Exhibitions

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  • Unsettling The Grand: Legacies of Settlement in the Grand River Valley, from 1700 to the Present Day

    Guelph Civic Museum 52 Norfolk Street, Guelph, Ontario, Canada

    What do John Galt and the Canada Company, the Upper and Lower Canadian Rebellions of 1837-38, a canal-building enterprise, and current (and future) land claims all have in common? Using a Two-Eyed Seeing approach, this exhibition examines the failed enterprise of the Grand River Navigation Company (1832-1861) as a lens through which we can explore…

  • Light A Candle To Curse The Dark

    Guelph Civic Museum 52 Norfolk Street, Guelph, Ontario, Canada

    Amid the pomp and plump of Canada’s sesquicentennial, fifteen metalsmiths from across the country marked the occasion by crafting new sculptures from melted-down post-Confederation silver. Each piece is an expression of form and function – art object and candleholder – that, together, nod to the past and offer a glimpse of the future. The original…

  • Spotlight Series: Marjan Kaviani

    Guelph Civic Museum 52 Norfolk Street, Guelph, Ontario, Canada

    The Spotlight Series centres the work of contemporary artists in dialogue with past and present-day lived experiences in the place we call Guelph. Recognizing that the month of November invites reflections of remembrance, the Spotlight Series broadens understandings of war through the lens of two contemporary conflicts, in Ukraine and Iran. This instillation features the…

  • Spotlight Series: Taras Lachowsky

    The Spotlight Series centres the work of contemporary artists in dialogue with past and present-day lived experiences in the place we call Guelph. Recognizing that the month of November invites reflections of remembrance, the Spotlight Series broadens understandings of war through the lens of two contemporary conflicts, in Ukraine and Iran. This installation  by Ukrainian…

  • Folklore: Being and Belonging in the Grand River Region, before and after 1827

    Guelph Civic Museum 52 Norfolk Street, Guelph, Ontario, Canada

    Folkloric practices – beliefs and customs passed through generations, often by oral traditions – have been shared through stories and storytellers in this place, long before it was known as Guelph. At the turn of the 19th century, the Grand River region comprised both Indigenous and settler communities, including the Mississaugas of the Credit First…

  • Weaving Cultural Identities: Celebrating Heritage and Textile Traditions

    Guelph Civic Museum 52 Norfolk Street, Guelph, Ontario, Canada

    This Vancouver Biennale nationally-touring exhibition brings together artists and graphic designers of diverse Indigenous and Muslim backgrounds to collaborate on a series of textile artworks that celebrate the sacred, historic, and creative significance of prayer rugs and weaving traditions. The project began with a series of questions: In a contemporary society of mixed cultures and values,…

  • Art as We Are: Creative Community Care

    Guelph Civic Museum 52 Norfolk Street, Guelph, Ontario, Canada

    Organized by Art Not Shame and Guelph Museums, Art as We Are: Creative Community Care spotlights three projects centred in collective community-making through art and involving about 200 local creators: Art in Hard Times (2020), Art in a Just Recovery (2023), and Community Fabric (2024). The exhibition also shares the origin story of Art Not…

  • Darkness and Light: Inside the Ontario Reformatory

    Civic Museum 52 Norfolk Street, Guelph, Ontario, Canada

    For over 100 years, the Ontario Reformatory/Guelph Correctional Centre was imbedded in lives of the people of Guelph. The exhibition shares stories from within the institution, addressing misconceptions, propaganda, and myths – some perpetuated by the institution itself and recounted in public archives. Officially opened in 1911, the Ontario Reformatory evolved to be many things,…