present moment before mindfully wandering the gallery. As you observe the artworks, you’ll be invited to notice what arises—sensations, thoughts, and feelings—without the need to analyze or interpret. Using the art as an anchor for awareness, the meditation creates space for deeper engagement with the exhibition and with your own inner experience.
No prior meditation experience is required—just bring your curiosity and openness.
This is a monthly program held on the last Friday of each month from 10–11am. The meditation is 30 minutes long followed by an optional 30 minutes of discussion and reflection.
Please Note: This session is not a therapy program. Jay Vidyarthi is a trained mindfulness facilitator, not a licensed therapist, and offers meditation using a trauma-sensitive approach that emphasizes care, consent, and personal agency.
About Jay Vidyarthi
Jay Vidyarthi is the award-winning author of RECLAIM YOUR MIND and founder of Still Ape. With over 15 years of meditation practice—including extended retreats, monastic training, and facilitator training—his work and ideas have helped improve the wellbeing of millions. He's taught major organizations, community groups, and one-on-one. His ideas have been featured by places like Harvard, MIT, TED, Psychology Today, CNN, Mashable, Vice, and Fast Company. Learn more atjayvidyarthi.com
Creative Futures Closing Reception
Get ready for this year’s Creative Futures: Empowering Teen Artists exhibition Forthcoming, which will be on view in the Tett Gallery (Room 109) from Tuesday, May 19th to Saturday, May 23rd.
Visit the exhibition at your leisure throughout the week, or join us for the Closing Reception on Saturday, May 23 from 2–3pm to celebrate alongside its young artists.
Cochineal Dye Workshop
Join us for an engaging, hands-on workshop exploring natural pigment dyeing through the lens of Accounting for Bleed. Led by exhibiting artist Francisco Berlanga, this session invites participants to experiment with cochineal dye and pH-modifying mordants to create evolving textile iconographies.
Participants will begin by dyeing fabric in a rich cochineal bath, establishing a vibrant base. From there, you’ll paint simple icons or symbols using acidic and basic mordants, observing as colours shift in real time—bright oranges emerging from acidic applications and deep purples developing with alkaline ones. As these elements overlap, unexpected hues and textures will appear, shaped by the interplay between chemistry and gesture.
This workshop offers a unique opportunity to explore how meaning and imagery can transform through material processes, revealing the dynamic relationship between dye, fabric, and mark-making. No prior experience is necessary—just curiosity and a willingness to experiment.
Opening Reception
Join us for the Opening Reception of our Spring Exhibitions, including Francisco Berlanga’s Accounting for Bleed, Jongwook Park’s Different Yet Similar Breath, and the Annual Juried Exhibition: Mending Ways.
Artist Talk with Jongwook Park
Join us for an Artist Talk with Jongwook Park to learn more about the exhibition Different Yet Similar Breath on view in the Window Gallery.
M(other)’s Day Market
Join Cultivate Art Commons and the Women's Art Festival for a M(other)'s Day Market on Sunday, May 3rd from 10am - 2pm at Cultivate Art Commons (formerly Modern Fuel Artist-Run Centre). This vibrant market offers a unique opportunity to support local artists and makers—come shop and celebrate creativity within our community. To make the experience inclusive for all caregivers, the market is child-friendly and features an activity station where kids can engage and have fun while adults browse. Inspired by Writer Dani McClain’s inclusive understanding of motherhood—embracing all caregivers, including gender non-conforming individuals, as those who “create, nurture, affirm, and support life”—this market invites you to honour diverse experiences of caregiving. A heartfelt thank you to Artist Claire Drummond for connecting us to Dani McClain’s foundational work. Join us in supporting local talent and celebrating the many forms of caregiving!
Visitor Information Centre Pop-Up
Join the amazing Cultivate Art Commons Ambassadors at the Visitor Information Centre! They’ll be offering free, hands-on art activities for all ages, along with friendly guidance on how you can get involved with your local artist-run centre in Katarokwi–Kingston.
Coalesce Residency Celebration
We invite you to join us on Saturday, April 25th at 2pm for our Coalesce Residency Celebration. This is your opportunity to meet the Coalesce Resident Artists and hear about their experiences participating in the residency throughout April.
Meditation in the Gallery with Jay Vidyarthi
Join us for a guided meditation that invites you to experience art slowly, openly, and with fresh attention. Led by mindfulness facilitator Jay Vidyarthi, this session offers a gentle way to connect with the artworks at Cultivate Art Commons through presence, curiosity, and reflection.
After a brief introduction, participants will be guided into the present moment before mindfully wandering the gallery. As you observe the artworks, you’ll be invited to notice what arises—sensations, thoughts, and feelings—without the need to analyze or interpret. Using the art as an anchor for awareness, the meditation creates space for deeper engagement with the exhibition and with your own inner experience.
No prior meditation experience is required—just bring your curiosity and openness.
This is a monthly program held on the last Friday of each month from 10–11am. The meditation is 30 minutes long followed by an optional 30 minutes of discussion and reflection.
Please Note: This session is not a therapy program. Jay Vidyarthi is a trained mindfulness facilitator, not a licensed therapist, and offers meditation using a trauma-sensitive approach that emphasizes care, consent, and personal agency.
About Jay Vidyarthi
Jay Vidyarthi is the award-winning author of RECLAIM YOUR MIND and founder of Still Ape. With over 15 years of meditation practice—including extended retreats, monastic training, and facilitator training—his work and ideas have helped improve the wellbeing of millions. He's taught major organizations, community groups, and one-on-one. His ideas have been featured by places like Harvard, MIT, TED, Psychology Today, CNN, Mashable, Vice, and Fast Company. Learn more atjayvidyarthi.com
Altered States: An Experiment in Interactive Art Augmentation
Enter a space where physical and digital media collide. In this open house, the New Media Workspace will be open to participants to experiment with projection, lighting, augmented reality, and sound to transform a physical artwork. Create immersive environments, disrupt the visual surface, and explore how technology can reshape perception. Participants will co-create an interactive installation that pushes beyond the physical artwork.
Featuring artwork by Emma Poley.
Meet Emma Poley
Emma Poley is a Peterborough/Nogojiwanong-born printmaker, writer, and artist now based in Kingston, Ontario. Her work is deeply dissective, centring the anatomical—exploring how our bodies exist as animals, how memory lives in bone, and what it means to hold an archive within ourselves. She’s drawn to bones, teeth, horses, and the practice of learning to be gentle with large monsters—a lesson that began at horse camp in rural Ontario. Emma is currently completing her fifth year toward her BFAH at Queen’s University.
Intersection: A Living Archive
Intersection: A Living Archive is an intimate, facilitated gathering that expands the themes of the Intersection exhibition into a space for active dialogue, reflection, and collective storytelling.
Rooted in the exhibition’s exploration of identity, place, movement, and cultural overlap, this program invites Kingston-based artists, creatives, and community members to consider how their lives intersect within the city—and with one another.
The event begins with a short artist talk, framing Intersection as a living archive shaped by the people, relationships, and environments connected to Kingston. From there, participants will be guided through reflective prompts and a hands-on collage activity, exploring ideas of belonging, visibility, creative identity, and the layered experiences that inform everyday life.
The session will close with a shared contribution to a temporary “Intersection Wall.” Participants are invited to leave a word, phrase, or collage fragment that captures their experience—creating a collective piece that subtly evolves alongside the exhibition throughout its run.
Free and open to the public, this gathering is intentionally small in scale to foster meaningful conversation, connection, and a sense of shared presence.
The Showcase Series
Join us for a special gathering celebrating newly created work from our community.
During the event, we’ll watch selected films, view artwork, and celebrate the creativity around us. It’s a chance to see what others have been up to and talk about your creative process in an open, supportive setting.
Meditation in the Gallery with Jay Vidyarthi
Join us for a guided meditation that invites you to experience art slowly, openly, and with fresh attention. Led by mindfulness facilitator Jay Vidyarthi, this session offers a gentle way to connect with the artworks at Cultivate Art Commons through presence, curiosity, and reflection.
After a brief introduction, participants will be guided into the present moment before mindfully wandering the gallery. As you observe the artworks, you’ll be invited to notice what arises—sensations, thoughts, and feelings—without the need to analyze or interpret. Using the art as an anchor for awareness, the meditation creates space for deeper engagement with the exhibition and with your own inner experience.
No prior meditation experience is required—just bring your curiosity and openness.
This is a monthly program held on the last Friday of each month from 10–11am. The meditation is 30 minutes long followed by an optional 30 minutes of discussion and reflection.
Please Note: This session is not a therapy program. Jay Vidyarthi is a trained mindfulness facilitator, not a licensed therapist, and offers meditation using a trauma-sensitive approach that emphasizes care, consent, and personal agency.
About Jay Vidyarthi
Jay Vidyarthi is the award-winning author of RECLAIM YOUR MIND and founder of Still Ape. With over 15 years of meditation practice—including extended retreats, monastic training, and facilitator training—his work and ideas have helped improve the wellbeing of millions. He's taught major organizations, community groups, and one-on-one. His ideas have been featured by places like Harvard, MIT, TED, Psychology Today, CNN, Mashable, Vice, and Fast Company. Learn more atjayvidyarthi.com
Artist Talk with Tonya Corkey
Join us for an Artist Talk with Tonya Corkey to learn more about her exhibition Sweet Dreams on view in the Main Gallery!
An Artist’s Guide to Contracts
Join us for the official launch of our new Artists’ Legal Rights Guide, now spotlighting contract law for creatives. This edition breaks down the different types of contracts artists commonly encounter, essential procedural considerations, and the key components that make an agreement legally sound. We’ll also highlight the most important rights to protect in your contracts—so you can enter every deal informed, confident, and empowered.
Designing a Web Presence for Artists with Em Harmsen
In this workshop, Em will be highlighting different platforms for building websites. She will explain some best practices of designing a website that is not only engaging, but also accessible.
MEET EM
Em Harmsen is a multi-disciplinary designer and artist. She runs emske - design studio, a mindful creative studio that is environmentally conscious and adaptably minded. She has a background in fashion design, technology and accessibility. Em is currently completing a PhD focused on user centred design at Queen's University. She is an advocate for inclusive practices and a big fan of slow thoughtful design and artistic work.
Meditation in the Gallery with Jay Vidyarthi
Join us for a guided meditation that invites you to experience art slowly, openly, and with fresh attention. Led by mindfulness facilitator Jay Vidyarthi, this session offers a gentle way to connect with the artworks at Modern Fuel Artist-Run Centre through presence, curiosity, and reflection.
After a brief introduction, participants will be guided into the present moment before mindfully wandering the gallery. As you observe the artworks, you’ll be invited to notice what arises—sensations, thoughts, and feelings—without the need to analyze or interpret. Using the art as an anchor for awareness, the meditation creates space for deeper engagement with the exhibition and with your own inner experience.
No prior meditation experience is required—just bring your curiosity and openness.
This is a monthly program held on the last Friday of each month from 10–11am. The meditation is 30 minutes long followed by an optional 30 minutes of discussion and reflection.
Please Note: This session is not a therapy program. Jay Vidyarthi is a trained mindfulness facilitator, not a licensed therapist, and offers meditation using a trauma-sensitive approach that emphasizes care, consent, and personal agency.
About Jay Vidyarthi
Jay Vidyarthi is the award-winning author of RECLAIM YOUR MIND and founder of Still Ape. With over 15 years of meditation practice—including extended retreats, monastic training, and facilitator training—his work and ideas have helped improve the wellbeing of millions. He's taught major organizations, community groups, and one-on-one. His ideas have been featured by places like Harvard, MIT, TED, Psychology Today, CNN, Mashable, Vice, and Fast Company. Learn more at jayvidyarthi.com
RE:FUEL Creation Session
RE:FUEL - Creation Sessions are a free workshop series where individuals come together to unleash their creativity in the collaborative environment of Cultivate Art Commons.
This session features printmaking cards, with basic materials provided, though participants are encouraged to bring in supplementary materials to enhance their experience. With a focus on connection and collective inspiration, this program celebrates the power of community-driven creation.
Canva for Creatives with Kyara Andrews
Learn how Canva can help you create clean, professional-looking graphics for your art practice—without the complexity of Photoshop or the need for a design degree. We'll explore time-saving tools, ready-made templates, and create a simple graphic together to show just how easy (and fun) design can be.
MEET KYARA
Kyara Andrews is a Painter, Illustrator, and Muralist based in Toronto/Tkaronto. Born in Calgary and raised across South Korea, the Philippines, and Saudi Arabia, Kyara’s art is deeply influenced by her global experiences. The cultures, landscapes, and energy of the places she’s lived and traveled to are woven into her work, resulting in bold, expressive pieces that shift in style depending on the piece. She mixes traditional and digital techniques, often incorporating acrylics, oils, and digital illustration to bring her visions to life. This sense of immersion is also at the heart of Drift Designs, the creative brand founded by Kyara. Drift represents not only the fluid, organic process of her art-making but also the feeling of being carried away—of drifting into the artwork and escaping reality, even for a moment.
Excel for Artists with Rysia And
This beginner’s workshop will demystify some of the language and functions of Excel (or Google Sheets) with a specific eye to features most useful to an arts practice. Most tutorials for Excel come from a business/math perspective, and artists struggle to align themselves with this mentality. Together, we’ll explore Excel's capabilities outside of the looming shadow of capitalism, dive into the artistic side of the program, and learn Excel tricks that are not only approachable but also open up the possibility for creativity within the medium of data and spreadsheets.
MEET RYSIA
Rysia is a full-time arts administrator with a theatre and music background. With a BAH in English and Drama from Queen's University and post-grad certificate from Humber's Arts Administration and Cultural Management program, Rysia has made a career in ticketing and database management in classical music and the performing arts. Rysia stretches her artistic legs as a storyteller, collagist and community animator. She makes her home in Kingston with her beautiful wife and even more beautiful cat.
Opening Celebration
Join us for the Opening Reception of our Winter Exhibitions including Tonya Corkey’s Sweet Dreams, Riisa Gundesen’s Après le Bain, and Erin Roundsky’s The Good Life and The Seven Grandfather Teachings Menobimadizowin (Oji-Cree).
Writing Workshop: A Smile Split by the Stars
As part of continued efforts to contextualize and invigorate A Smile Split by the Stars, an exhibition deeply invested in poetry and its implications for how we understand the world, we present a writing workshop facilitated by poet and Queen’s faculty member Juliane Okot Bitek from Black Studies. Having been part of the exhibition’s collaborative process and a contributing artist, Bitek brings firsthand knowledge of the themes and artistic vision that shaped this groundbreaking show.
Students from all disciplines are welcome. Please bring a pen or pencil and a notebook or paper. Space is limited to 12 participants, and registration is required. Refreshments are provided.
Juliane Okot Bitek writes poetry and fiction. Her first collection, 100 Days, won the 2017 IndieFab Book of the Year Award for poetry and the 2017 Glenna Luschei Prize for African Poetry. Her second collection, A is for Acholi, won the 2023 Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize. Her most recent collection of poetry, Song & Dread, is published by Talonbooks. Bitek was born in Kenya to Ugandan parents and has lived in Canada for more than three decades. Her short story Going Home received a special mention in the 2004 Commonwealth Short Fiction Prize. We, the Kindling is her first novel.
Curatorial Talk: Smile, or nourbeSe philip’s revolutionary intention
Join us for a curatorial talk with Katherine McKittrick on this exhibition, which centres nourbeSe philip’s moving poem “Meditations on the Declension of Beauty by the Girl with the Flying Cheek-bones“, exploring themes of Black girlhood, Black femininity, and revolutionary aesthetics that challenge colonial narratives and re-code the promises of modernity. The talk will be followed by a conversation moderated by Muna Dahir, with a Q&A to follow.
Katherine McKittrick is Professor of Gender Studies and Canada Research Chair in Black Studies at Queen’s University. She authored Dear Science and Other Stories (DUP, 2021), and Demonic Grounds: Black Women and the Cartographies of Struggle (UMP, 2006). She also edited and contributed to Sylvia Wynter: On Being Human as Praxis (DUP, 2015). Recent projects include the limited-edition boxset, Trick Not Telos (2023) and the limited-edition hand-made book, Twenty Dreams (2024).
Muna Dahir is a Ph.D. candidate in Gender Studies at Queen’s University, where she also completed her M.A., and holds a B.A. in Socio-cultural Anthropology from the University of Toronto Scarborough. Grounded in Black studies, feminist studies, and anti-colonial thought, her research traces Black feminist modes of archivism, documentation, narration, reading, and inquiry across Black Atlantic cultures. Through relational methodologies and direct community archival collaboration, she examines how Black women cultural producers have strategically intervened in and extended the historical record, revealing the innovative ways Black feminist thought continues to challenge dominant narratives while creating new circuits of knowledge.