Image Description: Centered on a large white gallery wall at Union Gallery is the exhibition title, Worlds World Worlds, rendered directly on the wall in serif typography. Beneath the title are the exhibition dates, June 9–August 29, 2026, and the artist's name, Elyse L. Longair. Three large-scale photographic reproductions are installed around the text. The images present science-fiction-inspired, futuristic scenes: a solitary figure wearing a poncho emerging from mist and viewed through a specimen-collection machine; a mechanical structure with propeller-like forms hovering above a sulfurous landscape; and a dark green-and-black environment with floating circular structures suspended in the sky. In the foreground, two white display tables hold a series of analog collages beneath protective acrylic covers. The installation creates a dialogue between intimate, materially based analog works and enlarged photographic reproductions, exploring speculative futures, technological environments, and imagined worlds.
One of the best ways to survive graduate school at Queen’s is to step outside your routine and engage with something different. My suggestion? Union Gallery. Looking at back on its history it’s all about us, the students, “since its inception, Union Gallery has been a student-driven organization, with a blend of core professional and student staff and artists”.
Located inside Joseph S. Stauffer Library, the gallery is only a few steps away from one of Queen’s most widely used study and research spaces. And it’s free.
What makes Union Gallery special is not only its exhibitions and programming, but also the people who shape it. Led by two creative individuals, Gallery Director Morgan Wedderspoon and Program Director Haley Sarfeld, the gallery is both dynamic and current. As a student, there are many ways you can get involved through volunteering, work-study and placement positions, or joining their board. As someone who completed a placement at Union Gallery, I saw firsthand how valuable these hands-on opportunities can be. Students gain experience in arts administration, curatorial practice, public programming, community engagement, exhibition installation, and event planning while contributing to a vibrant cultural space on campus. See if this might be an option for you!
So, what’s happening at Union Gallery this summer?
The summer begins with the launch of the 2026–27 curatorial theme, Living Together, taking place tomorrow, June 17, at 5 p.m. RSVP here. The event invites visitors to gather in the gallery for an evening of light refreshments, conversation, seed paper making, and a chance to visit the current exhibitions and meet some of the artists and curators currently showing.
Including me! I am so excited to be the artist exhibiting in the Main Space with my solo exhibition, Worlds World Worlds. Worlds World Worlds takes its title and conceptual grounding from Donna Haraway’s phrase “it matters what worlds world worlds,” and responds to Union Gallery’s curatorial theme, Living Together, by focusing on collaboration, coexistence, and solidarity in times of intersecting crises. Through collage, the exhibition aims to explore how images construct our understanding of reality, and how shifting those images might shift perception itself.
This exhibition is an example of research-creation in action, where artistic practice and theory work hand in hand (see my previous blog post here). As part of the exhibition, I have included my copy of Donna Haraway’s book Staying with the Trouble in the gallery, inviting visitors to annotate with me: mark a passage, underline a sentence, circle an idea, ask a question, or respond to the text, each other, and to the exhibition. In doing so, visitors contribute to a shared record of staying with the trouble together, bringing research, writing, and artistic practice into conversation within the gallery space.
I am excited to be exhibiting alongside other exhibitions including:
• A Convergent Evolution of Wet Places (Project Room), curated by GHY Cheung, brings together works by Amy Ching-Yan Lam, Christopher Lacroix, and Tommy Ting, exploring “wet places” like bathrooms and baths as hybrid, communal and queer spaces of sociality and play.
• Who’s Telling the Story? by Renee Lebeau (Feature Wall) is a research-creation collage project that examines how colonial violence and institutional systems shape the present, using layered materials to interrupt dominant narratives and open up questions of memory, power, and representation.
• The Small + Mighty Silent Auction, featuring 8” × 10” works by artists connected to the gallery, runs all summer and supports both participating artists and Union Gallery’s free public programming.
• The Public Art Mentorship Program, featuring artist-in-residence Jasper Lyon Wicke and mentor Abby Nowakowski, highlights intergenerational learning, skill-sharing, and community-based artistic practice between a high school artist and an established artist.
Union Gallery will also be out in the community this summer, participating in Kingston Pride on June 13, Skeleton Park Arts Festival on June 21, and Women’s Art Festival on August 15 to 17, bringing hands on activities, conversation, and opportunities to engage with the gallery beyond campus.
If you are looking to exhibit your work this fall, Union Gallery’s call for exhibition proposals is now open. Open to current Queen’s students across all disciplines and levels of study, this is an opportunity to bring your work into the gallery space, engage with research-creation, and contribute to next season’s programming within the theme Living Together.
Surviving graduate school is not just about managing workload, but about staying connected to ideas, people, and places beyond your desk. Union Gallery offers a simple way to do that, right on campus, as part of everyday university life.