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Art Windsor-Essex

AWE Opening Night

DATE: Thursday, April 16th, 2026
TIME: 5pm – 9pm
LOCATION: 401 Riverside Dr. W, Windsor, ON

COST: 

  • Current AWE Members: Free admission
  • Non-Members: $20

Accessibility: Accessibility and accommodation requests must be made at least two weeks in advance of the event. Please contact [email protected] for questions.

Be sure to join us for AWE Opening Night on April 16 from 5pm-9pm to celebrate the opening of three new exhibitions! AWE is open late for an evening filled with art activities, community discussions, guided tours, and great vibes.

Photography and videography will be present throughout the event. By entering this event site you agree to be filmed or photographed which may be used for marketing or promotional purposes.

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Art Activity: Leaf Rubbings with Emily Conlon

5pm – 8:30pm, 2nd floor, Education Studio

Join AWE Educator Emily Conlon in the studio to create your own leaf rubbings! Using real leaves, you’ll experiment with oil pastels and watercolour to create leaf rubbings while exploring texture, pattern, and colour.
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NEW EXHIBITION! Judy Chappus: Skin in the Game

2nd floor

Skin in the Game is a tribute to the stakes of Chappus’ work, and the personal risks and vulnerabilities the artist takes and allows in its creation. A retrospective can be an invitation to make history of materials, to revisit old works, and to loom errant threads into a cohesive whole: to spread open the garden, and eat the juicy apples.
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NEW EXHIBITION! Christian Chapman: Run to the Hills!

3rd floor

Run to the Hills! highlights Anishinaabe artist Christian Chapman’s storytelling practice, where painting, printmaking, and mixed media draw on ancestral traditions while forming a bold, contemporary visual language. Blending humour, pop culture, and political insight, his work creates a space where Indigenous experiences and familiar imagery intersect. Rooted in tradition yet inventive and playful, the exhibition celebrates resilience, identity, and the enduring power of story.
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NEW EXHIBITION! The Exhibitionists Take AWE

3rd floor

The Exhibitionists is a fluid collective of figurative women artists exploring the contemporary female experience by reimagining the nude. Drawing on Art Windsor Essex’s collection, the exhibition highlights both its strengths and gaps, particularly the underrepresentation of women artists. By presenting their work alongside AWE’s collection, the artists invite the viewer to reflect on equity, visibility, and the possibilities of more inclusive collecting practices.
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NEW COMMUNITY DISPLAY! Support YQG: Community in Colours by ALSO

3rd floor

In March 2026, Support YQG brought together four local artists to host mixed media workshops at ALSO’s day program and Collaborative Housing Sites across Windsor-Essex, encouraging participants to reflect on what “community” and “support” mean to them. Each session explored different aspects of community support through creative prompts and meaningful conversations.

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Community Conversation: Leading with Care

6:30pm – 7pm, 3rd floor galleries

This panel brings together three Windsor-Essex charities to explore how they support the community, the needs they address, and how we can all get involved.

Inspired by Support YQG’s Community in Colours community display, which explores the meaning of community support, this conversation highlights how support takes different forms depending on the unique needs of diverse individuals and communities.

Moderated by Sanjay Maru, CTV News

Speakers 

  • Becky Parent, Executive Director of Big Brothers Big Sisters Windsor Essex
  • Rukshini Ponniah-Goulin, Executive Director of Downtown Mission
  • Leigh Vachon, Executive Director of Assisted Living Southwestern Ontario

Organized by Support YQG

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Artist Talk: Judy Chappus

7pm – 7:30pm, 3rd floor galleries

Judy Chappus is a Windsor-based artist and poet who is uncompromising in her artistic searching. This survey exhibition, ranging from Chappus’ student years to the present, captures a restless artist in the midst and aftermaths of many reckonings: with motherhood, shifting critical fortunes, aging, and climate change; others, too many to name.
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Artist Talk: The Exhibitionists

7:30pm – 8pm, 2nd floor galleries

The Exhibitionists is a fluid collective of figurative women artists exploring the contemporary female experience by reimagining the nude tradition. Join members Judy Chappus, Sandie Collins, Rebecca Draisey, and Linda Renaud Fisher for an artist talk.

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Music, food, and drinks

7pm – 9pm, 3rd floor galleries 

Let’s celebrate! Head up to the third floor to join us for music, food and drinks by Windsor Eats, and good vibes.