Blackwood Gallery

Blackwood Gallery The Blackwood Gallery is a contemporary art gallery situated on the Mississauga campus of the University of Toronto (UTM).

Today we’re sharing a recent addition to the Blackwood’s evolving glossary! “Choreography”—the organization and composi...
06/23/2026

Today we’re sharing a recent addition to the Blackwood’s evolving glossary!

“Choreography”—the organization and composition of bodies, movements, and gestures— displaces written notation, emphasizing what can be learned through spatial language. Central to this is the relationships held between individuals and their motions in space. Grounded in reciprocity, choreography may take a processional format through which grief and urgency can be endured across the senses. In inclusive dance practice, the work of choreography is one of transposing and adapting movements to realize the breadth of bodily possibilities.

Explore these past publications, projects, performances, and more on the , an ongoing, cumulative project that assembles concepts explored in the Blackwood’s programs.

1-2. Jessi Stegall and Ilya Vidrin in 𝘔𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘰𝘳 𝘓𝘦𝘴𝘴, 2022. Photo: Grant Hao-Wei Lin. In Ilya Vidrin (Ilya Vidrin), “Thresholds of Resistance,” SDUK15: 𝘊𝘖𝘕𝘍𝘐𝘋𝘐𝘕𝘎, May 2023.

4-5. Faye Driscoll (Faye Driscoll), 𝘞𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨. Presented by The Blackwood at Daniels Spectrum, Toronto, 2024. Photo: Henry Chan.

6. 𝘮𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘴𝘵𝘶𝘥𝘪𝘦𝘴: 𝘑𝘰𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘯𝘢 𝘏𝘰𝘶𝘴𝘦𝘩𝘰𝘭𝘥𝘦𝘳 + 𝘍𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘪𝘴𝘤𝘰-𝘍𝘦𝘳𝘯𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘰 𝘎𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘢𝘥𝘰𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘊𝘰𝘯𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 (@ householderjohanna and Francisco-Fernando Granados). Part of Running with Concepts: The Choreographic, September 18. 2016.

7. Shay Erlich (Shay Erlich), “Dancing Through the Spaces Where We Least Belong,” in 𝘈𝘭𝘭 𝘏𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘴 𝘖𝘯 𝘋𝘦𝘤𝘬!: 𝘙𝘦𝘴𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘈𝘤𝘤𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘜𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘖𝘶𝘳 𝘚𝘦𝘯𝘴𝘦𝘴, February 2026. Photo: Erlich facilitates Hybrid Embodiment, November 13, 2024. Photo: Henry Chan.

8. Seika Boye (Seika Boye) in conversation with Devon Healey, “Reorganizing the Sensorium: Dance, Blindness, and Immersive Descriptive Audio” in 𝘈𝘭𝘭 𝘏𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘴 𝘖𝘯 𝘋𝘦𝘤𝘬!, February 2026.

Image descriptions are in the comments below!

Documentation of 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘊𝘭𝘢𝘴𝘴𝘳𝘰𝘰𝘮 along with a new Reader post by Curatorial Research Assistant Nusha Naziri (.naziri) are ...
06/16/2026

Documentation of 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘊𝘭𝘢𝘴𝘴𝘳𝘰𝘰𝘮 along with a new Reader post by Curatorial Research Assistant Nusha Naziri (.naziri) are now up on our website!

Naziri writes: “The architecture of the classroom is typically constructed around notions of order, repetition, and the regulation of bodies. In 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘊𝘭𝘢𝘴𝘴𝘳𝘰𝘰𝘮,… tensions between disobedience and order arise through a reorganization of authority and attention.” Thinking with bell hooks and Paulo Freire who write on critical pedagogy, Naziri continues, “education is most transformative when it upholds reciprocal teacher-student connections, privileging collective knowledge production over prescriptive instruction. By encouraging students to reimagine the classroom, Benohoud reconfigures the role of the teacher as one guided by experimentation and collaboration through art making.”

Check out the Blackwood’s website for the full Reader post, “Reconfiguring Authority and Play in 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘊𝘭𝘢𝘴𝘴𝘳𝘰𝘰𝘮,” additional images from the series by Hicham Benohoud (), installation views of the lightboxes at UTM (), and our upcoming public programming. Link in bio!

Images: Hicham Benohoud, 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘊𝘭𝘢𝘴𝘴𝘳𝘰𝘰𝘮, 1994–2002. Gelatin silver print. Installation View. Photo: Toni Hafkenscheid.



Image descriptions in alt-text and the comments below.

Documentation of 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘊𝘭𝘢𝘴𝘴𝘳𝘰𝘰𝘮 along with a new Reader post by Curatorial Research Assistant Nusha Naziri (Nusha) are no...
06/15/2026

Documentation of 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘊𝘭𝘢𝘴𝘴𝘳𝘰𝘰𝘮 along with a new Reader post by Curatorial Research Assistant Nusha Naziri (Nusha) are now up on our website!

Naziri writes: “The architecture of the classroom is typically constructed around notions of order, repetition, and the regulation of bodies. In 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘊𝘭𝘢𝘴𝘴𝘳𝘰𝘰𝘮,… tensions between disobedience and order arise through a reorganization of authority and attention.” Thinking with bell hooks and Paulo Freire who write on critical pedagogy, Naziri continues, “education is most transformative when it upholds reciprocal teacher-student connections, privileging collective knowledge production over prescriptive instruction. By encouraging students to reimagine the classroom, Benohoud reconfigures the role of the teacher as one guided by experimentation and collaboration through art making.”

Check out the Blackwood’s website for the full Reader post, “Reconfiguring Authority and Play in 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘊𝘭𝘢𝘴𝘴𝘳𝘰𝘰𝘮,” additional images from the series by Hicham Benohoud (Hicham Benohoud), installation views of the lightboxes at UTM (UTM), and our upcoming public programming. Link in bio!

Images: Hicham Benohoud, 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘊𝘭𝘢𝘴𝘴𝘳𝘰𝘰𝘮, 1994–2002. Gelatin silver print. Installation View. Photo: Toni Hafkenscheid.



Image descriptions in the comments below.

Lucy El-Sherif and Zaytouna Academy of Cultural Arts will join us next week to reflect on dabke as both cultural practic...
06/03/2026

Lucy El-Sherif and Zaytouna Academy of Cultural Arts will join us next week to reflect on dabke as both cultural practice and embodied pedagogy. Dabeekah (dabke dancers) describe feeling inshirāḥ: a sense of somatic relief and exhilaration even amidst hamm, or hardship. The interplay between body, place, and symbols in shatat dabke in the diaspora nurtures what Carol Fadda-Conrey calls a “translocal consciousness” [1]: a subjectivity anchored in Palestine but locally shaped by the lands where Palestinians live and the political demands of the present moment.

With every stomp, dabeekah carry an embodied relationship to land that contours sociality and peoplehood. Attending to dabeekah’s own theorizing reveals dabke as a form of Palestinian world-making on Palestinian terms, sustaining continuity under ongoing conditions of violence and deracination.

The 45-minute talk will be followed by a dabke performance by members of the Zaytouna Academy of Cultural Arts.

Join us on Wednesday, June 10th for “Itshalit wit hatit,” 12-2pm at the Blackwood Gallery, Kaneff Centre, room 140, University of Toronto Mississauga. Free to attend, snacks and refreshments provided. Register on Eventbrite: https://buff.ly/LqjQX9U

Presented alongside The Classroom by Hicham Benohoud, “Itshalit wit hatit” is part of an event series on experimental education, movement, and creative pedagogy running throughout the summer. Visit the Blackwood website for the full public program schedule, descriptions, contributor bios, and access information: https://buff.ly/oVbI7Yu

[1] Carol Fadda-Conrey, Contemporary Arab-American Literature: Transnational Reconfigurations of Citizenship and Belonging. New York: New York University Press, 2014.

Slide 1 & 3 photos: Zaytouna Academy of Cultural Arts. Slide 4 quote: ‘Abd al-Aziz Abu Hadba, quoted in David A. McDonald, My Voice is My Weapon: Music, Nationalism, and the Poetics of Palestinian Resistance (Duke University Press, 2013), 20.

06/01/2026

We are pleased to announce a four-part program series in conversation with the lightbox exhibition, The Classroom, by Hicham Benohoud. Rooted in The Classroom is an invitation to enact alternative modes of learning amid educational austerity that erodes access, experimentation, and critical inquiry. Led by guest contributors whose research spans performance, anthropology, critical disability studies, and social justice education, this program animates reflexive, embodied, and community-sustaining pedagogies. Sessions will foreground culture-rooted practices and plural forms of knowledge-making, engaging choreography, accessibility, illustration, storytelling, dance, and photography as tools for shared learning and artmaking. As in Benohoud’s Classroom, learning will unfold through collective inquiry, dialogue, and play.

For our first event, Itshalit wit hatit, Lucy El-Sherif will bring together performance, movement, and public scholarship, to consider dabke as both cultural practice and embodied pedagogy. Stubbornly physical, communal, and linked to land and history, the Palestinian folk-dance, dabke, embodies synchronicity such that even though it is performed to bring people closer to Palestine, it also brings dabeekah (dabke dancers) closer to each other. Attending to dabeekah’s own theorizing reveals dabke as a form of Palestinian world-making on Palestinian terms, sustaining continuity under ongoing conditions of violence and deracination.

The 45-minute talk will be followed by a dabke performance by members of the Zaytouna Academy of Cultural Arts.

Wednesday, June 10th, 12-2pm at the Blackwood Gallery, 140 Kaneff. Visit the Blackwood website for program descriptions, contributor bios, and access information. Free to attend, snacks and refreshments provided. Register on Eventbrite: https://buff.ly/a05AdPI

Image credits: slide 1) Jose Miguel ‘Miggy' Esteban, CanAsian Dance and Toronto Dance Theatre EntryWaves Residency, 2024. Courtesy the artist. 2) Photo: Zaytouna Academy of Cultural Arts. 4) Jose Miguel ‘Miggy' Esteban, CanAsian Dance and Toronto Dance Theatre EntryWaves Residency, 2024. Courtesy the artist. 6) From Q***r & Trans Antagonism Against the Consortium of Let Die in Beirut (forthcoming book). Courtesy Maya El Helou.

Haptics have increasingly expanded into everyday encounters in our technologies and interfaces, creating a substrate in ...
05/27/2026

Haptics have increasingly expanded into everyday encounters in our technologies and interfaces, creating a substrate in which accessibility can be explored and expanded. Jeremy Toussaint-Baptiste’s work with “sound cannons” reproduces low-frequency sound to expand listening into felt registers. Maryam Hafizirad and Ely Lyonblum’s collaboration renders poetry’s “rhythms, polarities, and fractures as a graphic score in collage—a tactile medium that echoes the haptic feedback of [their] performance.”

Explore these texts, events, projects, and more on the , an ongoing, cumulative project that assembles concepts used in the Blackwood’s publications and programs.

Images:
1. Jeremy Toussaint-Baptiste, Y’all Don’t Wanna Hear Me (You Just Wanna Dance) performed at The University of Toronto Mississauga, February 6, 2025. Courtesy UTM Office of Communications. Photo: Nick Iwanyshyn.
2. Excerpt from the glossary entry for “Haptic.”
3. Quote from Fraser McCallum curatorial text, The Art Gallery Problem at Dazibao, 2026.
4. From left to right: Home Affairs with Ozlem Ozkal, Artsit, 2017 and Leisure, Conversations with Magic Forms, 2017. Installation View. Photo:Toni Hafkenscheid.
5. Quote from Amber Berson and Juliana Driever curatorial text, Take Care, Circuit 2: Care Work, 2017.
6. Maryam Hafizirad, Instead, 2025. Collage, mixed media, ceramic, 51 x 35.5cm. Courtesy the artist. Photo: Max Safavi. Quote from Ely Lyonblum with Maryam Hafizirad, “Gestures Across Auditory and Deaf Cultures,” All Hands On Deck!, 2026.

05/13/2026

Opening today in the UTM campus lightboxes (University of Toronto Mississauga), The Classroom featuring images by Hicham Benohoud.

The Classroom consists of over 100 photographs taken by Hicham Benohoud while working as an art teacher in Marrakech between 1994 and 2002. Benohoud staged increasingly elaborate scenes with his students, generating a body of work that reflects postcolonial identity, performance, and pedagogy.

The series arose from Benohoud’s frustrations with Morocco’s rigid educational system of the time, whose curriculum of repetition and mimicry bored him and his students alike. In The Classroom, Benohoud uses the school furniture and art supplies at his disposal to create quirky, witty, and poignant images.

The Classroom is not simply cheerful portraiture, as many of his students’ expressions convey ambivalence with the camera. Benohoud suggests their unease reflects the hardships or repression they faced in Morocco’s postcolonial society. The artist’s props often confine, shape, or obscure the sitter’s body, creating “visual metaphors [that] reflect the constraints of my own reality.” These tableaux exceed confinement to reveal forms of agency latent in everyday life, with the imagination and wit of young people at their centre.

A public program series will run alongside The Classroom throughout Spring/Summer 2026. Further details will be announced shortly.

Curated by Fraser McCallum.

The Blackwood gratefully acknowledges the support of the University of Toronto Mississauga, Canada Council for the Arts, and Ontario Arts Council. The Classroom is proudly sponsored by U of T affinity partners, Manulife (Manulife) and TD Insurance (TD Insurance). Discover the benefits of affinity products! https://buff.ly/8rRg1s2

Image credit: Hicham Benohoud, The Classroom, 1994–2002. Gelatin silver print. Courtesy the artist.

While some definitions of sensorium are limited to only include the brain or mind, others counter mind-body division in ...
04/15/2026

While some definitions of sensorium are limited to only include the brain or mind, others counter mind-body division in favour of an integrated embodied cognition that proposes both as equally necessary to interface experience and environment. Highlighted here from the Blackwood’s glossary, the sensorium—a body’s entire sensory apparatus—includes all the senses and can be explored at microscopic or macroscopic levels, in human and more-than-human bodies. Recently discussed in Devon Healey and Seika Boye’s conversation in the publication All Hands On Deck!, the idea of the sensorium as an organizing principle or essential mediator has been threaded through many contributions across the Blackwood’s programs.

Explore these texts, events, projects, and more on the , an ongoing, cumulative project that assembles concepts used in the Blackwood’s publications and programs.

Images:
1. k.g. Guttman, Hands Become Ears, 2017. Photo: Yuula Benivolski. Courtesy the artist.
2. Excerpt from the glossary entry for “Sensorium.”
3. Quote from Devon Healey and Seika Boye’s conversation, Reorganizing the Sensorium: Dance, Blindness, and Immersive Descriptive Audio,” All Hands On Deck!, 2026.
4. Baum & Leahy, Sensory Cellumonials: Taste portal, 2021. Courtesy the artist.
5. Quote from Baum & Leahy’s description of Sensory Cellumonials, 2021.
6. Quote from Farah Yusuf’s curatorial statement for The Unfathomable Weight, 2023.
7. Erika DeFreitas, to be sought, rounded, and full of grace (no.6), 2023. Courtesy the artist.

Are you a post-secondary student interested in contemporary art curating and research? Join us in the role of Curatorial...
03/30/2026

Are you a post-secondary student interested in contemporary art curating and research? Join us in the role of Curatorial Research Assistant, a Young Canada Works in Heritage Organizations position for Summer 2026, beginning May 11. Visit our website for the full job description, eligibility, and instructions for applying: https://buff.ly/bvYWaQM

Deadline to apply: April 24, 2026, 11:59pm EST

Image: Oughtism, February 5–7, 2026. Photo: Nick Iwanyshyn.

Image description: Attendees are gathered around craft paper covered tables, cutting, collaging, and drawing together. The image is against a bright lime-green background with grey circles and includes black text that reads “Join our team” and includes the job title and application deadline.

Address

3359 Mississauga Road North, University Of Toronto
Mississauga, ON
L5L1C6

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Tuesday 12pm - 5pm
Wednesday 12pm - 9pm
Thursday 12pm - 5pm
Friday 12pm - 5pm
Saturday 12pm - 3pm

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