BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//CiviCRM//NONSGML CiviEvent iCal//EN X-WR-TIMEZONE:America/Toronto METHOD:PUBLISH BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/Toronto BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:EDT DTSTART:20261007T190000 END:DAYLIGHT END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT UID:CiviCRM_EventID_1107_24c2b8d9424a80db0e91253a2a291c09@kwag.ca SUMMARY:Visionary Speaker Series: Emelie Chhangur X-ALT-DESC;FMTTYPE=text/html:

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Visionary Speaker Series : Emelie Chhangur

From Kitchen Tables to A irport Terminals\; Curating Civic Infrastructure

Wednesday\, 7 October
7:00 p.m.
Free | please register

This talk consid ers what becomes possible when curatorial practice works directly on the structures through which cu ltural and public life are organized.

Drawin g on twenty-five years of work\, Chhangur follows two connected movements in her practice: changing cultural institutions from within and bringing cur atorial practice into the public spaces and system s of the city.

At Agnes Reimagined\, these m ovements came together. The museum itself became a long-term curatorial project\, with architecture as a medium for rebuilding museum practice from th e ground up and transforming its social and civic role.

Chhangur now brings this practice to t he reimagining of Toronto Pearson International Ai rport as Art and Culture Integration Lead on the a rchitectural design team. If Agnes reimagined the museum as civic infrastructure\, Pearson reverses and expands that proposition: civic infrastructure is reimagined as culture.

Biography:

Emelie Chhangur is an award-winning artist\ , curator\, writer\, and institution-builder whose work has redefined relationships between contempo rary art\, public institutions and civic life. Her curatorial practice spans exhibitions\, commissio ns\, publications\, public art\, institutional tra nsformation\, museum architecture and civic infras tructure. She has curated more than 150 exhibition s and special projects\, commissioned complex artw orks across media and produced over 25 publication s.

At the Art Gallery of York University (20 03-2020)\, Chhangur transformed AGYU into a civic\ , community-facing institution\, founded its artis t residency program and developed in-reach—a metho dology for changing institutional culture\, system s\, values\, protocols and resource allocation fro m within.

As Director and Curator of Agnes E therington Art Centre (2020-2026)\, Chhangur led A gnes Reimagined\, a $108-million\, six-year archit ectural and institutional transformation. She secu red unprecedented public and philanthropic investm ent\, expanded the museum’s curatorial capacity an d brought Indigenous self-determination\, artistic experimentation\, collections\, hospitality and p ublic participation together in what she calls “a living museum.” Its two-year community-engaged des ign process\, modelled on Anishinaabe talking circ les\, changed museum-making practice in Canada.

Chhangur lectures and publishes internationall y on curatorial practice\, institutional change an d cultural infrastructure. Her more than 30 honour s include the Hnatyshyn Foundation Award for Curat orial Excellence and the inaugural GOG BIPOC Chang emaker Award. In 2025 she was one of the artists-i n-residence at Fogo Island Arts. Chhangur holds an MVS from the Daniels Faculty of Landscape\, Archi tecture and Design\, University of Toronto.

Chhangur is currently the Art and Culture Integrat ion Lead for NORR–DIALOGUE\, the joint-venture arc hitectural practice reimagining Toronto Pearson In ternational Airport.

Sponsored by:


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Photo courtesy of the speaker.

DESCRIPTION:\n \n \n \n \n Visionary Speaker Series: Emelie Ch hangur\n From Kitchen Tables to Airport Terminals\ ; Curating Civic Infrastructure\n Wednesday\, 7 Oc tober\n 7:00 p.m.\n Free | please register\n \n Th is talk considers what becomes possible when curat orial practice works directly on the structures th rough which cultural and public life are organized .\n \n Drawing on twenty-five years of work\, Chha ngur follows two connected movements in her practi ce: changing cultural institutions from within and bringing curatorial practice into the public spac es and systems of the city.\n \n At Agnes Reimagin ed\, these movements came together. The museum its elf became a long-term curatorial project\, with a rchitecture as a medium for rebuilding museum prac tice from the ground up and transforming its socia l and civic role.\n \n Chhangur now brings this pr actice to the reimagining of Toronto Pearson Inter national Airport as Art and Culture Integration Le ad on the architectural design team. If Agnes reim agined the museum as civic infrastructure\, Pearso n reverses and expands that proposition: civic inf rastructure is reimagined as culture.\n \n Biograp hy:\n \n Emelie Chhangur is an award-winning artis t\, curator\, writer\, and institution-builder who se work has redefined relationships between contem porary art\, public institutions and civic life. H er curatorial practice spans exhibitions\, commiss ions\, publications\, public art\, institutional t ransformation\, museum architecture and civic infr astructure. She has curated more than 150 exhibiti ons and special projects\, commissioned complex ar tworks across media and produced over 25 publicati ons.\n \n At the Art Gallery of York University (2 003-2020)\, Chhangur transformed AGYU into a civic \, community-facing institution\, founded its arti st residency program and developed in-reach—a meth odology for changing institutional culture\, syste ms\, values\, protocols and resource allocation fr om within.\n \n As Director and Curator of Agnes E therington Art Centre (2020-2026)\, Chhangur led A gnes Reimagined\, a $108-million\, six-year archit ectural and institutional transformation. She secu red unprecedented public and philanthropic investm ent\, expanded the museum’s curatorial capacity an d brought Indigenous self-determination\, artistic experimentation\, collections\, hospitality and p ublic participation together in what she calls “a living museum.” Its two-year community-engaged des ign process\, modelled on Anishinaabe talking circ les\, changed museum-making practice in Canada.\n \n Chhangur lectures and publishes internationally on curatorial practice\, institutional change and cultural infrastructure. Her more than 30 honours include the Hnatyshyn Foundation Award for Curato rial Excellence and the inaugural GOG BIPOC Change maker Award. In 2025 she was one of the artists-in -residence at Fogo Island Arts. Chhangur holds an MVS from the Daniels Faculty of Landscape\, Archit ecture and Design\, University of Toronto.\n \n Ch hangur is currently the Art and Culture Integratio n Lead for NORR–DIALOGUE\, the joint-venture archi tectural practice reimagining Toronto Pearson Inte rnational Airport.\n \n Sponsored by:\n \n \n \n \ n Photo courtesy of the speaker. \n \n \n CATEGORIES:Talks & Tours CALSCALE:GREGORIAN DTSTAMP;TZID=America/Toronto:20261007T190000 DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20261007T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20261007T200000 LOCATION:101 Queen Street North\n Kitchener\, ON N2H 6P7\n Canada\n URL:https://kwag.ca/civicrm/event/info?reset=1&id=1107 END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR