Warm up with a day of art, conversation, and tea.
Come in from the cold and join the Ottawa Art Gallery for a day of activities on Sunday, February 16.
Together we will celebrate our current installation of Rachel Kalpana JAMES’ work Bright Oriental Star currently on view within Vision and Views: Landscape and Abstraction in the Firestone Collection of Canadian Art as the OAG hosts our annual Firestone Chat with a conversation between Alexandra Badzak (OAG Director & CEO), artist Rachel Kalpana JAMES, and Associate Professor Dr. Gillian McCann (Nipissing University) in the Alma Duncan Salon.
Exploring the intersections of Eastern and Western philosophies – and the ideas and creative processes that emerge – this year’s chat will dive into JAMES’ dynamic installation on the poet Rabindranath Tagore. The talk will present a dialogue on contemporary and historical art and invite us to explore new ways to consider works by the Group of Seven.
Before the Art & Tea, be sure to check out our Winterlude Creative Sundays workshop to create your own winter landscape, or drop in to the Firestone Gallery on Level 2 to chat with an educator and stay for a spot talk on the work of artist Marian Scott by OAG Chief Curator Rebecca Basciano!
An Art-Filled Day
10:00 AM — Special Edition Winterlude Creative Sundays Workshop: Winter Landscapes (more details available here).
10:00 AM – 12:00 PM – Drop in to the Firestone Gallery (Level 2) to view Bright Oriental Star or chat with an educator about the works on view in our current exhibition Visions and Views: Landscape and Abstraction in the FCCA!
12:00PM – 12:30PM – Stop by for a spot talk with OAG Chief Curator Rebecca Basciano to learn more about Marian Scott’s artistic practice and her work in Visions and Views (Level 2).
1:00 PM — Doors to Alma Duncan Salon (Floor 3) open. Afternoon Tea served.
1:10 PM — Opening Remarks and Converging Visions: Tagore and the Group of Seven: In Conversation with Rachel Kalpana JAMES, Dr. Gillian McCann, and Alexandra Badzak, followed by audience Q&A
REGISTER HERE
Meet the Speakers
Alexandra Badzak (B.F.A./ M. Ed) has been the Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Ottawa Art Gallery (OAG) for over ten years where she has led the charge on the OAG Expansion project, one of the most important cultural infrastructure projects in Ottawa for a generation which opened in 2018. Expanding the gallery significantly (physical space, staffing, programming, development and marketing), she also helped to profile the importance of Ottawa’s cultural scene by creating a new, progressive space for the arts and situating it on the vanguard of evolving contemporary conversations .
Alexandra is an Adjunct Professor at the University of Ottawa and the President of the Canadian Art Museum Directors Organization (CAMDO). She is also a member of the International Women’s Forum and the Association of Art Museum Directors.
Rachel Kalpana JAMES lives in Ottawa and works in site-specific performance and multi-media installation. She researches, re-imagines and re-presents marginalized histories and narratives to create new ways of seeing and understanding ourselves and contemporary society. Selected exhibitions in museums and festivals in Canada and internationally include: The AGO, ROM, and OAG (Canada), DUMBO (USA), Live Art (UK), Habitat Centre (India), and Quartair (Netherlands). The Canadian High Commission in Pakistan hosted JAMES for multi-city lectures/exhibitions in 2003. Her work is supported by numerous grants and residencies including the Banff Centre and On Duration/AADK, Spain. A graduate of Carleton University and the Ontario College of Art, JAMES is a founding member and former Director of the South Asian Visual Arts Collective (SAVAC), Toronto. Bright Oriental Star (2011) is in the Collection of the OAG.
Gillian McCann is an Associate Professor in the Religions and Cultures Department at Nipissing University. Her published work includes: Vanguard of the New Age. The Toronto Theosophical Society, 1891-1945 (2012) and Health and Healing in World Religions (2024).
Image: Rachel Kalpana JAMES, Bright Oriental Star (detail), 2011, multi-media installation (video, 8 min). Collection of the Ottawa Art Gallery: purchased with the support of the Elizabeth L. Gordon Art Program, a program of the Gordon Foundation and administered by the Ontario Arts Foundation, 2022.
