Queer Up North Symposium II

August 8–10, 2025

Join us for a full weekend of talks, panels, and screenings exploring queer ecologies, land-based practices, and artistic expressions rooted in northern and rural experiences. This weekend-long event brings together 2SLGBTIQ+ artists, Indigenous knowledge keepers, and local community members to share insight, conversation, and connection.

Queer Up North Symposium II is an opportunity to explore and engage with the evolving field of queer ecologies—questioning binaries between human and nature, natural and unnatural, and reimagining relationships between gender, land, and culture. The project is a collaboration between members of the Throbbing Rose Collective, the Nipissing Regional Curatorial Collective, and White Bear Artist Residency.

It began with a two-week residency in Temagami in August 2024, where 16 2SLGBTIQ+ artists immersed themselves in the wilderness at Northland Paradise Lodge. The works developed during and after that experience have now culminated in Wild Waysides: Queer Ecology and the New Natural, recently exhibited at the White Water Gallery in North Bay—and many of these artists will be present at the symposium.

These events are free and open to the public.

Symposium Schedule Highlights

Friday, August 8

9:30 AM – Welcome Coffee & Registration
10:15 AM – Panel: IndigiQueer Making & Why We Work Together
12:00 PM Lunch Break
1:00 PM – Workshop: The Queer Sonic Postcard (Mike Wyeld & Charlie Hunter)
2:30 PM – Panel: Unsettling the Pastoral – Queer Field Recording
4:00 PM – Roundtable: The Ethics of Gathering
5:30 PM – Closing Day 1 Discussion

Saturday, August 9

9:00 AM – Welcome Coffee & Open Forum
9:30 AM – Forum - Exploring Trans & Queer Ecologies Through a Post-humanist Lens
11:15 AM – Workshop: Cyanotypes (Kristy Boyce & Walt Segers)
1:00 PM – Lunch Break
2:00 PM – Panel: Picturing Queer Ecologies
3:30 PM – Keynote: Mimi McGurl
5:15 PM – Closing Day 2 Discussion

Sunday, August 10

1:00 PM – Gallery Talk with Artists & Curators

Please register to attend:

Reserve your spot on Eventbrite