Art in the County Art Symposium

The Art in the County Art Symposium connects the public with leading Canadian artists and art professionals through a series of insightful lectures. These engaging talks offer the opportunity to hear directly from established voices in the arts about their practices, ideas, and the issues shaping their work. This year, County Arts is pleased to welcome two of Art in the County’s distinguished jurors, each exploring a distinct area of expertise.

Admission is free thanks to the generous support of Art Noise, Kingston. Light lunch will be provided by Metro. Seating is limited. Pre-registration is encouraged.

Monday June 22, 2026 at the County Arts Lab

• 11:00 AM | Gagné Contemporary: From 0 to 10 Years with John Gagné, Gallery Director & Curator

  Gagné Contemporary began in 2016 as a nomadic curatorial practice in New York City, launched by John Gagné. Starting from zero, Gagné first guided art enthusiasts and collectors through galleries in Manhattan’s Lower East Side before expanding into curated exhibitions across Brooklyn and Manhattan. In 2020, he returned to Toronto and established Gagné Contemporary in a former coach house and horse stable in Leslieville. The program has since grown into a two-gallery presence in Toronto, alongside participation in an art fair in New York City.

• 12:00 PM | Held by What Grows: Between Body and Landscape with Stanzie Tooth, Visual ArtistStanzie Tooth traces the development of her practice from her early forays into the landscapes of Lennox & Addington County, her displacement abroad, through to her ongoing investigation of the figure-ground relationship, charting the thematic and material shifts that have shaped her work: from oil to organic pigment, from the studio to large-scale public installation, from individual figures to the broader questions of ecological interdependence, inheritance, and belonging that animate her work today. Threading through all of it is an urgent ecological question: what do we owe the landscapes that shape us?

The 33rd Annual Art in the County Juried Exhibition and Sale will be held June 26 – July 12, 2026. For more info visit www.artinthecounty.com.