Looking Back: Five years of RMG Fridays
What makes RMG Fridays so special? That all depends on who you ask. With so many different things going on at each RMG Friday, the gallery will still deliver, but the experience will strike a different cord with each person you ask.
We asked the wonderful staff at the RMG what they love and remember most about RMG Fridays as a tribute to five years of art, music, laughter and delight.
Our CEO, Donna Raetsen-Kemp recalls a mesmerizing moment watching one of our live music acts. "I'll never forget the evening Birds of Bellwood created a magic moment. The room was mesmerized by their performance. It's a beautiful thing to see a band bring a group of people together."
A true art buff, Sam Mogelonsky, Manager of Marketing and Communications, has been star-struck several times by meeting her favourite artists at our events. "I have so many memories of RMG Fridays and love seeing the event come together each month. For me, it's meeting the artists! I was so thrilled to get to meet and chat with Ron Shuebrook, who I had been following the work of for years. Meeting Coral Short was a real privilege as I was enthralled with her video Stop Beating Yourself Up during our Boxing: The Sweet Science exhibition. As well, meeting Wayne Petti of Greylands was a treat as Cuff the Duke was one of my favourite bands during undergrad!"
One of the main ladies behind RMG Fridays, Carla Sinclair, Manager of Community and Volunteer Development, remembers the charmed aura from December's cozy holiday feel. "My favourite part of RMG Fridays is connecting with incredible people. This happens every month, be it conversations with visitors, volunteers or participating artists. One moment that really stands out is from our "Holiday Magic" event this past December. I had the privilege of witnessing singer Carolyn T from the first set of music join musicians Artemis and Dale in set two for an unrehearsed performance that filled the gallery with a sense of awe. The hushed room resonating with notes and harmonies created by a group of musicians who had only met a couple hours prior – another magical connection a la RMG Fridays."
Linda Jansma, our Senior Curator, had an unexpected celebrity sighting when she realized how popular one of our performers had become since booking him as she saw swooning fans had filled the gallery! "I remember driving up to the gallery on a Friday evening and thinking 'uh oh, there are so few cars here…' and worrying about the turnout. When I walked in, the place was packed, and young women were sitting on chairs in the Isabel McLaughlin Gallery with no intent of moving before the second act. And the second act was Scott Helman. It was awesome that he and his band were booked before he really started to get media attention – and possibly beyond our budget! As we left that evening, cars were lined up with parents picking up their daughters who had been treated to an awesome evening in a perfect venue and an artist who has become something of a household name."
Our Associate Curator, Sonya Jones, reminisces about a magical and Celtic night last month. "Every RMG Fridays offers something different. I love it it's always full of people of all ages. The January [event] was amazing; the film was excellent, Holly King was lovely, and the studio was chalk full of families painting fairy doors…not to mention the band, Ugly Horse, was great. It was a packed house with loads of buzz and activities!"
Cheryl-Ann, our Events Coordinator, sums up everything she loves most about RMG Fridays. "The RMG Fridays nights have certainly gone through many transitions over the last five years. The evening has become a place to meet friends before heading out to have dinner, or to enjoy a date night. The music is always entertaining and usually a fantastic surprise. The atmosphere is electric for a great evening. It's always refreshing to talk to a first time guest one month and see them back the next. Meeting first-hand the community and guests from the surrounding area is joyous and very rewarding. It is an event we have every month and [is] very much anticipated by many staff and enjoyed by our supports; and it's free, who doesn't love that?"
Carla Sinclair, our Manager of Community and Volunteer Development said "My favourite part of RMG Fridays is connecting with incredible people. This happens every month be it conversations with visitors, volunteers or participating artists. One moment that really stands out is from our 'Holiday Magic' event this past December. I had the privilege of witnessing singer Carolyn T from the first set of music join musicians Artemis and Dale in set two for an unrehearsed performance that filled the gallery with a sense of awe. The hushed room resonating with notes and harmonies created by a group of musicians who had only met a couple hours prior – another magical connection a la RMG Fridays."
In five years, RMG Fridays has grown into the hotspot for art and music lovers on the first Friday of every month. According to our staff, the nights are full of unforgettable music filling the Isabel, favourite artists peeking around the gallery, strangers who soon become friends, and a little bit of magic.
The RMG Fridays 5th Anniversary on Feb. 5th will be short on nothing, and if you haven't felt the magic yet, now is your chance.
Now that you've seen what our favourite memories are, what are yours? Tell us at RMG Fridays 5th Anniversary!
Holly King at Core 21
The RMG is thrilled to present artist Holly King's photograph Chalk Shoreline in the windows of Core21, a co-working space in downtown Oshawa. The artwork is in conjunction with the exhibition Holly King: Edging Towards the Mysterious and will be on view until Spring 2015.
This project is the first of a series of artworks in the windows of downtown businesses, and an on-going partnership with the RMG and Core21.
The RMG extends a special thank you to Media Sign for the beautiful vinyl printing and ongoing support.
Weekly Yoga in the Gallery
Was your New Year's resolution to improve your health and see more art? Starting January 21, enjoy yoga in the gallery and expand your mind, body and creativity with weekly yoga practice in the Isabel McLaughlin Gallery, led by local yoga instructor and RMG Volunteer Meg Cox.
Join us for a six ­week session and grab a glimpse of the works on display while centering and relaxing the body and mind. Classes are suitable for all levels. Sessions will begin with introductory poses, mindfulness and breathing techniques. Make your health a convenient habit in 2016!
Meg Cox is based in Oshawa and an active volunteer at the RMG. Her classes are a light­hearted and welcoming environment. She enjoys teaching people who, like her, never thought yoga was something they could practice or enjoy. Cox initially started yoga to help strengthen her back from rowing injuries, but was captivated by the body ­accepting and nurturing nature of the practice. Now, with over 10 years of practice, her knees and back have strengthened and she has a kindness towards her body and life she never thought possible before.
Studying with a variety of teachers around the world, Meg completed her first teacher training in 2014 through the AyurYoga Eco­Ashram in Mysore, India. She has since completed trainings with Yogaworks Yin Yoga with David Kim and attended international yoga conferences with Kathryn Budig, Kia Miller, and Forrest Yoga teacher Sinhee Ye­McCabe.
Yoga in the Gallery with Instructor Meg Cox
Session 1: January 21 – February 25, 2016
Thursdays 5:30pm – 6:30pm
Full Session: Members $75 | Non-Member $85
Drop ­In: $15
[button link="https://rmg.on.ca/activities/yoga-in-the-gallery/" new="false"]Register Today![/button]
RMG Fridays Partnership with the Moustache Club
The RMG is thrilled the announce that The Moustache Club will be the official host of the "after party" for RMG Fridays!
Following the close of RMG Fridays at 10pm, we ask guests to head over The Moustache Club at 15 Simcoe Street North to enjoy more live music by local bands. Guests at RMG Fridays who present proof of attending the event will receive a discount on cover at the Club.
We'll see you at The Moustache Club!
Public Art Guide of Oshawa
Have you picked up your Public Art Map of Oshawa yet? This guide features images and maps of public sculptures and murals through the city!
We are proud to have partnered with the City of Oshawa, Parkwood Estate, the Oshawa Community Museum, Durham College and University Institute of Ontario (UOIT) to realize this project!
Interview with Artist Noel Harding
"Hot Topics" blog posts come from the desk of Sam Mogelonsky, our Communications & Social Media Coordinator.
Sam sat down with Noel Harding, the commission winner, to discuss his project "Reverb." Noel received the TORONTO 2015 Public Sculpture Commission at the GM Centre: a site-specific sculpture commission in collaboration with the City of Oshawa, in celebration of the City's participation in the TORONTO 2015 Pan Am/Parapan Am Games.
The sculpture will be installed in the spring of 2015, adjacent to the General Motors Centre (GM Centre), the venue of the boxing and weightlifting events at next year's TORONTO 2015 Pan Am/Parapan Am Games. Join us for the unveiling ceremony on June 1st at 7:30pm.
The GM Centre
The RMG: How did you become an artist?
Noel Harding: I always admired artists but never thought I would become one. It was almost by default. I left high school at 18 (achieved grade 10) subsequently working for my father's engineering firm until I decided I had to do something with my life. I went to trade school, became an architectural draftsman, then an architectural construction technologist. I was employed as a construction estimator for which I was readily fired for lack of interest.
I landed at university as a mature student studying philosophy and working in the university video studio part-time. My involvement with video expanded from running cables, to camera operator, to tv studio director and educational script writing. Without really thinking of myself as an artist, though jealous of such, I decided to create something in video and submit it to the university's competition for art works. To my surprise, I won first prize and my resulting video works started to travel to many different countries.
In that time, video was a brand new medium – so many things had never been done before and it was a great realm to work in. However, I never like making the same thing twice. After a while, that little screen, that shape, it was just boring. I didn't look at it like storytelling because I treated it as a visual and time full medium. From there, I moved onto installation and projection works, where you walk inside of film and I treated the projection as a sculptural surface. In doing so, I could play with time and the interaction of people.
Those works began in the 70s. Then I began working with more diverse materials: kinetics, pumps and air compressors. By this time, I was involved in galleries in New York, LA, Toronto, Vancouver, Japan, Holland, Germany and England.
Working Model, Noel Harding
RMG: What was your inspiration for your public sculpture at the GM Centre?
NH: When you approach a competition, you approach it with a pragmatic consideration, you read and see what is being requested. You are responding to a desire on behalf of the funder or organization. Which is your starting point, in a way it dictates the way you think.
I like to look at how the location's identity is operating, where its physicality sits, where its actions of energy are, how it is populated. There is an effort to extracting the site and looking at its needs. The GM Centre is an auditorium, a place where people gather regarding numerous events of community interests. As such, the work required itself to cooperate with the public use and enhance the location. We are not taking about meaning at this point, other than how you frame your movement forward with a set of ideas.
RMG: What was your process for creating the concept of the sculpture? Can you explain the idea if the "blurbs" and how they relate to the final piece?
NH: If you look at the detailing in the work, you'll see a number of what we call "blurbs", like the speech bubbles one sees text in a comic book. Those are references to the audiences inside but also, to the community of Oshawa. They are not filled in, but abstract enough to allow diversity of opinions and views and, you might say, the intensity of an array of feeling – a reference to the emotions of audience.
It's hard to say how you get an idea, you wait to see something – you're playing. The blurb kind of kept coming after me. You try diverse elements; you model them up on paper, put them on a table and you start to either like it or dislike it. In most instances, it just doesn't carry and you throw it away. Something evolves until a click occurs.
RMG: Please tell us more about your choice of materials for this project.
NH: I've been using stainless steel for my last few works. Its permanence makes it ideal for outside installations. Its ability to appear and disappear, because it is reflective, is really a great advantage. I cut a blurb out of a flat piece of paper and curved it up. Then something was starting… and then you start to see the shapes you can read in a sculpture.
There's another element, I think of my work as making a personality rather than making a thing. What I mean by personality, is a thickness of character or meaning. As complex as a personality can be to build: humour, seriousness, interactive engagement.
RMG: Lights will animate the sculpture at night. Can you please explain how?
NH: I was on the site and I noticed that there was a hockey game going on inside but you couldn't tell what was going on outside. It was quite a moment of inspiration. You go to the site to inspect it and realize it's all dark at night, even though there are 1,000 people inside. How is this possible?
If I could bring the energy of what's going on inside, outside to the sculpture, then I've got a very interesting way of bringing the audience into the work. The lighting then became responsive to the activities that go on inside the centre. When there is a concert, a hockey game, or other activities, the microphone picks up that sound and influences or programs the lighting outside. As a conical shape, you might say there's an inside and an outside to the work, that shape holds light within it and reflects where the blurbs are, giving it a kind of life.
RMG: The shape of the sculpture is very inviting – what was your thought process behind it?
NH: The shape evolved as a direct result of the GM Centre being an arena. The shape mimics an arena podium. You could also suggest that it appears as a stage, or a goalie's net or a hockey mask. It is the best response to a work when people describe different images as they are then bringing their definitions to it. It's what is fascinating about a work in that it can be interpreted differently depending on the viewer. I like each work to link to its location. This location was rich in providing stimulus to present an idea.
The work faces the GM Centre entrance, it operates in an interesting way for the audience because normally you'd stand inside the work as a performer looking outward, but the way the mirrored surfaces of the blurbs works is if you're outside you see yourself as the performer inside. It creates a strong interactive dynamic. I can see people wanting to play in front to see the light and their image moving.
RMG: We are very excited about this project; can you let us know what else you are working on to make it a reality?
NH: We have just completed stamped structural drawing and detailed shop drawing which in a way take longer than the actual physical creation of the work. We have ordered the shipments of steel and are within days of being able to prefabricate the components. Stainless steel has some great advantages but it is an extraordinarily labour intensive process to gain a nice even mirrored or polished finish. It is terribly consuming and requires an enormous skill base. You really have to respect the process and the people you work with.
We will be doing some pre-testing of the sound equipment before it is installed. We are beginning light programming now. As well, we are working on all the pre-production planning for the site work, which will be longer than usual, in part, because it has to be broken down into numerous components, which then need to be polished on site. We will be onsite for a month actually placing the work.
RMG: What do you enjoy most about working in the public realm?
NH: What I love about the public realm, it's that it's obvious. It's such a beautifully free space to work in, you're not arbitrated by curation in the same way.
Noel Harding produced video art in the 70's, video projection and installation in the 80's, kinetic installations and sculpture as theatre in the 90's. His work for the last 20 years is in public art where landscape and environment are paramount. His work is an engagement in public urban realities: planning, envisioning, and mapping. He has exhibited and lectured internationally and his work is included in collections at the Vancouver Art Gallery, the National Gallery of Canada, the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the City of Amsterdam and the Hara Museum, Tokyo.
Volunteer Youth Leaders Symposium at the RMG
On Thursday 14 May, 2015, the RMG will host a one-day Volunteer Youth Leaders Symposium for volunteer coordinators and administrators in the Durham Region. The day will feature an innovative keynote speaker, panel discussions, workshops and networking opportunities. Register now to get involved!
Keynote Speaker: Michael Prosserman, UNITY Charity, Founder & Executive Director
Michael Prosserman (aka break dancer "Bboy Piecez") felt the transformative impact of his performance and saw the potential to share this impact with others. He will share the exciting journey of UNITY Charity's rapid growth and his success in achieving life-changing outcomes for youth. UNITY engages youth 10 to 18 by implementing school and community programs helping youth positively express their stress and develop skills for success. UNITY empowers youth to make better choices as leaders, mentors and positive community role models leading to more productive citizens, safer schools, and healthier communities.
Afternoon Workshops:
Workshop 1: Youth Engagement 101
The Students Commission of Canada, Centre of Excellence for Youth Engagement
Workshop 2: Program Evaluation
Darren O'Donnell, Artistic & Research Director, of Mammalia
Spaces are limited.
We are grateful to the Ontario Trillium Foundation for supporting this symposium.
RMG Fridays: 4th Anniversary Bash!
Join us on Friday 6 February from 7-10pm as we celebrate our 4th anniversary, this RMG Fridays is not to be missed! Our co-hosts for the night include The Honourable Mayor John Henry, Dr. Tim McTiernan of UOIT, Don Lovisa of Durham College, and Leo Groarke of Trent University.
The night is jam-packed with sights and sounds including the much-anticipated performance by Grey Lands, Wayne Petti's return to his alt-country roots and indie rockers Howie Sutherland and The Indigos. Share your favourite RMG Fridays moment and check out the opening of Closeups: Margaret Rodgers.
On the first Friday of the month, join the RMG in celebrating local talent. The gallery buzzes with live musical performances, interactive art experiences, open gallery spaces, social mingling and more. Suitable for music lovers, youth, families, date nights, and culture-vultures.
While you're at the RMG, enjoy a selection of tapas prepared by Pillar's Catering.
The RMG is grateful to the Ontario Trillium Foundation for their support of RMG Fridays. The RMG also extends its thanks to the Aked Endowment, the Ontario Arts Council, the City of Oshawa and the Canada Council for the Arts for the support of our exhibition programming.
Image – Margaret Rodgers, Fireman and Fan, Prospect Park 1900, 2014 and Grey Lands
Happy Holidays from the RMG!
How are you planning to transform this year? Whether it's taking an art class, listening to a new band play at RMG Fridays, experiencing a new work of art in our contemporary exhibitions, or visiting an old friend in our Permanent Collection, make visiting the RMG part of your 2015 routine.
We look forward to seeing you often in 2015. Happy holidays and Happy New Year from the RMG!
24, 25, 26 December, 2014: Closed
27, 28, 29, 30 December, 2014: 12-4pm
31 December, 2014: Closed
1 January, 2015: Closed
2 January: 10-5pm
Sneak Peaks: Pan Am Games!
"Hot Topics" blog posts come from the desk of Sarah Felgemacher, our
Communications & Social Media Co-ordinator.
In 2015, Toronto will be host to the Pan American/Parapan American Games, the third largest international multi-sport tournament behind the Olympic Summer Games and the Asian Games. Six thousand athletes from 41 participating countries will compete in 36 sporting events at over 30 venues across 16 municipalities.
That's a wonderfully wide scope, and the General Motors Centre (GM Centre), Oshawa, will be a host venue for a one month period over July and August, 2015. The stadium at the heart of the City will be the competition grounds for the boxing and weightlifting events. This means the next 15 months will be a thrilling time of preparation, and the RMG is excited to be involved in such a momentous event!
Be sure to save Friday, 11 July on your calendar! The City will be hosting a one-year countdown event at the GM Centre – children's activities, boxing and weightlifting activation stations and live musical performances are just a few of the events scheduled for the evening. Join us as we countdown to the festivities! The event kicks off at 5pm.
Beginning in May 2015, the RMG presents an exhibition featuring contemporary works focusing on the theme of boxing. What better way to get in the spirit of the games than to see a creative view of athletics?
Pete Doherty, Niagara Falls Memorial Arena, Niagara Falls, Ontario, 2003.
The next year will be in inspirational time in Oshawa. This is an opportunity to showcase what our City and community is about and we are excited to be a part of it all!
For more information about the One-Year Countdown and future events: http://www.oshawa.ca/panam/default.asp
For more information on the Pan American/Parapan American Games in Toronto 2015: http://www.toronto2015.org/
For volunteer information: http://www.oshawa.ca/panam/join.asp