#FIRSTLOOK: ONTARIO CULTURE DAYS 2026

This fall, the Ontario Culture Days festival invites Ontarians to experience art in unexpected ways, from dog carnivals and community karaoke to evolving sculptures, immersive installations and live performances.

Returning September 18 to October 4, 2026, Ontario Culture Days will once again transform communities across the province with more than 1,500 free arts, culture and heritage experiences, from large-scale installations and performances to hands-on workshops and unexpected public encounters.

A highlight of this year’s festival is Shifting Ground: Creatives in Residence 2026, a flagship residency program featuring five newly commissioned projects that invite audiences to become active participants rather than spectators. Together, the artists transform parks, churches, galleries and public spaces into places for creativity, conversation and community gathering,
encouraging audiences to connect with one another and the places they call home, in entirely new ways.

“Ontario Culture Days is about making arts and culture accessible, surprising and deeply rooted in community,” said Ruth Burns, Executive Director, Ontario Culture Days. “This year’s Creatives in Residence invite people to participate, contribute and connect, whether that’s bringing your dog to an art event, adding an object to a sculpture, singing karaoke with strangers or stepping inside an immersive installation.”

Across Ontario, audiences can experience:

Micah Lexier – Dog Days of Ontario Culture Days

Touring Toronto, Oakville, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Temiskaming and Windsor | September
20–October 4, 2026

Governor General’s Award-winning artist Micah Lexier celebrates the unique bond between
dogs and their humans through a playful touring public art experience launching during National
Dog Week. Bring your four-legged friend for live dog portraits, test your luck with a carnival-style
dog guesser, collect a commemorative keepsake coin and connect with fellow dog lovers, all
while supporting the Farley Foundation.

The tour culminates on October 5 with a special closing celebration at Toronto’s Waterfront for
World Pet Day, bringing together dogs, their humans and the community for a joyful finale to this
province-wide experience.

Zinnia Naqvi – Come As You Are Karaoke Night and Heart-shaped Box

Museum London | September 26 | 6–8 p.m.
Artist Zinnia Naqvi presents Come As You Are Karaoke Night, inspired by her moving-image
work Heart-shaped Box, currently featured in Biscuits and Empire: Reframing Colonial
Photography at Museum London. Heart-shaped Box explores themes of migration, memory and
belonging through a tender home video of young Pakistani sisters singing Nirvana in their new
Canadian home.

Inspired by the installation, Come As You Are Karaoke Night invites visitors to sing the songs
that shaped their lives. Whether it’s an anthem from childhood, a song that reminds you of home
or one that helped you find your place, everyone is welcome to celebrate music’s power to bring
people together.

Jon Sasaki – Everything In Balance

Niagara Artists Centre, St. Catharines | September 18 | 3–9 p.m.

Bring an object that represents something important to you and watch it become part of a large-
scale hanging sculpture that evolves throughout the day. As each new contribution is added, the
artwork is carefully rebalanced, creating a living portrait of the community and the values,
stories and connections that hold it together.

Studio Rat – Plastiscapes

St. Albans Church, Ottawa | September 18, 19, 23, 24, 25, 26

Step inside a monumental inflatable landscape created from reclaimed plastics as Montréal and
Toronto-based installation artists Studio Rat transform one of Ottawa’s oldest church buildings
into an immersive environment for exploration, play and gathering.

Throughout the residency, visitors are invited to experience the installation, participate in a
hands-on plastics workshop and attend MEND, a series of evenings featuring music, dance and
community presented with Congrego.

The residency culminates during Nuit Blanche Ottawa on September 26, when Body Talk
transforms Plastiscapes into a vibrant late-night celebration of art, music and community from
7:00 p.m. to midnight.

Timothy Yanick Hunter – Playing Pictures

Trinity-St. Paul’s United Church, Toronto | October 2 | 6:30–10 p.m.
Create your own image-based “reference book” during Playing Pictures: P2P Study Group
before experiencing Timothy Yanick Hunter’s immersive live performance. Combining moving
image, sound and improvisation, Playing Pictures offers audiences a rare opportunity to step
inside the artist’s creative process while exploring themes of archives, movement and diaspora.
Curators for the 2026 Creatives in Residence series include Farida Abu-Bakare, Dave
Dyment, Zahra McDoom and Sarah Munro.

The Shifting Ground: Creatives in Residence 2026 series is made possible thanks to the
generous support of Tourism Niagara-on-the-Lake and Tourism London, as well as the Province
of Ontario, the Tourism Partnership of Niagara, the Ontario Arts Council, Waterfront BIA, OLG,
the City of Ottawa through Ottawa Nightlife and the City of Toronto. We acknowledge the
support of the Canada Council for the Arts.

This series would not be possible without producing partners including Arts Council Windsor &
Region, the City of St. Catharines, Congrego, Evergreen Brick Works, Museum London,
Niagara Artists Centre, Niagara Pumphouse Arts Centre, St. Albans Church, Trinity-St. Paul’s
United Church, Temiskaming Art Gallery, the Town of Oakville and Waterfront BIA.
Full festival programming and event details for Ontario Culture Days 2026 will be announced in
the coming weeks.

About Ontario Culture Days:
Ontario Culture Days is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to championing and supporting
arts and culture across the province.

Each fall, Ontario Culture Days presents a province-wide festival featuring free arts and cultural
experiences in communities of all sizes. Working with artists, cultural organizations,
municipalities and community partners, Ontario Culture Days brings performances, exhibitions,
workshops, tours and other participatory events to audiences throughout Ontario.
Beyond the festival, Ontario Culture Days supports the cultural sector through year-round
programs, resources, partnerships and professional development. We connect people with the
artists, stories and places that make Ontario’s communities vibrant and distinctive.