Arts & Culture

Culture Days

September 19 – October 12, 2025, Across Oakville.

Culture Days is a unique opportunity to explore creativity, share artistic expression, and celebrate what makes Oakville such a vibrant and special community. In 2025, the Town of Oakville will be an official Ontario Culture Days Festival Hub. Local artists, creators, and community members offered more than 150 free programs and activities, helping Oakville enjoy three weeks of local arts and culture events during the Culture Days festival.

Andreia Santana – A Door Handle, A Handshake

October 4, 2025 – February 7, 2026 – Oakville Galleries, Gairloch Gardens, 1306 Lakeshore Road East, Oakville

A Door Handle, A Handshake is Andreia Santana’s first solo exhibition in North America. Developed during her residency at Oakville Galleries, the exhibition features a new series of sculptures that engage directly with the gallery architecture and its surrounding environment.

The exhibition title quotes Juhani Pallasmaa’s expression from the book The Eyes of the Skin: Architecture and the Senses, as a metaphorical comparison emphasizing the first tactile impression a person has with a building.

Hugo Canoilas: Hold Your Breath – Exhibit

October 4, 2025 to February 7, 2026 at Oakville Galleries, Centennial Square

Hold Your Breath is Hugo Canoilas’ first solo exhibition in Canada.

The exhibition presents an enormous, amorphous painting covering the entire Centennial Gallery space. Visitors are guided throughout this installation, encouraged to explore and walk over the artwork. The material, arrangement and mise en scene of Hold Your Breath was initially developed as an operatic set for Kunsthaus Bregenz and the Bregenzer Festspielhaus in Austria.

Oakville Art Society – Connections

October 25 – November 14, 2025, at Queen Elizabeth Park Community & Cultural Centre, 2302 Bridge Road, Oakville.

In celebration of Oakville Art Society’s 60th anniversary year, they will present “Connections,” a first-time collaboration between OAS and Oakville Museum. The exhibition will be a vibrant celebration of local talent and history – their artists’ creativity will meet Oakville’s history. Each artwork will celebrate our theme, in landscape, still life, portraiture or abstract form.

Ilya & Emilia Kabakov – Between Heaven and Earth

May until the end of the year – at Gairloch Gardens, 1306 Lakeshore Road East, Oakville.

Ilya & Emilia Kabakov will mount two exhibitions in our galleries and two public sculptures in Gairloch Gardens, including the infamous Ship of Tolerance. This project involves over a thousand children involved in the production of the ship’s sails. Although the exhibition will end on September 20, the Ship of Tolerance will be in Gairloch Gardens until the end of the year.

Halton and Peel Juried Exhibition

July 12, 2025  – October 12,2025, at Joshua Farm Gallery, 1086 Burnhamthorpe Rd E, Oakville.

Held annually at Joshua Farm Gallery, the Halton and Peel Juried Exhibition celebrates the creativity and diversity of artists working across all mediums. This much-anticipated showcase offers a platform for emerging and established artists from the region to share their work with a broad audience.

At Home in Bronte Muskoka Chair Display – Winter Edition in Bronte Village

Visitors are invited to bundle up and get outside to walk, push and cycle to Bronte Heritage Waterfront Park and the local business district to see – and use – 100 professionally painted Muskoka chairs. In partnership with ArtHouse Halton, Sheridan College and other local artists, the Bronte BIA has doubled the number of chairs from last winter!

History of Sledge Hockey

Sixteen Mile Sports Complex 

What is sledge hockey? Sledge Hockey of Canada (SHOC) was established over twenty-five years ago. Learn about the history of the sport, the rules of the game and get introduced to some of its leading athletes, some of which call Oakville home.

The Underground Railroad: Next Stop Freedom

Permanent Exhibit at Erchless Estate 

In this exciting and moving multi-media presentation, the ghost of Deborah Brown tells the true story of her heroic flight from a life of slavery in Maryland to her new life of freedom in 19th-century Toronto. Presentation available in French and English.

Freedom, Opportunity and Family: Oakville’s Black History

Permanent Exhibit at Erchless Estate 

Discover the stories of early Black settlers in Oakville including Branson Johnson, a freeborn African-American, who arrived with his family in 1855. His Certificate of Freedom from a Maryland court and the pocket watch in which it was hidden for many years are featured.