Whippersnapper Gallery

☀️📚 SUMMER OPEN LIBRARY 📚☀️
a space for collective work, study, and conversation

Tuesday evenings
drop in 6-9PM
July 7, 14, 21, 28, August 4

Join us for drop-in hours at Whippersnapper this summer to read and chat about the relationship between art and labour, cultural work and community organizing, collective space-making and neighbourhood life. We’re interested in forms of struggle and coalition against displacement in Kensington and Chinatown specifically, while inspired by artists’ experiments in building autonomous infrastructure around the world. We will have zines, pamphlets, books, articles, and supplies to write or draw with.

Please DM us if you have printed materials you’d like to donate or lend to our collective library! Photocopied flyers, workshop handouts, teach-in reading lists, out-of-print movement journals, leftover wheatpasting posters, etc. — with a DIY ethos, and in the spirit of moving cultural work from the gallery into the real world, we want to see it all!

We will provide coffee, tea, water, stretch breaks, and light snacks for morale. Feel free to bring more snacks or drinks to share 🥟🍵

**swipe through for some examples of what we’re reading**

🎬 BlockStar Collective by Nala Haileselassie
✨ A 2026–27 PEERS Public Project ✨

“How can we learn from each other’s homes, families and blocks?”

BlockStar Collective is a collaborative film workshop series (July/August 2026) inviting youth ages 14–18 from Toronto’s priority neighbourhoods to experiment with filmmaking through radical film education, hands-on production workshops, and the creation of a collective short film.

Through storytelling, collaboration, and filmmaking, participants will reflect on:
📍 What stories live inside our apartment buildings, plazas, parks, and neighbourhoods?
📍 How do our homes, families, and communities shape the way we see the world?
📍 What can we learn from each other’s blocks, memories, and everyday environments?

Led by Toronto-based artist, researcher, and curator Nala Haileselassie, BlockStar Collective offers an experimental and collaborative space for youth to create, connect, and share perspectives through film.

Participant Criteria
🔹 Open to youth ages 14–18 based in Toronto priority neighbourhoods
🔹 All levels of arts and filmmaking experience welcome
🔹 Priority given to Indigenous, Black, racialized, Deaf, Mad, Disabled, and 2SLGBTQIA+ youth, and other equity-deserving communities
🔹 $500 honorarium provided for participation
🔹 Transit fare, materials, and meals provided
🔹 Additional screening and panel fees may be available pending funding
🔹 Must be available to attend all in-person sessions

🗓️ Apply by June 29, 2026: www.whippersnapper.ca/peers, or at the link in our bio!

BlockStar Collective is part of PEERS Public Projects, produced by Whippersnapper Gallery.

Poster designed by Moe Pramanick

🙏 With gratitude to for supporting this work.

🌸 FIELD RESEARCH GALLERY HOURS 🌸
Fridays 3-7pm from January 30 - Feb 20
594b Dundas St W

Storefront exhibition viewable 24/7

Come visit Field Research, one of our three 2025-2026 PEERS projects, an exhibition emerging from of a series of multidisciplinary workshops inviting South Asian youth to explore their families’ migration stories.

By Moe Pramanick
With collaborating artists Safa Patel, Abina Sathiya, Alisha Ahmed, Rania Qureshi, Kanniga Varatharajah

Process photos by Moe Pramanick

Join us for the opening reception of Field Research on Friday, December 5th at Whippersnapper Gallery!

By Moe Pramanick

Collaborating Artists:
Safa Patel
Abina Sathiya
Alisha Ahmed
Rania Qureshi
Kanniga Varatharajah

Field Research explores dialogue, memory and labour using audio archiving and textile explorations. The exhibition emerges from a workshop series in which South Asian youth were invited to unearth and preserve their families’ migration stories.

whippersnapper gallery, 594b dundas street w.
opening reception: dec 5, 2025 — 6-8pm
exhibition dates: dec 5 - jan 23, 2026
gallery hours: fridays — 3-7pm, storefront exhibition — 24/7
note: the gallery will be closed for winter holidays from dec 8 - jan 2, 2026



Design by Moe Pramanick
Logo by Kianna Mkhonza

Join us for an artist talk with Anélia Victor and Fatin Ishraq this Wednesday, Sept 10 at Arcadia Art Gallery. 🌱

Arcadia Art Gallery: 680 Queens Quay West
Time: 6:30-8pm

Friday, September 12 is also the last day to see Solidarity Seeds. Come see this incredible exhibition before it closes!
Gallery hours are 1-5pm.