Getting On The Same Page:
On Refusals + Resistance
Friday, May 22, 2026
Gallery TPW
6PM-9PM
Co-facilitated by Scott Miller Berry and Indu Vashist
Artists, curators and cultural workers in Toronto are facing new realities where forms of institutional support and public funding are being systematically dismantled, while burnout and economic precarity have become normalized. This community discussion aims to build a shared understanding of this reality, working to combat delusions we may have about public institutions, funding in the arts and to share strategies for survival amidst these hard truths. Following On Exiting, the first event in this series, this session asks participants to reflect critically on what to do if we decide to stay: What can we change about artist-run culture and what can we not? How do we face insupportable working conditions of censorship, austerity and refusal in arts institutions? How might community discussion help to reframe these experiences not as personal failures, but shared public insurmountable conditions under post-pandemic, late capitalism, genocide and climate catastrophe?
Participants are invited to share their experiences in the round, to share what we know must change and to continue to add to a growing timeline of (forced) exits in the Toronto arts world, started in Session #1 (On Exiting).
Access notes:
A live annotation/transcript of the discussion will also be provided, as well as food and refreshments. There will be a separate room available for anyone to have a quiet space for contemplation outside of the main discussion space. The gallery is wheelchair accessible with a ramp at the door and a barrier-free gender-neutral washroom. Microphones will be used for the discussion circle.
The discussion is open to the public, but spaces are limited. Please register below by May 20, 2026.
On Refusals + Resistance is a part of You Can Always Just Leave, a research project into forms of feminist refusal led by Gabrielle Moser, funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), with organizing support from EMILIA-AMALIA, Dana Prieto and Liz Ikiriko.
Facilitator Bios:
Indu Vashist braids together body and land based practices into the various aspects of her life. She is a cultural worker, a Somatic Movement Educator in the tradition of Thomas and Eleanor Hanna, a yoga and rest practices teacher.
Scott Miller Berry is a filmmaker and cultural worker who has lived in Toronto since 2001. He has worked and volunteered at multiple artist run centres and collectives including, currently the Re:assemblage Collective, and, timely to this discussion, was recently exited by an organization after ten years. Scott serves on the Board of Directors with Long Winter Music + Arts Festival and TMAC (Toronto Media Arts Centre) and recent writing appears in The Grind, POV Magazine and Museum London's recent catalogue for Christina Battle's exhibition Under Metallic Skies.