Critical Mass
A Centre for Contemporary Art
Welcome to Critical Mass!
We believe in Art for All!
Critical Mass is a not-for-profit contemporary art organization based in Port Hope, Ontario, on the traditional territory of the Mississauga Nations. We are grateful to co-exist on and to have the opportunity to work, create art and play on this land, that the Williams Treaties First Nations have been the stewards and caretakers of for millennia.
We believe that art changes how we see the world and our place in it. We bring contemporary art experiences to Port Hope so that everyone in our community can have the opportunity to see the world anew.
This year, we’re grateful to have the investment from Ontario Trillium Foundation to support 3 exciting projects! Two Seed grants have allowed us to pilot an Artist-in-Residence program, and develop a Sound Art Walking App. A Resilient Communities grant has also afforded us the opportunity to support our organization’s ability to stabilize through this pandemic, reimagine how we deliver our programming, and adapt our space to offer safe art experiences for the community!
Stay connected for updates to our residency line up and programming schedule, artist talks or spotlights, community engagement activities and challenges. Or have a look back on some of our past projects, and check in for artist calls, volunteer opportunities and membership updates.
What’s On & Featured
Our artist residency season kicks off! (June- Sept.)
Saturday, June 18 & Sunday, June 19
Come fly a kite with us!
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Meet our June Artists in Residence!
NEL2R’s residency project will explore the coalesence of posthumanism, digital intimacy, and contemporary environmental-social discourse. Machine-learning and AI meets installation & performance art, created with Port Hope archival data, community anecdotes, folklore, and more!
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Lee Jones – Life of a Small Town
Life of a Small Town by Greta Grip & Lee Jones will document a year in the life of the Port Hope community emerging from the pandemic together.
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Call for Board Members
We’re currently recruiting Board Members to help lead our organization in the next phase of growth.
Read moreUntil Dec 20
Port Hope Arts Impact Survey
We’re considering some big ideas for making contemporary art more prominent in Port Hope, and we really want to hear what sort of arts activities and programming you would like to see, do, and experience!
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Raising Big Questions – West Beach
Where do we go from here? Let’s raise some questions together collectively to find out.
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Port Hope Borderlines
Multi-media artist Jessica Thompson uses sound to create new meanings of place. On May 28th, she led a soundwalk in downtown Port Hope. She will return on June 26th for a Borderlines workshop.
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Greta Grip – Life of a Small Town
Life of a Small Town by Greta Grip & Lee Jones will document a year in the life of the Port Hope community emerging from the pandemic together.
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Call for Volunteers
We have an exciting year planned and need helping hands for a variety of roles!
Read moreDec 15
Tracey-Mae Chambers: Hope and Healing Canada
RAIN DATE – Wednesday, December 15th – Hamilton-based Métis artist, Tracey-Mae Chambers will spread her message of Hope and Healing with red yarn installation on the front lawn at Port Hope Town Hall. Residents are invited to watch and to engage with Chambers as she works on her art installation throughout the day.
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Andrew Maize – Art Innovator
Learn more about Andrew’s art practice.
Jenn Goodwin – Procession of Hope
Jenn Goodwin, developed a procession to lead the community into spring and encouraging us to reconnect with each other, ourselves, and our bodies.
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Lee Jones – Life of a Small Town
Life of a Small Town by Greta Grip & Lee Jones will document a year in the life of the Port Hope community emerging from the pandemic together.
Read more
Call for LOCAL Artists!
August is Arts Month in Port Hope, and we have an artist residency opportunity available for a local artist, curator, or artist collective.
Read moreNov 26 – Dec 18
2021 Candlelight Festival
We will host a nocturnal spectacle outside the Little Station in Lent Lane on November 26th. Join us for a projected and live-typed textravaganza An Eye For An Ear featuring local writers, poets and artists. PLUS, drop in to the Little Sation toget a behind the scenes glimpse at a whimsical winter artist workshop. Artist and puppet-maker, Kelly Kirkham will be working on creating a lot of puppets for her upcoming show Sightseer at the AGN, Jan 8 to Feb 26, 2022.
Read moreThat’s a wrap! 2021 AIR Pilot Program
AIR Wrap Up Celebration Event
That’s a Wrap! Critical Mass celebrates the artists of our pilot Artist-in-Residence program, and our funders Ontario Trillium Foundation and Municipality of Port Hope who made it all possible. Join us Saturday, Oct 23rd at 5:30 p.m. for an early evening picnic to recap the highlights!
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Mast Year Collective – July 2021
During their residency, Mast Year Collective will explore how food – from making, to sharing, to eating – is entwined and grounded in our physical environments both past and present.
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2021 Artist-in-Residence Line Up
We are excited to announce our 2021 artist in residence line up! Made possible with funding from Ontario Trillium Foundation.
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Brian Hoad – August 2021
During his residency, Brian Hoad will explore personal narratives from his time coming-of-age in Port Hope, considering themes of memory, nostalgia, and an interest in how people connect with their envionment, both now and throughout history.
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Susan Campbell – June 2021
During her residency, Susan Campbell will be mapping the evolving cultural palimpsest of what our community values and preserves. How we talk to one another through messages, notes, posters, and official signs can be mapped from our environment.
Lucas Morneau – September 2021
During their residency, Lucas Morneau will explore the cultural environment in sports (hockey in particular), and reclaim the racially charged and homophobic pejoratives often used to attack a player’s “manliness”.
Read moreFind us online
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Good morning, Port Hope! Critical Mass Art: Port Hope is hosting two thought provoking art happenings at the Little Station starting at 10am this morning. Such wonderful smart critically thinking humans! Thank you for so generously sharing your work with us!
At 10am, visiting media artist Jessica Thompson will facilitate a community-led workshop (with research assistant Kevin Bonnell) to look at how the Port Hope has changed since the pandemic.
This creative all ages workshop will use fictional, speculative scenarios to guide a series of short, collaborative design sprints, which will help us to begin to imagine innovative, equitable futures for the Port Hope community.
Thank you to our sponsors
