2018 Events at the IMC

Winter Exhibitions Opening Party

Join us to celebrate a new season of exhibitions. Light refreshments and cash bar provided.

Collaborate With Us

Collaboration: A Potential History of Photography is accompanied by an active and extensive program of special events curated by Ilana Shamoon with Christine McLean, and in partnership with organizations across Toronto. View the entire list.

Special Tour of Soon we were en route again...The Margaret Corry Albums (1947–1963)

Join co-instructors Gaëlle Morel and Sophie Hackett on a guided tour of the exhibition 

Noon Time Collection Talk with Parker Kay

Join Parker Kay (New Media '15), winner of The Image Centre's (formerly Ryerson Image Centre) first open call for Noon Time Collection Talk proposals from Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson University) students and recent alumni. This talk will examine works by contemporary Canadian photographers such as Phil Bergerson, Robert Burley, Rob Gooblar, Jessica McDonald, and Elizabeth Siegfried to unpack the power of "the archive" and how it can shift the ontology of the photographs within it. 

Tanenbaum Lecture with Jim Goldberg

Join celebrated photographer Jim Goldberg for a wide-ranging talk about his work, in conjunction with his seminal series Rich and Poor now on view at The Image Centre (formerly Ryerson Image Centre), as part of Collaboration: A Potential History of Photography.

Opening Party for Petrija Dos Santos: A Labour of Love

Join us for a party to celebrate the opening of Petrija Dos Santos: A Labour of Love in our student gallery

In Conversation with Dayna Danger

In partnership with the Aboriginal Curatorial Collective, artist Dayna Danger will discuss her practice with 6 of her ongoing collaborators featured in the series Masks

Indigenous peoples’ sexualities are frequently equated to histories of sexual violence, commodified and institutionalized by settlers seeking to dominate, discipline, and control Indigenous bodies. 

Artist talk with Alia Youssef

In partnership with Gallery 44, Youssef will present her talk "Can I have a say in this narrative"

In her presentation Alia Youssef will discuss the representation of Muslim women from pre-9/11 to present in western media. Specifically, the role of Muslim women in that narrative, and the steps Muslim women are now taking to change that image through artistic collaboration. 

Photography: The Black Box of History

A symposium presented by The Image Centre (formerly Ryerson Image Centre) in partnership with the University of Delaware
Keynote speaker: Prof. Elizabeth Edwards

The academic study of photography remains, some eighty years into its development, a nascent and unsettled scholarly enterprise.

RUDE Collective Panel Discussion moderated by Hana Jama

Photography As Collaboration

Hana Jama of The Rude Collective will be joined by panelists photographer Riya Jama, Staff writer/critic at Canadian Art Merray Gerges, and Director of Programming at Whippersnapper Gallery Joshua Vettivelu to discuss images, the internet, ownership, photography as inherently collaborative, whether it is intentional or unintentional, and the Western history of photography. 

Noon Time Collection Talk with Sara Knelman

Icons and Activists: Images of Motherhood

What does motherhood look like? Long upheld as symbols of love and protection, how have images of mothers shaped social, political and cultural expectations of this responsibility?

BAND Panel Discussion Part II at The Image Centre (formerly Ryerson Image Centre)

A Great Day for Blacktography

While looking through the Collaboration archive we will reflect on photography by and for Black people. We will dissect the white gaze as it pertains to the telling of Black history and Black stories through photography. 

Noon Time Collection Talk with Zoe Lepiano

Wendy Snyder MacNeil: Album Pages

Join Zoë Lepiano, recipient of The Image Centre's (formerly Ryerson Image Centre) Howard Tanenbaum Research Fellowship in 2017, as she discusses the series Biographies and Album Pages from the Wendy Snyder MacNeil Archive. 

Exhibitions Opening Party & CONTACT Festival Launch

Please join us at The Image Centre (formerly Ryerson Image Centre) for the launch of the 2018 Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival. Like all of our programming, this event is free and open to the public! 

Artist Talk with Shelley Niro

Join 2017 Scotiabank Photography Award winner Shelley Niro for a talk about her celebrated career. A member of the Six Nations Reserve, Bay of Quinte Mohawk, Turtle Clan, Niro combines beadwork designs, archival images, family pictures, videos, and installation to question traditional representations of Indigenous peoples, with a particular focus on womanhood.

Doors Open Toronto presented by Great Gulf

The Image Centre (formerly Ryerson Image Centre) is once again pleased to participate in Doors Open. One weekend every year, Doors Open Toronto provides an opportunity to explore some of the most architecturally, historically, culturally and socially significant buildings across the city – many of which are not usually open to the public.

Curator Talk with Ryan Rice

How Many Times Do I Have To Tell You?

In this guest lecture, Rice will speak from his experience as a curator, critic and cultural mediator in relation to Indigenous presence across the field of contemporary art and culture. With the CONTACT Festival as the current site of contemplation, issues around curatorial practice, photography and lens-based media will be a focal point to usurp spaces of agency primed for decolonization. Following the event, The Image Centre (formerly Ryerson Image Centre) will remain open until 9:00 pm to allow for viewing after the lecture.

Special Tour of Scotiabank Photography Award: Shelley Niro

Join artist Shelley Niro on a tour of her Scotiabank Photography Award exhibition. Niro will be joined by Gaëlle Morel, Exhibitions Curator at The Image Centre (formerly Ryerson Image Centre).

Student Gallery Opening Party and Artist Talk

Join us for a party and artist talk with Cynthia Johnston to celebrate the opening of her exhibition Ceydie in The Image Centre's (formerly Ryerson Image Centre) Student Gallery. The exhibition is co-presented with the DOCNOW Festival. Johnston will speak with Toronto-based photographer Nancy Friedland about her work and process. Friedland is an artist investigating narrative, the family album, landscape and loss in her work.

The Making of a Photographic Book with Ruth Kaplan

Join Toronto-based photographer Ruth Kaplan for a workshop about the making of her recent publication, Bathers. In her book, Kaplan explores the social theatre of communal bathing, a ritual that is both private and public. The event will include an artist talk followed by an interactive workshop where audience members are invited to share book projects of their own with the artist and fellow attendees. There will also be a book sale and signing. As part of the The Image Centre's (formerly Ryerson Image Centre) rotating series From the Collection, select photographs from Bathers will be on view. 

Special Tour of Scotiabank Photography Award: Shelley Niro

Join artist Shelley Niro on a tour of her Scotiabank Photography Award exhibition. Niro will be joined by Gaëlle Morel, Exhibitions Curator at The Image Centre (formerly Ryerson Image Centre).

Fall Exhibitions Opening Party

Join us to celebrate a new season of exhibitions. Light refreshments and cash bar provided.

Noon Time Collection Talk with Blake Fitzpatrick and Vid Ingelevics

The Berlin Wall: Two Histories in Photographs

Want to learn more about the The Image Centre's (formerly Ryerson Image Centre) collection? Join Blake Fitzpatrick and Vid Ingelevics, artists and professors at Toronto Metropolitan University's (formerly Ryerson University) School of Image Arts, for a talk on the history of the Berlin Wall using photographs from the Black Star Collection and their collaborative project Freedom Rocks (www.freedomrocks.ca), which documents the post-1989 Wall in Berlin today.

Curators in Conversation: Philip Brookman and Deborah Willis with Paul Roth

Gordon Parks in History
Co-presented with Black Artists Networks Dialogue (BAND)

In 1997, the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, DC presented the only complete retrospective of Gordon Parks' career as a photographer, filmmaker, composer and author, Half Past Autumn: The Art of Gordon Parks. This panel discussion reunites three of the people who collaborated to realize that show: exhibition co-curators Philip Brookman and Deborah Willis, and their then-curatorial assistant Paul Roth. 

Special Tour of Alia Youssef: The Sisters Project

Join Alia Youssef for an informal talk and tour of her exhibition The Sisters Project, on view in the The Image Centre (formerly Ryerson Image Centre) student gallery until October 14. Alia will discuss all aspects of the project: from how it was created, to her 12-city, cross-country tour, to the creation of her exhibition. She will also be happy to answer questions from the audience, including those related to her practice.

Artist and Curator in Conversation: Claudia Joskowicz with Ilana Shamoon

Join guest curator Ilana Shamoon for a conversation with artist Claudia Joskowicz on her exhibition, Every Building on Avenida Alfonso Ugarte—After Ruscha. 

Special Tour of Gordon Parks: The Flávio Story

Join curator Paul Roth on a behind-the-scenes tour of Gordon Parks: The Flávio Story, along with Julie Crooks, Assistant Curator of Photography at the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO).

Noon Time Collection Talk with Vanessa F. Lakewood

Want to learn more about the The Image Centre's (formerly Ryerson Image Centre) collection? Join Vanessa F. Lakewood, The Image Centre Research Fellow, for a discussion on historical and cultural memory, community love, and freedom acts in New York after 1964.

Opening Party for Jason Perreault: Bien dans sa peau

Join us for a party to celebrate the opening of Jason Perreault: Bien dans sa peau in our student gallery.

Special Tour of TERREMOTO: Mexico, 1985

Join curator Denise Birkhofer on a behind-the-scenes tour of TERREMOTO: Mexico City, 1985.

Jamel Shabazz: Vision and Purpose

Presented by the Tanenbaum Lecture Series and the International Issues Discussion Series

Jamel Shabazz is a documentary photographer whose socially-conscious practice was shaped by images of the American Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War. For over forty years, both in the United States and abroad, Shabazz has recorded a wide range of topics, from the birth of Hip-Hop to the effects of the crack epidemic, war veterans, and everyday life. Please arrive early, seating is provided on a first-come, first-served basis.

Special Tour of Gordon Parks: The Flávio Story

Join curator (and The Image Centre Director) Paul Roth on a behind-the-scenes tour of Gordon Parks: The Flávio Story.

Noon Time Collection Talk with Jorge Ayala-Isaza

Want to learn more about the The Image Centre's (formerly Ryerson Image Centre) collection? Join Jorge Ayala-Isaza, recipient of the The Image Centre's 2018 Elaine Ling Fellowship, for a discussion on photographs of the Cuban Revolution from the Black Star Collection. The talk will focus on the experiences of the photographers who made these iconic images.

Ayala-Isaza, a Toronto-based artist and researcher, has also curated a small selection of photographs on this topic as part of our From the Collection series, simultaneously on view in the gallery.