Onsite gallery

Onsite Gallery

About Onsite Gallery

Onsite Gallery is OCAD University's flagship professional gallery, dedicated to presenting contemporary, Indigenous, and public art and design. It serves as a platform for advancing knowledge creation through creative and curatorial practices to stimulate local and international conversations on urgent issues of our time.

Originally launched in 2007 as the Professional Gallery, it was renamed Onsite Gallery in 2011. The current gallery space, a 4,500-square-foot exhibition venue, officially opened on September 16, 2017. Located at 199 Richmond St. W. in downtown Toronto, it sits in the city's vibrant art, design, business, and new media district.

Onsite Gallery is committed to enriching education at OCAD U while serving as an essential cultural resource for the wider Toronto community. Its exhibitions and public programs highlight significant contemporary art, design, new media, research and curatorial practices, engaging audiences in critical dialogue. The gallery also acknowledges its presence on the traditional territories of the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Haudenosaunee, the Anishnaabeg, and the Huron-Wendat peoples.

Onsite Gallery successfully:

  • Envisions a future in which art and design empower all beings to thrive.
  • Curates and hosts intriguing exhibitions of art, design and digital media in collaboration with audacious Canadian and international creators
  • Creates unique opportunities for public art within and outside the Gallery
  • Offers meaningful public engagement programs for the public and OCAD U community free of charge

Onsite Gallery Mission, and Values

Mission

  • Onsite Gallery is OCAD University’s public gallery and a hub for diverse communities from the University and the public to engage with contemporary, Indigenous, and public art and design.
  • In our work with artists, designers, and communities, we actively address our relationship with Indigenous territories, land-based values and the Calls to Action put forward by the Indigenous Truth and Reconciliation Commission. We adhere to the principles of the Dish with One Spoon treaty agreement: ensuring the sustainability of our shared land and recognizing diverse Indigenous nations and cultures.
  • We develop welcoming, accessible multimodal spaces to present physical and virtual creative practice and curatorial research in art and design, always with opportunities for community participation, education, and critical understanding.
  • Our programs prioritize the challenges of our rapidly changing world and stimulate dialogues that unsettle racism and colonialism, advance social justice, and contribute to a sustainable planetary ecology.
  • Aligned with the mission of OCAD University, we offer investigational and experiential forms of learning for students and the public, and nurture future leaders in art and design.
  • Onsite Gallery stewards OCAD University’s Permanent Collection of Art and Design.

 

Values

  • We believe in the power of art and design to positively transform social relations.
  • The principles of equity, diversity, inclusion, and Indigenous sovereignty are fundamental to all our work.
  • To respond to our ever-evolving society, we emphasize creativity, curiosity, positivity, respect, and open interpersonal engagement.

Onsite Gallery gratefully acknowledges that the gallery construction project is funded in part by the Government of Canada's Canada Cultural Spaces Fund at Canadian Heritage, the City of Toronto through a Section 37 agreement and Aspen Ridge Homes; with gallery furniture by Nienkämper. Onsite Gallery logo by Dean Martin Design.

Onsite Gallery’s education program is generously supported by Nexus Investment Management.

Onsite Gallery acknowledges Toronto Friends of Visual Arts for their support in the Permanent Collection Digitalization.

Onsite Gallery is generously supported by The Delaney Family.

Onsite Logos

Location

199 Richmond St. W.
Toronto, ON
M5V 0H4


Free admission

 

Hours

Mondays: closed
Tuesdays: closed
Wednesdays: 12:00 to 7:00 p.m.
Thursdays: 12:00 to 5:00 p.m.
Fridays: 12:00 to 5:00 p.m.
Saturdays: 12:00 to 5:00 p.m.
Sundays: closed

 

Contact

Email: onsite@ocadu.ca
Phone: 416-977-6000, Ext. 265

Onsite gallery staff

Ryan Rice
Executive Director & Curator, Indigenous Art, Onsite Gallery
rrice@ocadu.ca
416-977-6000 ext. 314
 

Lisa Deanne Smith
Senior Curator, Onsite Gallery
ldsmith@ocadu.ca
416-977-6000 ext. 2208

 

Susan Jama
Programs & Community Coordinator, Onsite Gallery
susanjama@ocadu.ca
416-977-6000 ext. 456

 

Kesa Smith
Curatorial Assistant, Onsite Gallery
ksmith@ocadu.ca

 

Heather Darling Pigat
Collection Steward, Onsite Gallery
heatherpigat@ocadu.ca