Critical Distance

Critical Distance not-for-profit project space, publisher, and professional network devoted to critical curatorial inquiry and practice in Toronto, Canada, and beyond

Critical Distance provides a venue and context for curators and artists in all stages of their professional development. As an independent curator-led initiative, our mission springs from the interests, motivations and methodologies of contemporary curatorial practice, foregrounding critical inquiry, collaboration, and experimentation in making new connections between artists, art forms, ideas, im

ages, objects, environments, and audiences. Through our exhibitions and events, we seek to stimulate curiosity, conversation, and critical thinking on contemporary culture and the curation/creation of exhibitions themselves through the lenses of collecting, organizing, displaying, and viewing or experiencing. Through our publishing program, each exhibition is fully documented in a modest yet beautifully designed catalogue with original curatorial essay — a welcome benefit and service to the artists and curators whose work is published, as well as to audiences who receive reader-friendly context on the work and exhibition. Through an inclusive and varied program of events including both kid– and adult-friendly talks, screenings, workshops, performances and more, we aim to enrich the exhibition experience and encourage active audience participation in our projects and programming. In supporting and collaborating with curators, artists, organizations, and audiences, Critical Distance advances topical, outward-looking, forward-thinking, and visually/conceptually compelling projects in a space that is welcoming, unintimidating, and accessible for all. Our unique model of providing support for curatorial practice and inquiry while fostering risk-taking and experimentation encourages participants to consider new approaches to the display and dissemination of art, ideas, and critical discourses on the intersections between curating and contemporary issues.

✨ Join us next Friday & Saturday for Curating the Village: Open Sessions Program, a two-day gathering exploring care, co...
06/19/2026

✨ Join us next Friday & Saturday for Curating the Village: Open Sessions Program, a two-day gathering exploring care, community, labour, and creative practice.

Here’s a quick look at what’s happening:

Friday (June 26, evening sessions at Theatre Direct)
• Somatic rest workshop with Indu Vashist → Registration required (link in bio)
• Evening performance

Saturday (June 27, daytime sessions at Critical Distance)
• Welcome coffee & light snacks when exploring displays in the space
• Two Concurrent workshops in the morning
• Free lunch catered by Rahaf
• Afternoon presentations, discussions & screenings
• Snack breaks throughout
• Free on-site childcare available

Please register via the link in bio. Visit the program page (link also in bio) for the full schedule and contributor bios.

Once registered, you are welcome to attend any or all of the sessions per day as desired (you are not required to attend all sessions).

STUDY HALL continues at Critical Distance with The Contingent Image, Part Two, featuring a new double-sided Billboard on...
06/19/2026

STUDY HALL continues at Critical Distance with The Contingent Image, Part Two, featuring a new double-sided Billboard on Shaw by artist John Climenhage and a remixed assemblage in the gallery by curator Shani K Parsons. Like the painted wood panels on the gallery wall, the individual prints installed on the billboard were placed improvisationally by the artist, and through their materiality enact both visual and sculptural movements and moments.

For this iteration of The Contingent Image, we also offer two new participatory public programs: REALTIME, a slow art x sound experience available for visitors on demand during gallery hours, and The Contingent Curriculum, a reading/writing and conversation circle starting up in July.

Visit us at both locations soon, before the image shifts once more!

Billboard
📍 180 Shaw Street, outside Youngplace, one block west of Trinity Bellwoods Park.
🕒 On view 24/7.

Gallery
📍 Critical Distance Centre for Curators. Suite 122 at 401 Richmond Street West.
🕒 Thursdays through Saturdays from 12–6 pm and by chance and appointment.

Please note: from June 25-July 4, public hours will be by chance and appointment as we prepare for upcoming events including Curating the Village: Open Sessions, and Dancemakers’ 2nd annual symposium, Curating with Values (see our June update via our Linktree, for details and registration for both events). Starting July 9, we will return to our regular gallery hours, Thursday-Saturdays from 12-6 pm, through mid-August. If in doubt, feel free to reach out: email [email protected] or text us at 647-930-6930 to confirm open hours. Thank you!

We are delighted to have Ivy Thomas join us as a volunteer this summer! Ivy was originally introduced to Critical Distan...
06/19/2026

We are delighted to have Ivy Thomas join us as a volunteer this summer!

Ivy was originally introduced to Critical Distance during her time as a member of the Hart House Art Cohort, where she became interested in Critical Distance’s mission to explore exhibition-as-research projects and build stronger artist and curator networks.

Ivy is going into her fourth year at UofT studying Drama, Art History and Sociology and is ambitious to pursue a career in the arts. She is particularly passionate about the ways that art can be used for positive social change, creating spaces for those who do not have equal access to resources and creative outlets, or feel excluded from conventional art spaces. She hopes to uplift the voices of those who have not been heard, and celebrate diverse backgrounds and cultures. Through the Hart House Art Committee, she has built her love for curation and arts events planning, gaining hands on experience installing exhibitions and running student art markets. As a photographer and student events planner, she loves finding ways to bring people together through creative expression. In her time at Critical Distance, she is excited to learn more about arts administration, event programming and community building.

Welcome and thank you for your contributions!

Thank you to everyone who joined us for Making Otherwise this past Sunday. We are deeply grateful to the Collaboratory f...
06/19/2026

Thank you to everyone who joined us for Making Otherwise this past Sunday. We are deeply grateful to the Collaboratory for Black Poiēsis The Collaboratory for Black Poiēsis, and to curator Ingrid Jones Ingrid Jones for bringing Lara Arabian Lara Arabian, Andreann Asibey Andreann Asibey, and Amy Wing-Hann Wong Amy Wong together in conversation across disciplines and beyond. 

Thanks also to everyone who showed up, listened, and contributed. We hope this gathering continues to resonate and extend beyond the room. Let’s keep the conversation going!

As we count down to Making Otherwise, this is a friendly reminder to RSVP for Sunday’s gathering (link in bio). We’d lov...
05/29/2026

As we count down to Making Otherwise, this is a friendly reminder to RSVP for Sunday’s gathering (link in bio). We’d love to have you join us for an afternoon of conversation, reflection, and connection. Secure your spot and come be part of it!

Making Otherwise is supported by the Collaboratory for Black Poiēsis (CBP) , an experimental, multidisciplinary research incubator and co-working research-creation hub, an archival nexus, and creative atelier/studiolab that is rooted in the importance of black study, Afro-Indigenous relations, and Afro-diasporic technologies. It is a coalitional space where transnational and anticolonial cultural workers, educators, researchers, technicians, artists, activists, system-impacted and other community members collaboratively and creatively attend to the genre-defying aesthetic interventions of Black life and Black studies. We embrace our roles as makers and maintainers, relishing liberatory practices and ideas about where we’ve been and (re)imagining where and who we want to be, together.

Established in 2022, the CBP is led by SA Smythe , Associate Professor of Black Studies & the Archive at the University of Toronto. As a critical theorist, multi-instrumentalist, and transmedia storyteller, Smythe’s work conjures black belonging and thriving relations beyond borders. Rooted in this antecartographic practice, Smythe weaves together poetics, performance, interactive light sculptures, soundscape compositions, monoprints, and archival ephemera. Their transmedia works have been featured internationally in solo and collaborative performances, film and multimedia installations, anthologies, and festivals.

We look forward to seeing you in Suite 122 at 401 Richmond St this Sunday, May 31, 2026, from 4–6 PM at Critical Distance for the roundtable.

We’re grateful to Ingrid Jones , curator of Making Otherwise, for bringing this program to Critical Distance. This round...
05/28/2026

We’re grateful to Ingrid Jones , curator of Making Otherwise, for bringing this program to Critical Distance. This roundtable will bring together artists and cultural workers to reflect on sustaining creative practices with care and intention in a time shaped by digital acceleration, overproduction, and extraction.

Ingrid Jones is a Toronto-based curator and creative director who examines the intersections of decolonial curatorial practice, transnational solidarities, and the politics of museum representation. Her research engages themes of marginalization and refusal through installation, media, and collaborative projects. She has curated exhibitions and programs for the Doris McCarthy Gallery (Toronto), SAVVY Contemporary (Berlin), and the Art Museum at the University of Toronto. She has also lectured and created masterclasses on photographic best practices and design for Toronto Metropolitan University and Sheridan Institute, respectively. Her work has been supported by the Ontario Arts Council, the Canada Council for the Arts, and the Reesa Greenberg Curatorial Studies Award , and featured in Vice Berlin and Art, Design & Communication in Higher Education, among others.

Join us Sunday, May 31, 2026, from 4–6 PM to be part of the conversation.

Introducing Amy Wing-Hann Wong as part of Making Otherwise, an intimate roundtable on artistic sustainability, resistan...
05/27/2026

Introducing Amy Wing-Hann Wong as part of Making Otherwise, an intimate roundtable on artistic sustainability, resistance, and care in an era of acceleration and precarity.

Wong (b. 1981, Toronto, she/they) is an angry Asian feminist disguised as an oil painter. Her practice ranges from painting-based installation to collaborative projects that explore the politics of making noise and thinking through together. She is an Assistant Professor at OCAD University.

Often inverting private and public spaces, Wong asserts ways in which a leakiness and messiness of things can aspire towards intersectional feminist and anti-colonial ways of being. Their practice oscillates between varying systems of representation to evoke non-linear, personal narratives. They often work with what they consider a bad idea or a cliché to redefine them on their own terms. Wong’s current research explores mother work as methodology and as cultural transmission.

Wong completed her BFA at Concordia University in Montreal, MFA at York University in Toronto and post-graduate studies at De Ateliers in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Recent projects include Contemporary Kids at the Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Oshawa; other tongues part I communication at Onsite Gallery, Toronto; and A Glitter of Seas at Dreamsong, Minneapolis.

Join us May 31, 4–6 PM to listen, reflect, and be in conversation together.

Andreann Asibey will be joining us for Making Otherwise, a roundtable at Critical Distance that brings together artists...
05/23/2026

Andreann Asibey will be joining us for Making Otherwise, a roundtable at Critical Distance that brings together artists and cultural workers to reflect on sustaining creative practices with care and intention in today’s fast-paced, extractive landscape.

Andreann Asibey (Drea) is a Ghanaian-British-Canadian curator, cultural producer, and educator known for her people-centered practice. Her work bridges the gap between community engagement, public programming, and cultural production, grounded in her three guiding principles: community, culture, and conversation. Drea’s practice reflects a deep commitment to amplifying systematically marginalized voices and fostering spaces where pluralistic stories and perspectives are recognized and can thrive.

She has curated and produced a wide range of multidisciplinary projects, from immersive events such as Para Juntar at The Africa Centre, Building Our Collective Futures at Wellcome Collection, and A Journey through Otherworld at the Art Museum at the University of Toronto which was awarded Best Public Program 2025 by Ontario Galleries.

Drea’s exhibitions include Lusophonic Hapacities for the Malangatana Heritage Project featuring Henrique J Paris, Echoes Within These Walls: Reclaiming St. Agnes Place with House of Dread, GRIOT, an exhibition intervention for Bristol Museums Transatlantic Trafficking of Enslaved Africans gallery at M Shed and Climate Calling, which explored the intersections of systemic racism, climate change and health.

Working across institutional and independent contexts, her practice is rooted in collaboration, care and collectivity. Drea is currently building Studio Kilombo a curatorial, cultural and creative studio and consultancy that envisions a world where arts, culture, and heritage are living practices that sustain community, honour ancestral knowledge, and support collective liberation. With a thoughtful, synergistic, and inclusive approach, she remains dedicated to pushing boundaries and creating impactful, socially engaged work.

Join us Sunday, May 31, 2026, from 4–6 PM. We’d love to see you!

We are pleased to introduce Lara Arabian .arabian, one of the featured participants in Making Otherwise, an upcoming rou...
05/22/2026

We are pleased to introduce Lara Arabian .arabian, one of the featured participants in Making Otherwise, an upcoming roundtable at the end of May exploring how artists and cultural workers sustain thoughtful, intentional practices in a time shaped by digital acceleration, overproduction, and extraction.

Lara is a trilingual Toronto-based artist by way of Beirut, Lebanon, upstate NY, and Paris, France. A Dora nominated actor, she’s worked with companies across Canada including: Citadel Theatre, Modern Times, Outside the March, Aluna Theatre, Neptune Theatre, Canadian Stage, Theatre Passe Muraille, TfT, Studio 180, Pleaides Theatre, Cahoots, Pandemic Theatre, Nightswimming. She completed her acting training at the Banff/Citadel Professional Theatre Program.

As a writer, she’s been a member of the Banff Playwrights Unit and Nightwood Theatre’s Write from the Hip program. She’s a multiple Dora nominated writer for Outstanding New Play (Youth Division) as part of the writing team for Les Zinspiré.e.s 8, 10, 11 & 12 (Théâtre français de Toronto).

Lara is also a passionate arts educator and is on the faculty at both George Brown and Sheridan College. At Sheridan, she served as the chairperson of their Expanding the Lens series, dedicated to centering historically marginalized voices.

Lara’s presentation would land somewhere between a reading and a full performance. Join us next Sunday, May 31, 2026, from 4–6 PM to be part of the conversation.

Save the date! Critical Distance is pleased to present Making Otherwise: on sustaining creative practice in the face of ...
05/21/2026

Save the date! Critical Distance is pleased to present Making Otherwise: on sustaining creative practice in the face of precarity, in partnership with The Collaboratory for Black Poiēsis

📅 Date & Time: Sunday, May 31, 2026, 4-6 PM
📍 Location: Critical Distance Centre for Curators
Suite 122, 401 Richmond Street West, Toronto

Curated by Ingrid Jones through the Collaboratory for Black Poiēsis (CBP) curatorial fellowship at University of Toronto, Making Otherwise convenes an intimate roundtable bringing together artists and culture workers whose practices span installation, performance, sound, and socially engaged practice. For this session we are pleased to welcome actor and playwright Lara Arabian .arabian; curator, cultural producer and educator, Andreann Asibey ; and artist and educator, Amy Wing-Hann Wong .

Each guest speaker will offer a short presentation as an opening into collective conversation on how they have sustained their artistic process in a moment defined in part by digital acceleration, overproduction and extraction. Curator Ingrid Jones will facilitate the discussion, taking cues from from bell hooks’ theorization of the margins as a place of strength, Edward Said’s reflections on alienation, and Audre Lorde’s insistence on the costs and ultimately necessity of resistance and critical care Questions to be explored may include: What challenges and breakthroughs shaped the project’s outcome? What strategies allowed you to work slowly, deliberately, and in ethical relation? And, how can racialized artists and cultural workers sustain themselves and their practices in the wake of precarity, dispossession, institutional friction, and public scrutiny?

Making Otherwise is presented by Ingrid Jones and the Collaboratory for Black Poiēsis in partnership with Critical Distance as a part of CDCC’s 2026 Study Hall season.

🔗 This event is free to attend. Refreshments will be served and all are welcome. As space is limited, please register through the link in bio.

Address

122-401 Richmond Street West
Toronto, ON
M5V3A8

Opening Hours

Wednesday 12pm - 5pm
Thursday 12pm - 5pm
Friday 12pm - 6pm
Saturday 12pm - 5pm

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