Don’t Touch The Art: What Rule Breaking in Art Galleries Really Mean

📚Lecture: "Don’t Touch The Art: What Rule Breaking in Art Galleries Really Mean"

🎤Speaker: Juniper Todd (M.A. Sociology)

Art galleries have rules. Most of them unspoken. Don’t touch. Don’t linger. Don’t misunderstand the art out loud. So what happens when people break them anyway?
This talk looks at what’s really going on when visitors touch artworks, disrupt exhibitions, or stage protests inside cultural institutions and why these acts are rarely as senseless as they seem. More often, they’re emotional responses to spaces that feel intimidating, exclusive, or just a little too controlled.
We’ll unpack what rule-breaking reveals about power, participation, and who art spaces are actually built for.

Juniper Todd (she/they) is a graduate researcher working at the intersection of contemporary art, crime, and institutional power. Their work explores what happens when viewers refuse, damage, or disrupt art — and what those acts reveal about museums and galleries as social spaces. Juniper is drawn to confusion, discomfort, and misbehavior as forms of cultural communication, and regularly bridges academic theory with public audiences through writing, teaching, and creative programming

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Agenda

6:15pm - Doors open: Grab a seat, order drinks and food and settle in.

6:55pm - Host Introduction

7:00pm - Lecture starts

7:45pm - Q&A with Audience

8:00pm - Socialize and make friends, grab drinks

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Beyond the Pale Byward Taproom, 21 George Street, Ottawa, Canada

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