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Little Creators
Little Creators
Multiple Dates
7 days to the event
Tue, Sep 15
Art Gallery of Northumberland
Drop into the AGN every Tuesday morning for children ages 0–4 and their caregivers to explore art, sensory play, and open-ended discovery.

EXHIBITIONS

Observed in Motion | Luke Despatie
September 12-November 3, 2026.


Opening Reception: September 12 at 1 p.m.
Artist Talk: October 8 at 7 p.m.

Main Gallery

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Exhibition Overview

What happens when we stop trying to make the world stand still? 

In Observed in Motion, artist Luke Despatie explores the energy, beauty, and unpredictability of everyday life. Approaching his fiftieth birthday, Despatie began to reconsider the familiar routines that had shaped his painting practice.

After years of working from photographs in the quiet of his studio, he wanted to reconnect with the world beyond the frame. His answer was to return to a former passion: cycling. With his bicycle and art supplies, Despatie travelled through communities and landscapes, observing the world as it unfolded around him. He watched light change, shadows shift, people move, and ordinary places become unexpectedly compelling. When something caught his attention, he stopped to paint—but the world continued moving. The resulting paintings embrace this sense of movement and change. Roadside structures, water, trees, vehicles, fluorescent lights, sunsets, and fleeting moments become subjects through which Despatie considers how we experience and remember the world. Memory is central to the work. Like memory itself, these paintings are not fixed or perfectly ordered. They are layered, selective, and alive—shaped by emotion, association, and the passing of time. Observed in Motion invites us to slow down without becoming still: to look closely, notice the beauty in the everyday, and consider how our own memories and experiences shape what we see.

Talking Heads | Simon Martignago
September 12-November 28, 2026.


Opening Reception: 
TBD

Permanent Collection Gallery

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Exhibition Overview

In The World We Fear, Simon Martignago explores how architecture can give physical form to our collective anxieties, specifically, to the hidden systems of the nuclear world. Drawing from his master's research, the project uses architectural methods to uncover the technologies, techniques, and sites that underlie nuclear infrastructure: the built environment that has quietly made this world possible while remaining largely outside public view.

Martignago's work occupies a space between architecture, visual art, and speculative thinking. But the fear at the center of this project isn't the catastrophes of the past, or even the systems that already exist — it's the collective hesitation to keep building. A fear of opening Pandora's box that keeps this technology, and its potential, sealed away and undeveloped. By rendering these hidden sites and technologies visible, architecture becomes a tool not just for reflection, but for re-imagination: a way of bringing into the light what the public hasn't been allowed to see and reconsidering how these technologies might be collectively reshaped towards a social good. Rather than proposing definitive solutions, The World We Fear invites us into a space of contemplation. What do we build when we are afraid? How might making the nuclear world visible change how we imagine its future? At its heart, the exhibition is an exploration of architecture as a form of disclosure and imagination. Hopefully, one capable not only of constructing the worlds in which we live, but also of revealing the systems we've built in secret by reimagining what they could become.

Built Legacy | The Clench Family
March 2 - August 29, 2026.

James Cockburn Gallery is located on the
first floor, west wing  of Victoria Hall

Guest Curator:
Zoey Chevalier

James Cockburn Gallery

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Exhibition Overview

The James Cockburn Room offers visitors an intimate connection to one of Canada’s founding figures. Named after James Cockburn—a prominent Cobourg lawyer, Father of Confederation, and Canada’s first Speaker of the House of Commons—the space has been carefully restored to reflect how his legal office may have appeared in the 1860s and 1870s.

Furnished with period objects and archival elements, the room provides a tangible sense of the professional and civic life that once animated Victoria Hall, a building that has served as the cultural and administrative heart of the community since its opening in 1860. Today, the Art Gallery of Northumberland (AGN) is reimagining the James Cockburn Room as an active site of interpretation and engagement. Building on its historic character, the AGN is programming the space with rotating exhibitions, curatorial interventions, and educational experiences that connect contemporary audiences with the region’s layered histories. Through thoughtful activation, the room is evolving from a static historical display into a dynamic micro-gallery—one that bridges past and present, and invites visitors to explore the intersections of art, history, and community within the unique setting of Victoria Hall.

A Collection Built on Relationships:

Inuit Art from the AGN's Permanent Collection
This is a travelling exhibition, currently at Kawartha Museum and Archives, Lindsay until October 31, 2026.

Co-Curators: Olinda Casimiro and Felicity Pope


Opening Reception: April 30 at 6 p.m.

On Tour

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Exhibition Overview

In 1976, the AGN, then the Art Gallery of Cobourg, received a gift of approximately sixty Inuit carvings, sculptures, and materials collected from 1900 to 1970. These works offer a glimpse into the artistic expressions and lived experiences of the Inuit during a period of rapid cultural change.

The collection, sourced from communities across the Inuit Nunangat (Inuit Homeland), are presented alongside a map reflecting the Inuit-Crown land treaties, using their original Inuktut place names as part of the ongoing process of decolonization. This exhibition honours not only the artistic legacy of the Inuit but also the resilience of their culture.

Calling Artists of all Disciplines.

Now is Your Time to Creatively Shine.
November 7 - January 2, 2026.
Application Form

O
pening Reception: November 7 at 1 p.m.

47th Juried Exhibition

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Exhibition Overview

The AGN hosts a vibrant juried exhibition showcasing a wide variety of artists and art works from across the region and beyond. This fall we celebrate our 47th Juried Exhibition offering participating artists both exposure to the Northumberland County community, as well as an opportunity to meet fellow artists, encourage activity in the visual arts and most
importantly support artists. Jurors to be announced.

PROGRAMS & EVENTS

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