This Week at Agnes

The Deep: Sonic Futurisms
and Hyperdimensional Rhythms

Drift: Art and Dark Matter artists Josèfa Ntjam (Saint-Étienne, France) and Jol Thoms (London, UK) delve into music and mystery. Together they jam their cosmo-sonic studies through the deep’s inklings of dark matters and other beyonds in a live-streamed radio show presented on the Discord platform. Sign up

Dr Elmer Kolfin presents “Out of the shadow and into the light: Black figures in the art of Rembrandt’s time”

All major Dutch collections have paintings representing Black figures and the Bader Collection at Agnes is no exception. For a long time, Black presence in Dutch seventeenth-century art went unaccounted for and scholarship around this was thus absent in academic texts and museum exhibitions. However, research of the past thirty years has drawn increased attention to the ubiquitous presence and varying roles of Black figures in Dutch art. In this lecture, Dr Elmer Kolfin examines why Black figures recur so frequently in Dutch art, and whether and why Rembrandt’s approach differed from that of his contemporaries. Sign up.

This program is made possible through the generous support of Bader Philanthropies, Inc.

On Mattering: Imagining Alternatives
to Extractive Practices

Join Anne Riley as she reflects on what matters, on creating art amid a pandemic, and on imagining alternatives to extractive practices.

Riley touches on her work as part of the Drift: Art and Dark Matter residency and exhibition that involved visiting SNOLAB’s deep underground astroparticle physics experiments that are “feeling for” dark matter. The depth and layers of soil and rock blanketing SNOLAB’s underground research facilities are essential for filtering out particles and radiation to aid the direct detection of dark matter. To make energetic space for healing and connecting with human and more than human relations, Riley’s artistic strategies suppress the “background” of colonial “noise” in science and art. Sign up

Elisabetta Sirani, The Holy Family with Saints Elizabeth and John the Baptist

Visit Digital AGNES and take a closer look at Elisabetta Sirani’s (1638–1665) evocative etching. This highlight elucidates the artwork through the lens of three distinct perspectives. Listen to renowned Sirani expert Dr Babette Bohn and Kingston-based printmaker  Rebecca Cowan. You will also find an essay by Queen’s MA student Madeline Legg.

Virtual Art Hive @Agnes

Make time for yourself to recharge and get inspired! Art Hive invites you to experiment and play as you explore the artistic process. Part of Agnes’s Wellness Program, this weekly program is free and projects are designed to use materials you already have on hand. All levels of artistic experience are welcome. Sign up

This program is made possible through the generous support of the Birks Family Foundation.

Take a virtual field trip to Agnes

Our 2021 school programs moved online, available for both synchronous and asynchronous learning. We invite grades 1–6 to explore the exhibition Nocturne and grades 5–8 to take part in an interactive school program based on the exhibition Humour Me.

Book your field trip or find out more.

2021 Black Studies Summer Seminar

The inaugural <BLK-S3tudies> Black Studies Summer Seminar has three free public events highlighting major thinkers in the field of Black Studies: Denise Ferreira da Silva, Katherine McKittrick and Alexander Weheliye!

Learn more and sign up.

Thought Provoking Care Packages

Artists from Dark Matter Playgroup and its companion exhibition Superradiance offer creative inspiration in this self-directed artmaking experience. This program is free—register online and pick up your care package complete with directions, prompts and art materials! Spaces are limited; materials cannot be shipped.

This program is made possible through the generous support of the George H Stedman Estate Foundation.