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.

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. 

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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

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 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.

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.

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

Join us for an Artist Talk with Tonya Corkey to learn more about her exhibition Sweet Dreams on view in the Main Gallery!

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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. 

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).

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.

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.

We are delighted to host an informal conversation facilitated by Katherine McKittrick, Professor of Gender Studies and Canada Research Chair in Black Studies, and Nasrin Himada, Associate Curator of Academic Outreach and Community Engagement that focuses on anti-colonial theory, reading and writing, and working closely with Sylvia Wynter’s 1967 essay, “We Must Learn to Sit Down Together and Talk About a Little Culture.” The session is structured to balance collaborative reading, with quiet time allocated to read the essay, followed by an organic and multi-vocal conversation about key themes, theories, literatures and formats that shape the exhibition, A Smile Split by the Stars.

Participants receive the essay in advance—it is highly recommended participants read the text beforehand. The reading group has availability for 25 people, with 10 spaces reserved for graduate students of Black Studies, Indigenous Studies, studies of Palestine, or cognate areas. Refreshments will be provided. Presented in partnership with the Ban Righ Centre.

Registration opens on November 6, 2025.

Newsletters pose a customizable and personalized way to stay connected with your network outside of social media.

Learn how to create an engaging and consistent newsletter that is true to you and your practice. Whether you’re an artist, writer, or creative professional, newsletters can be a great way to connect with your network and community. Drawing from her own experience as a freelance photographer with a quarterly newsletter, Lucy Lu will share her tips on what to put into your newsletter, how to keep readers engaged, and the logistics of publishing and sending them out.

This program is made possible through the generous support of the Iva Speers Fund for Art Education.

MEET LUCY

Lucy Lu is a Boston-based photographer and artist with nearly a decade of experience in editorial and commercial photography. Born in China and raised in Toronto, her background has deeply influenced her interest in storytelling that explores themes of memory, place, and cultural identity. 

Her images have appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg Businessweek, Maclean’s Magazine, and The Globe and Mail, among many others. Known for her thoughtful and humanist approach, Lucy has worked with publications, non-profits, and institutions to create images that feel intimate, intentional, and true to life. 

In addition to client work, Lucy’s personal projects have been exhibited across Canada and featured by outlets such as the CBC and The Globe and Mail. She is a recipient of awards from American Photography, the Magenta Foundation, and Applied Arts Magazine.

Celebrate the launch of two powerful exhibitions at Modern Fuel Artist-Run Centre with an evening of art, community, and conversation.

RE:MEMBER 2025: Annual Members’ Show & Sale

Our biggest fundraiser of the year, RE:MEMBER showcases the vibrant and diverse talents of Modern Fuel’s member artists. This annual exhibition features works available for purchase, with proceeds split 50/50 between the artists and Modern Fuel, directly supporting our programming. For artists, it’s a chance to exhibit, connect, and reach new audiences. For the public, it’s an invitation to discover unique local works while supporting both emerging and established creatives. RE:MEMBER will be on view in the Main Gallery from November 22nd to December 20th.

A Smile Split by the Stars

On view in the State of Flux and Window Galleries, A Smile Split by the Stars is a collaborative narration of nourbeSe philip’s poem, Meditations on the Declension of Beauty by the Girl with the Flying Cheek-bones. Working within, across and beyond colonial lexicons, the installation reads philip’s poem through, and as, different audio-visual-textual moments of revolutionary intent, wherein Black girlhood and Black femininity are, a priori, re-coding the aesthetic promises of modernity. Co-produced with Agnes Etherington Art Centre and Gallery 44 Centre for Contemporary Photography, A Smile Split by the Stars runs from November 22nd to December 20th.

Don’t miss this dynamic evening marking the opening of two compelling exhibitions. All are welcome!

Join us for an Artist Talk with Don Kwan on November 8th from 2pm - 3pm in-person at Modern Fuel to hear about the exhibition Material Memories on view in the Main Gallery.

MEET DON

Don Kwan is an Ottawa-based artist working in sculpture, installation, photography, and performance. A third-generation Chinese Canadian, Kwan turns to his own experiences and challenges of being a gay, East Asian artist as a way to ground broader conversations about identity, representation, and intergenerational memory-making in the diaspora. His work has been featured in exhibitions at the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Chinese Garden (Vancouver), Royal Ontario Museum (Toronto), Bonavista Biennale (Newfoundland) and most recently in the 2025 CAFKA Biennale (Kitchener). In 2022, his year-long exhibit at the Ottawa Art Gallery, Landscape, Loss and Legacy, was shortlisted for an award by Galeries Ontario / Ontario Galleries. That same year, he received the Peter Honeywell Mid-Career Artist Award from the Ottawa Arts Council.

Introducing RE:FUEL - Creation Sessions, a free workshop series where individuals come together to unleash their creativity in the collaborative environment of Modern Fuel Artist-Run Centre.

This session features found word poetry, 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.