Event Description - The Art in the County Art Symposium connects the public with leading Canadian artists and art professionals through a series of insightful lectures. These engaging talks offer the opportunity to hear directly from established voices in the arts about their practices, ideas, and the issues shaping their work. Each session runs 60 minutes including a short break. You may choose to attend 1 talk, 2, or all 3!

This year, we're proud to feature presentations by our distinguished 2025 Art in the County Jurors, each exploring a distinct area of expertise:

Art in the County Art Symposium Schedule (Featuring our 2025 jurors):

  • 2:00 | Time as Material in Art with Nicole Collins, interdisciplinary artist and Associate Professor of Material and Visual Culture at OCADU

    Drawing from her 35-year art practice, Nicole Collins will discuss the circuitous trajectory of a single artwork across an 11-year span, focusing on the creation, decreation and transformation, from painting to painting to film.

  • 3:00 | Indigenous Ways and Curation in the Institution with Michelle LaVallee, Director, Indigenous Ways and Decolonization Department and Curatorial Initiatives, National Gallery of Canada

    What does it mean to decolonize institutions? How can the people who work in institutions identify and dismantle the colonial legacies within the institutions where they work? There have been ongoing calls across the globe pushing institutions to reframe hegemonic narratives and to share power and authority when it comes to expanded/self-representations within programming and staffing. Michelle LaVallee will discuss these and other topics through her thinking and experience around her own curatorial practice, Indigenous-led projects, and decolonial work within Institutions including at the National Gallery of Canada.

  • 4:15 | From Laneways to Libraries with Jim Bravo, multi-award-winning painter and muralist, in conversation with Stacey Sproule to discuss the evolution of Jim's career as a muralist. They will speak about the highs and lows of public art, the process and considerations of working in public space, and what it's like working with community, municipalities and corporate clients as an artist. Hear all about Jim's fascinating career and find out more about the County's upcoming Public Art Program.

The 32nd Annual Art in the County Juried Exhibition and Sale will be held June 27 - July 13, 2025. For more info visit www.artinthecounty.com.

  • This is the cost of attending 1 talk, but we encourage you to choose this fee if the cost of attending two or more talks is a barrier. HST is included.

  • This is the cost of attending 2 talks, but we encourage you to choose this fee if the cost of attending all three talks is a barrier. HST is included.

  • This is the cost of attending all 3 talks, or if you wish to help us in our efforts to remove barriers to participation by offering a sliding scale model. HST is included.

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Speakers

Nicole Collins Interdisciplinary artist and Associate Professor of Material and Visual Culture at OCADU (Toronto)

Nicole is an interdisciplinary artist and educator based in Toronto, whose material-driven practice has spanned more than three decades. Focusing on the effect and subsequent affect, of time, memory, accumulation, force, and heat on visceral and ephemeral materials including wax, charcoal, plants, oils and metals, through painting, drawing, digital reproduction, installation, intervention, video, and sound, works have engaged with themes of mortality, grief, ephemerality, decreation, and resilience.

Collins has exhibited widely, with solo shows at venues such as the Art Gallery of Ontario, The Koffler Gallery, and Bakuroyokoyama Gallery in Tokyo, and her work has been included in landmark publications like Abstract Painting in Canada (Roald Nasgaard) and the 3rd edition of A Concise History of Canadian Painting (Dennis Reid). Collins completed a BFA Hons. in Fine Art at University of Guelph (1988) and Master of Visual Studies at University of Toronto (2009). She is currently Associate Professor of Material and Visual Culture at Ontario College of Art & Design University (OCADU). Since 2024 Collins has served as co-director of the OCADU Sustainable Colour Lab, where she researches local natural pigment and binder sources and their applications to art practice.

Michelle LaVallee Director, Indigenous Ways and Decolonization Department and Curatorial Initiatives, National Gallery of Canada (Ottawa)

Michelle is Anishinaabe (Ojibway) and a member of the Neyashiingamiing Chippewas of Nawash Unceded First Nation, and has Canadian Settler heritage of English/Scottish/French descent from her mother. She currently holds the inaugural position as Director of Indigenous Ways and Decolonization Department and Curatorial Initiatives at the National Gallery of Canada. Previously she was Director of the Indigenous Art Centre at Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada, and Curator at the MacKenzie Art Gallery in Regina, Saskatchewan.

LaVallee’s career is dedicated to championing Indigenous art and artists and exploring the colonial relations that have shaped historical and contemporary culture through numerous exhibitions, notably: Radical Stitch (2022-2025, co-curated with Sherry Farrell Racette and Cathy Mattes) and 7: Professional Native Indian Artists Inc. (2013-2016). Guided by decolonial and Indigenous methodologies, she works to challenge historical relationships with art and history institutions towards new ways of engaging with people, space, and the land. LaVallee has participated in a number of Canadian Indigenous Curators Delegations internationally and her work has been recognized widely, including with three Saskatchewan Book Awards.

Jim Bravo Multi-award-winning painter and muralist (Toronto)

Jim is a Toronto-based oil painter and muralist of Afrolatino descent, born in Ecuador, whose vibrant public artworks have become fixtures across Ontario. A graduate of the Ontario College of Art & Design University (OCADU) with a focus on Fine Art and public monumental painting, Bravo has completed over 30 public murals and numerous private commissions, including high-profile collaborations with StreetARToronto and Indigenous Artist Philip Cote. His community-engaged practice includes mentorship through youth arts initiatives and leadership on major regional projects such as the 2024 IDEA Mural Cycle in Muskoka. Among many accolades, Bravo is the recipient of the prestigious 2023 Kingston Prize for Contemporary Canadian Portraiture, multiple grants from the Toronto and Ontario Arts Councils, and four consecutive Toronto Association of Business Improvement Areas (TABIA) Mural Awards from the City of Toronto.

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