How OAG Fostered Creativity, Well-Being, and Connections in 2025 

The year 2025 has been remarkable for art and wellness at the OAG, and we’d love to share some highlights! The OAG knows how deeply art contributes to well-being, personal growth, healing, and social inclusion. Through innovative activities, collaborations, and partnerships, we celebrate the transformative power of creativity.

In February, OAG hosted a post-symposium HeARTcare Webinar, to review insights and feedback gathered during the HeARTcare: A Symposium for Bridging Healthcare and Culture, which emphasized the role of creativity in promoting holistic wellbeing. During 2025, OAG also expanded its community engagement programs, connecting arts and wellness for diverse audiences. Through a New Horizons grant with Connected Canadians, Radical Connections brought the arts directly to seniors (65+) with free virtual performances and interactive one-on-one Zoom sessions with musicians, visual artists, storytellers, poets, and actors.

Meanwhile, the “Good Death” research project with the Isenberg Lab at the Bruyère Health Research Institute explored dignity, emotional support, agency, and equity in end-of-life care. This work culminated in Art of a Good Death, a group exhibition presented at OAG (until January 11, 2026), featuring art that translated academic research into visual forms. Also in partnership with Bruyère, OAG presented the exhibition The Hallways of Hope (until January 11, 2026), a project that began at Bruyère Health’s Centretown site, where artist Christopher Griffin worked with patients facing complex medical challenges to create vibrant, large-scale artworks that offered purpose, connection, and a vital creative outlet.

Last May, OAG hosted the PCYMH (Precision Child and Youth Mental Health) for a collaboratory event in the context of The Art of Collaboration: Researching Youth Mental Health with researchers, CHEO doctors, youth, and their families. The event used creative activities to make connections and share knowledge in an accessible way through art.

Throughout the year, programs like Creative Space—a weekly studio program at OAG for youth and adults with lived experiences of mental illness, offered in partnership with the Royal Ottawa Mental Health Centre, continued to foster creativity, dialogue, and social inclusion. Our team also works in hospital settings and has co-created a mural with participants from The Ottawa Hospital’s On Track program for First Episode Psychosis Recovery, ran an eight-week virtual Music and Art Meditation series over the summer—open to the public and led by a student art therapist—and is currently co-creating a mural with in-patients on a mental health floor at the Ottawa General, set to be completed soon.

In addition, OAG launched initiatives aimed at advocacy, learning, and public engagement. Anti-Bullying T-Shirt Design Workshops, in partnership with Giant Tiger and Kids Help Phone, invited youth to create and digitize artwork, with one design selected for a national campaign for Pink Shirt Day through a workshops series with artist Andy Akangah. Our HeARTcare Cafés brought together arts and healthcare advocates for performances, conversations, and collaboration. And finally, OAG is developing training programs for artists and educators in care settings, covering practical skills, ethics, and impact measurement, while planning a Policy-Makers Forum to engage government and organizational leaders in arts and wellness initiatives.

Connecting the arts and health improves quality of life for everyone and 2025 has reaffirmed OAG’s commitment to fostering wellbeing, creativity, and community. Through art, storytelling, and amazing partnerships, we continue to illuminate paths toward empathy, inclusion, and care—building a stronger, more connected Ottawa.