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.

Clear, compelling photos can make all the difference when it comes to sharing your work with the world. Whether you’re applying for grants, building a portfolio, or promoting your practice online, strong visual documentation is key.

Join photographer and communications expert Liz Cooper for this workshop, which will guide participants through the fundamentals of photographing artwork and offer tips for troubleshooting common challenges. The session will also include strategies for capturing a polished, professional headshot. Participants will leave with practical tools to elevate their visual presence and better represent their work.

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

MEET LIZ

Liz Cooper is a photographer and communications professional based in Kingston, Ontario.

Liz specializes in photographing people, specifically headshots of artists and creative entrepreneurs. Liz works to make her sitters feel at ease in front of the camera and seeks to make every photoshoot enjoyable and accessible.

Liz has a BFA in Photography from Toronto Metropolitan University. You can find her work on her website (www.lizzography.com) and Instagram (@lizzouse).

Join us for "Recipes & Reflections," an artist talk and recipe swap that explores the deep connections between food, memory, and making with Artist Karen Kar Yen Law. Participants are invited to bring a meaningful recipe from their culture or personal history to share in a warm, conversational setting guided by artist-led prompts. Through group discussions and reflections, the event will draw parallels between the collaborative, process-driven nature of the kitchen and the print studio—offering a fresh, accessible entry point to contemporary art and the exhibition Not Too Salty by Karen Kar Yen Law at Modern Fuel Artist-Run Centre. 

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 drawing games, 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.

In this workshop, Jessica Endress will lead folks through tips on crafting writing proposals, finding accessible art applications to build your portfolio, building relationships with institutions and artists, and understanding your own point of view when approaching your arts writing practice. Learn what writing style resonates with you and get started!

MEET JESSICA

Jessica Endress is an art historian, art education programmer and general art enthusiast. She is currently the Director of Learning & Engagement at Two Rivers Gallery on the unceded territory of the Lheidli T’enneh. Jessica is also a Managing Editor and contributor at Nosy Mag, an Ottawa-Gatineau based arts zine and collective. New to Northern BC, she has held positions at Agnes Etherington Art Centre, the Carleton University Art Gallery, the Canada Council Art Bank, and the City of Ottawa. She completed her MA in Art & Architectural History at Carleton University in 2023, for which she wrote her Major Research Paper, “Athletic Aesthetics: Prudence Heward, Girl Under a Tree and Canadian Women’s Health Ideals in the 1930’s.” When she’s not checking out new exhibitions, you can catch her obsessing over her perfect calico cat, Stevie or enjoying BC’s beautiful nature.

Join us for an Artist Talk with Steven Beckly on September 18th from 7pm - 8pm via Zoom to hear about the exhibition Nourishing Nature on view in the Window Gallery.

MEET STEVEN

Steven Beckly (he/they) is a Chinese-Canadian artist and photographer residing in Tkaronto/Toronto. Recent solo projects include Handy Work at Daniel Faria Gallery, Toronto; and Phantom Eye, a public art project commissioned by Capture Photography Festival, Vancouver. Beckly’s work has been featured in exhibitions at Two Seven Two Gallery, Toronto; the Doris McCarthy Gallery at the University of Toronto, Scarborough; Stride Gallery, Calgary; Remai Modern, Saskatoon; and the Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal. His work can be found in the collections of: the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto; the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; TD Art Collection, Toronto; among others. He is represented by Daniel Faria Gallery, Toronto.

Join us for a restorative experience featuring:

Grounding: A centering practice to invite presence and connection.

Live Music: An intimate set by singer‑songwriter Yarro, weaving songs of healing, reflection, and renewal.

Mindfulness & Creativity: Through a blend of mindfulness and creative practices, participants will be guided to deepen their connection to self, while fostering moments of reflection and renewal in community. Co-facilitated by Coach Wumi and Yarro. 

Come as you are, and leave feeling connected, inspired, and empowered!

MEET THE FACILITATORS

Second Wind & Co.

In a world that often feels overwhelming, performative, and disconnected, Second Wind & Co. helps shift the focus from output to process, from overwhelm to awareness. We create space to pause, reflect, and reconnect through mindfulness, creativity, and shared experience. Our workshops, facilitated by founders Coach Wumi and Yarro, support individuals and groups to find clarity, move intentionally, and choose with purpose. 

Coach Wumi

Wumi Agunbiade is a certified mindfulness and mental performance coach, former professional basketball player, and passionate advocate for authentic living. She earned a Division I NCAA scholarship to Duquesne University, where she completed her degree in Psychology. After playing professionally in Europe, Wumi earned her MBA while coaching at the University of Pittsburgh, followed by the Raptors 905 and Queen’s University. After completing her Mindfulness Meditation Certificate at U of T, she now supports athletes and leaders in deepening their self-awareness and developing their confidence through mindfulness-based tools. Known for her calm and empathetic approach, Wumi creates meaningful spaces rooted in courage and connection, helping individuals thrive both personally and professionally.

Yarro

Eliza Bulchak-Healy, known as “Yarro”, is a singer-songwriter and certified therapeutic arts practitioner who believes in the transformative power of creativity. Yarro's artistry is deeply personal, shaped by her journey of recovery and self-reflection. As a graduate of the Canadian International Institute of Art Therapy and the National Theatre School of Canada, Yarro guides individuals and groups towards self-discovery through creative exploration. Her process-based approach combines creative exercises with somatic practices, offering innovative ways to overcome obstacles, manage stress, and gain clarity. Through her music and facilitation, Yarro creates space for reflection, transformation, and connection. Her work inspires individuals to get curious and tap into their creative potential. 

Website: https://secondwindandco.my.canva.site/ 

Join us for the Opening Reception of our Fall Exhibitions including Don Kwan's Material Memories, Karen Kar Yen Law’s Not Too Salty, and Steven Beckly's Nourishing Nature.

Remarks will occur at 2:15pm followed by a lion dance performance at 2:30pm.

Making Art Work: The Art of Applying - Secrets to Successful Exhibition Proposals with Holly Chang

Making Art Work is a professional development series co-presented by Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Modern Fuel Artist-Run Centre and Union Gallery.