Living Room - SHEEEP

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About

The Living Room is an informal space for conversation, creativity, and rest. The project is the final stop on a three-year journey to build an all-ages, flexible programming space designed to foster connectivity and meet the changing needs of Burlingtonians.

Co-curated by Suzanne Carte and Jasmine Mander, the “living” series opened its doors in 2023 with the Living Library, a year-long initiative with rotating and overlapping artists’ and authors’ projects, which provided free and equitable access to events, a makerspace, books, and room to sprawl. Like a library, it encouraged the exchange of a broad range of human knowledge, experience, traditions, and ideas in a welcoming and supportive environment. It promoted the sharing of resources and stories through resting, writing, reading, listening, and looking.   

Living Room, an ongoing community hub in the gallery. The goal of this inclusive programming space is to be a polyphonic centre run by and for community organizations and artists invested in critical dialogue about our different pasts and near futures. It is a space where they are the content drivers and learners.

The Living Room is designed by the architecture collective SHEEEP. Led by architect Reza Nik, this fluid, social space is ideal for co-authored workshops and discussions. It is an informal space for gathering with an emphasis on flexibility and adaptability. Multiple modular units such as tables, seats, containers, curtains, and a cart are available for hosts, participants, and guests alike to shape and form the room to optimize their needs to relax, make, and learn together.

The Living Room is part of the AGB’s special community-arts project series geared to stimulate more opportunities for artists and audiences across the Greater Halton/Hamilton district. The open invitation for activations is dedicated to creating equitable and open processes for artists, makers, and collectives to respond to social, political, and cultural issues in new and unconventional ways.

SHEEEP is a Toronto-based experimental art and architecture studio primarily working within community, education, activism, culture, public art, and architecture. They collaborate with local experts, craftspeople, makers, and artists which results in a humbling learning experience and experiment. They navigate boundaries between many disciplines and come fully equipped with a wide range of technical and communication skill sets. They are interested in projects that are human-focused, and public in nature. SHEEEP enjoys interventions that deal with existing conditions and value the resources that are poured into infrastructure and buildings, by working with what exists as much as possible

Links

• Art Gallery of Burlington agb.life

Organizer

Art Gallery of Burlington

The Art Gallery of Burlington delivers thought-provoking exhibitions, learning opportunities, and public programs that spark meaningful connections for people to learn, see, think, and make. We activate our collection of contemporary Canadian ceramics and explore the intersection of contemporary art and craft.

The AGB commits to fostering a fair, diverse, and inclusive environment where everyone is respected and valued, regardless of their background. We do not discriminate based on sex, age, race, ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation or identity, disability, gender identity, gender expression, marital status, family status, or socioeconomic status. We embrace diverse life experiences and honour their value to our organization. We aim to set a positive example and promote best practices for equity, diversity, and inclusion in the not-for-profit sector.

The AGB is grateful to acknowledge that we are on Treaty Lands and Territory of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation and the ancestral territory of many Indigenous Nations, including the Anishinaabeg, Haudenosaunee, and Métis peoples.