- / The Inc.

Hamilton Artists Inc. is pleased to present Incoming! a project addressing the needs of newcomer, immigrant, and refugee artists. Incoming! includes workshops, events, and an art exhibition supporting visual artists who want to establish themselves in the Hamilton arts community. This workshop series is also open to artists in the regional arts community as part of our Professional Development Workshop series.

All programs are free. Workshops will take place online via zoom in English, closed captioning provided. Chat and non-verbal communications tools will be enabled in zoom.


Through My Eyes
Free Outdoor Art Exhibition
July 1-23, 2021

This art exhibition features work by Shabnam Afrand, Arif Bahaduri, Cemile Kacmaz, Soyeon Kim and Mariana Topfstedt at five different locations across downtown Hamilton. Through My Eyes is part of Incoming!, a program for refugee, newcomer, and immigrant artists.

Learn more about the exhibition


Workshop #1 - Exhibition Proposal Writing
March 6, 2021 | 2:00-3:30 pm

This workshop will teach you how to prepare and write strong applications for exhibition opportunities.

Click here to register for the zoom workshop

About the facilitator: 

Nahed Mansour is a Toronto-based multidisciplinary artist, curator, programmer, and arts-administrator with over a decade’s worth of experience in Toronto's arts sector. She currently serves as the Curator of Programs and Education at the Gardiner Museum and has previously held curatorial positions at the Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto, South Asian Visual Art Centre, and Mayworks Festival Toronto. The majority of her curatorial and programming work supports racialized artists whose work responds to social political issues. Mansour was recently selected as a Fellow in the 2020 Cohort of Toronto Arts Council's Leaders Lab. She holds an MFA in Open Media from Concordia University and a BA joint Honours in Semiotics and Visual Studies from the University of Toronto. www.nahedmansour.com


Workshop #2 - Behind the Scenes of the Art World
April 7, 2021 | 7:00-8:30 pm

This workshop will provide an overview of the Canadian art world, including an introduction to artist fee structures, Artist-run centers, and public versus commercial galleries.

Click here to register for the zoom workshop

About the facilitator: 

Saša Rajšić is an artist, researcher, and art administrator based in Mississauga. He has experience in coordinating exhibition, performance, and experimental programs, community and education programs, digital platforms, and gallery, studio, and workshop facilities. He currently works at the Blackwood Gallery as Exhibition Coordinator. Previously, he worked at Cambridge Art Galleries and served at CAFKA as Programming Committee member.
Saša studied at OCAD University in Toronto, Glasgow School of Art, and the University of the Arts Helsinki. His work explores themes of war, intergenerational trauma, responsibility, and justice within the framework of international criminal law. He is a member of Displaced Peoples, a collaborative research network of the Law and Society Association and Art and International Justice Initiative. Recently, he presented his work at the Faculty of Law of Oxford University, Khalil Sakakini Cultural Centre in Ramallah, and A+ Works of Art Gallery in Kuala Lumpur.


Workshop #3 - Promoting Your Artwork Online
April 28, 2021 | 7:00-8:15 pm

This workshop will provide you with access to resources and tips for using online platforms such as websites, Instagram and e-newsletters to self-promote your work.

Click here to register for the zoom workshop

about the facilitator:

Meera Sethi is a Canadian visual artist who uses uses interdisciplinary research methods and the mediums of painting, drawing, and fibre to ask critical questions about embodiment, migration, and care through the language of cloth, dress, and materiality. Meera's work is in the permanent collection of the Royal Ontario Museum and the Wedge Collection and has been exhibited at the Art Gallery of Ontario, Art Gallery of Mississuaga, and the L'Oréal Melbourne Fashion Festival among other venues. She is the recipient of multiple awards and grants from the Toronto, Ontario and Canada arts councils, the Textile Museum of Canada, University of Toronto, Inter Access, and the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. Her work has been featured in NBC, NPR, The Toronto Star, The Globe&Mail, The Fader, VICE, VOGUE India, CNN, MTV and numerous other print and online publications. Alongside her arts-practice, Meera continues to work as an illustrator and graphic designer and for clients in the creative, commercial, business, and not-for-profit industries. Meera lives and works in Toronto, Canada, the traditional territory of the Anishnaabe, Haudenosaunee, Huron-Wendat, and Mississaugas of the Credit River.


Workshop #4 - Grant Writing
July 14, 2021 | 7:00-8:30 pm

This workshop will provide you with resources to help you find funding, access support systems and prepare strong grant applications.

Click here to register for the zoom workshop

about the facilitator: 

Petrina Ng is an artist and organizer based in Toronto. Her artist practice proposes alternative responses to redress subtle or invisible legacies of colonialism. She often works in collaboration, within familial and community archives, and toward advocating for equity, representation, and accessibility within the cultural sector. She has recently undertaken institutional residences at several object-focused museums, including the Textile Museum of Canada (2020) and the Scarborough Museum (2019), where she has advocated for a shift in priorities from museological objects and settler-focused narratives to an approach that instead emphasizes institutional investment in human relationships and communities. She has upcoming solo exhibitions at Open Source Gallery (Brooklyn, NY), New Gallery (Calgary, AB), and Forest City Gallery (London, ON); an upcoming public art commission for Stories and Storefronts, curated by Charlene K. Lau and Negin Zebarjad; and is currently developing a new collective project launching at the Visual Arts Centre of Clarington (Bowmanville, ON) in the fall.

Petrina’s collaborative work as Gendai (with curator Marsya Maharani) responds to BIPOC labour conditions of arts work. Their research and practice of collective values experiments with alternative economies and radical allyship to work towards a more equitable arts sector. In collaboration with designer Rachel Wallace, Petrina is also co-founder of Durable Good, a small publishing studio that supports artists, writers, and thinkers who work within feminist, equitable, and engaged frameworks.


Contact: Jasmine Mander, Incoming! Project Coordinator
Phone: (905) 529-3355
Email: community@theinc.ca


Many thanks to our funders: