Curating the Village: Open Sessions

About

Curating the Village: Open Sessions is a two-day gathering of artists, curators, and cultural workers exploring caregiving as both a lived experience and a working condition. Spanning rest, performance, workshops, and conversation, the program brings together perspectives on caring for children, parents, elders, neighbours, the dying, and broader communities.

Developed through an ongoing research-creation initiative, Curating the Village approaches care not only as a subject, but as a force that reshapes how artistic and curatorial work is organized, timed, and sustained. Marked by interruption, exhaustion, and relational obligation, caregiving challenges dominant expectations of productivity, availability, and coherence in cultural labour.

While “care” circulates widely in contemporary arts discourse, it is still rarely accommodated structurally within programming or institutional time. Through short offerings, shared
food, and collective discussion, Open Sessions considers what shifts when care is approached not simply as a trending theme, but as a method—one that foregrounds interdependence, negotiation, and the conditions that make work possible. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

Presented by and in partnership with Critical Distance Centre for Curators. Supported by: Theatre Direct, Balancing Act Canada, Toronto Arts Council.

Full Schedule

Friday, June 26 — Evening Sessions

Theatre Direct | 6:15 – 8:15 PM

6:15 – 7:15 PM
Session 1: Indu Vashist   

Take Care of Yourself: Somatic Movement for Artists and Cultural Workers
A guided movement session inviting participants to connect body, mind, and land through mindful practice. The session explores proprioception (the body’s sense of movement and position), interoception (awareness of internal sensations), exteroception (sensitivity to external stimuli), and nociception (the perception of pain) as pathways toward integration, presence, and care. Registration required.
Theatre Direct Studio — Studio H, 1 Wiltshire Ave

7:30 – 8:00 PM
Session 2: Mark Reinhart 

1, 2, 3 (are you ready)
A performance-in-process combining movement, sound, stillness, and storytelling as a reflection on—and an archive of—caring for a mother through illness and death. Theatre Direct Studio — Studio H, 1 Wiltshire Ave

Saturday, June 27 — Day Sessions 

Critical Distance Centre for Curators | 10:00 AM – 6:00 PM Hybrid access available for afternoon sessions (12:15–4:30 PM). Registration required for hybrid access.

10:00 – 10:30 AM

Arrival + Coffee / Tea

On the Walls + Throughout the Space

Michelle Wilson | 44.4 Mother/Artist Collective | Shira Leuchter
Renée Anne Bouffard-McManus | Maryna Salagub  Amanda White & Zoë Heyn-Jones (Creative Food Research Collaboratory)
Critical Distance Centre for Curators — publications

10:30 AM – 11:45 AM

Session 3: Concurrent Workshops (in person only)

Janet Hinkle 

Their Own Words
A participatory visual art workshop and installation inviting community members of all ages and skill levels to connect, play, and create alongside caregivers, care partners, and those we care for. Participants share experiences in a relaxed environment while exploring themes related to caregiving through collective making and conversation.

Ebru Winegard 

Weaving Connections: A Creative Pause for Caregivers
A hands-on weaving session inviting caregivers to slow down, connect, and create using upcycled and everyday materials. Participants explore simple techniques while transforming fabric scraps and found objects into handmade pieces. The workshop emphasizes relaxation, creativity, and community, offering a supportive space for sharing stories and experiences. No prior experience is needed.

11:45 AM – 12:15 PM

Lunch by Rahaf’s Kitchen 

Afternoon Offerings (Rolling Sessions)

12:15 – 12:45 PM
Session 4: Jeneen Frei Njootli 

Open Letter

A collaborative workshop advocating for artists who are also parents.

12:50 – 1:10 PM
Session 5: Una Janićijević

The Art Audit: Children’s Voices in the Art World

A research-based project that centers the voices of children and artist-caregivers in evaluating public art spaces, recording their impressions—joys, frustrations, and questions. Rather than asking for permission to be included, The Art Audit reclaims space and authorship for families within the art world. Originated by Lara Bozabalian and Una Janicijevic (Milk Teeth Collective), with support from Balancing Act Canada and MOTHRA: Artist-Parent Project.

1:15 – 1:35 PM
Session 6: Ragamalika Mohanraj

With You, In Rhythm

A reflection on sustaining artistic practice alongside caregiving, drawing on the structure of Bharatanatyam and the fluid storytelling of Odissi. The work considers how practice can be reimagined through rhythm, imitation, and everyday interaction, inviting children into the process rather than waiting for uninterrupted time. The presentation includes a short Bharatanatyam performance.

1:40 – 2:00 PM
Session 7: Tender Again

Community Care

Tender Again (Nyda Kwasowsky, Miru Yogarajah and Angela Shubot) is a mutual-aid, abolitionist, decolonial care initiative providing monthly drop-in bodywork, food, and community support for neighbors facing barriers to healthcare — prioritizing unhoused people, frontline workers, low-income, Indigenous, Black, trans, and migrant community members.

2:05 – 2:25 PM
Session 8: Amanda White & Zoë Heyn-Jones (Creative Food Research Collaboratory)

Intergenerational Explorations of Cabbage as Material & Metaphor

A collaborative project exploring food, care, and artistic research through the lens of the cabbage. Drawing on a recent residency with their children, the work considers themes of maternity, working-class foodways, settler culinary traditions, and intergenerational collaboration. The session shares elements of this research through an interactive performance-lecture, including a collective food-based gesture.

2:30 – 2:50 PM
Session 9: Margaret Evans (Balancing Act Canada)

Care in Practice

Highlights and learnings from Balancing Act Canada's Level UP! initiative, which empowers arts employers and organizations to integrate caregiver support into their programs—through projects such as residencies with parent/caregiver support, flexible working models, childcare subsidies, and intergenerational programming.

2:55 – 3:15 PM
Session 10: Heather Frise

I Just Want to Wake Up

A short film combining night-time conversations and drawings, capturing the pressures of pandemic life while caring for both a young child and a mother living with Alzheimer’s. Frise reflects on the in-between space of the “sandwich generation,” where care, fatigue, and time continuously overlap.

3:30 – 4:30 PM
Session 11: Yanaminah Thullah, Regatu Asefa, Sandra Dusabe, Delilah Edouard Williams

Cura — Caretaking in Curation

Grounded in the etymological root of the word curate—cura, meaning “to care”—this session brings together four curators. Informed by their lived experiences, they discuss the curatorial models they’ve developed to integrate care into their creative practices. Drawing on their respective exhibitions and programming, they highlight approaches that center community engagement and storytelling.

5:00 – 6:00 PM
Session 12: Sasha Singer-Wilson

Give and Care (In person only)

An open-format LongTable discussion (conceived by Lois Weaver) exploring caregiving as both lived experience and structural condition. Drawing on strands of feminist thought and lived practice, the conversation invites participants to reflect on how care shapes relationships to time, labour, responsibility, and artistic process. Moving between personal reflection and collective dialogue, the LongTable creates space for shared thinking around care, social expectation, and the conditions that sustain or constrain how we live and work together.