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.

ABOUT MOLLIE CRONIN

Mollie Cronin is a cartoonist from K'jipuktuk, Mi'kmaki (Halifax, Nova Scotia). She has a BA in Art History from NSCAD University, an MA in Gender Studies from Queen's University, and is a current PHD student in York’s Gender, Feminist, and Women’s Studies program. She is the author/illustrator of "Future Me is Fat" (Conundrum Press, 2025) and “Art Brat Comics: Vol. 1” (Little Deer Comics, Ireland, 2025). Cronin's research and artwork center on representations of fat bodies in comics.

Join us for a guided meditation that invites you to experience art slowly, openly, and with fresh attention. Led by Certified 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

Are you an artist who has struggled with writing artist statements in the past? Do you have a current draft that needs some edits? If so, this Lunch & Learn session is for you! Join Executive Director Maddi Andrews, who will guide us on how to create creative, concise and clear artist statements!

Our Lunch & Learn Series is a new members-only workshop program at Cultivate Art Commons, designed to support and inspire growth through meaningful conversation and peer-to-peer learning.

Brought to the community by the Street Health Centre, Cultivate Art Commons, and the Skeleton Park Arts Festival, this 1-day exhibition will showcase artworks created by Street Health clients, highlighting their personal stories of resilience.

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.

Join us to celebrate the launch of Syphon – Resistance!

Syphon is an arts and culture publication produced by Cultivate Art Commons that is meant to act as a conduit between the arts community in Kingston and communities elsewhere. It was created in response to the lack of critical arts commentary and coverage in local publications, and seen as a way to increase exposure to experimental and non-commercial art practices.

This issue features contributions from Abby Nowakowski, Marwa Hussein, Kamee Abrahamian, Hassan Al Bawwab, Ena Kasumovic, Danny McLaren, Yasmine Louis, Melissa Thorne, Olivia Perry, Sama Shaheen, Melanie Monique Rose, Nasim Asgari, Richelle Forsey, Abbie Goldberg, Alanna Veitch, Stephanie Mills, and Molly.

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 CHRISTINA BATTLE

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.

What happens when Black people enter archives looking for ourselves—and discover that we are missing, misrepresented, fragmented, or described through someone else’s language?

Archives do not simply preserve the past; they shape how the past can be encountered, understood, and imagined—and Black archival practice gives us an opportunity not only to recover what has been lost, but to question the record, reclaim our narratives, and remix the past toward more liberatory futures.

Join us for the first session of Archives & Anecdotes, a virtual series that builds on the themes of the Remix Residency by inviting archivists and cultural workers to explore how archives can help us imagine and shape liberatory futures.

ABOUT CHARISSE BRENT

Charisse Brent is a Black archivist, librarian, and emerging scholar exploring the relationship between Blackness, memory, and the archive. Her work is rooted in a simple but powerful question: What happens when we go looking for ourselves in the historical record? Through her archival practice and scholarship, Charisse examines the gaps, silences, and stories embedded within archival collections, while thinking critically about who gets remembered, how histories are described, and whose perspectives shape the record.

Based in Southern California, Charisse is passionate about creating more inclusive and discoverable archives, particularly for communities whose histories have been overlooked, fragmented, or interpreted through colonial frameworks. She approaches archives as more than repositories of what has already happened—they are spaces for questioning, reclaiming, reinterpreting, and imagining. Her work invites us to consider how we might not only recover the past, but remix it toward more expansive and liberatory futures.

This program is generously funded by the Centre for Community Engagement and Social Change (CCESC).

Join us for an Artist Talk with Lux Gow Habrich to learn more about their exhibition Threaded Palms, Threaded Stars on view in the State of Flux Gallery until November 7th.

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.

ABOUT ALYSSA VERNON

Alyssa Vernon is a Jamaican-Guyanese collage artist, educator, and arts worker living in Kingston, Ontario. Alyssa is currently a full-time student pursuing her Master’s in Gender Studies at Queen’s University, but she holds a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Gender Studies and a Bachelor of Education with a Social Justice concentration from Queen’s University. Her schooling has led to her continual integration of anti-oppressive pedagogy within arts-based activism, as well as within her collage art practice, which explores Black girlhood, (un)belonging, queer liberation, and community care, drawing from Black histories to imagine liberatory futures. Alyssa is also the Founder and Lead Programmer of the Queer Collage Collective, where she facilitates anti-oppressive, healing-centred collage programs across community organizations, schools, and galleries, centring the histories and experiences of Black, racialized, and queer communities.

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 CHARMAINE LURCH
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.

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

Have an artistic project underway but aren’t sure where to take it next? Looking for fresh eyes, new perspectives, or thoughtful feedback on your work? Join this session for a supportive peer critique where you can share your work, exchange ideas, and receive feedback from your creative community.

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.

Erin Ball (ze/zir), Disabled artist and researcher and Devon Ostrom (he/him), artist and co-researcher with artmap.ca / Access Art, come together to discuss public art and explore how to make more engaging and accessible sites. In this 90-minute workshop, Devon and Erin will show participants a way of evaluating physical, sensory, informational and creative accessibility. They will also share emerging national findings and invite participants to take part in a virtual assessment exercise.

Privacy and Access Needs
This session is online, on Zoom. Auto-generated captions will be turned on for accessibility. Beyond this, we will strive not to use AI for any reason without free and prior consent of all parties involved. There will not be ASL interpretation for this event. If you require additional supports, please let us know while registering. We are striving to co-create a relaxed space where we invite you to come as you are. Camera on or off is welcome, communicate in ways that work for you, take breaks, move around, stim, etc. We will strive to offer content notices around any potentially intense subjects and we will strive to not put anyone on the spot. This presentation will aim to be low-vision friendly, with images and visual descriptions throughout.

ABOUT THE FACILITATORS

Erin Ball (ze/zir), is a white AuDHD double below knee amputee and agender human. Erin is an international circus artist, accessibility consultant, and workshop facilitator. Ze is a passionate advocate for Disability-led art, accessibility, and strives to create welcoming spaces, empower Disabled artists, and challenge industry norms. Erin has 17+ years of expertise in teaching and performing Circus Arts and 10+ years of expertise in Accessibility & Disability Arts. Ze is a co-creator of an international course on Accessibility/Disability in Movement Practices.

Devon Ostrom is a curator, artist and advocate with two decades of experience in creating projects that bridge sectors, cities and neighbourhoods. Greatest hits and collabos include a mural and research project in a maximum security prison, Arrivals Canada, the PanAmPath.com and creating a levy on outdoor advertising that has raised over $100m for art. Devon co-taught Arts Advocacy at the University of Toronto and certified in Nonprofit Management and HR Management from Ryerson. Devon holds an MA in Curating from Goldsmiths as well as a Masters of Public Administration from LSE.

Join us for the Opening Reception of our Fall Exhibitions, including Charmaine Lurch’s A Bee in the House, Lux Gow Habrich’s Threaded Palms, Threaded Stars, and Racquel Rowe’s First I Was the Horizon.

Join us for the 20 Dreams: On Wires, Wool, Bees and Black Creative Worlds, a conversation with Charmaine Lurch and Katherine McKittrick!

ABOUT CHARMAINE LURCH

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 and Creative Arts and is an educator committed to community-engaged, interdisciplinary learning.

ABOUT KATHERINE MCKITTRICK

Katherine McKittrick is Canada Research Chair in Black Studies. She researches in the areas of black studies, anti-colonial studies, and critical-creative methodologies. She authored Demonic Grounds: Black Women and the Cartographies of Struggle, edited Sylvia Wynter: On Being Human as Praxis, and co-edited, with Clyde Woods, Black Geographies and the Politics of Place. Her most recent monograph, Dear Science and Other Stories is an exploration of black methodologies. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. 

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 raised-beadwork strawberry pins! This session is facilitated by Liv Rondeau.

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.

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.

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

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 18^th 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!

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.

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.

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

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.

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!

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/]

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

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.