The Grand Gallery in Paris helped kick off Culture Days with several activities taking place inside Rebel and Royal on Sunday, September 20, 2026.
Rubyyy Jones of Big Cityyy Arts, who has been running the pop-up gallery alongside their partner and Rebel and Royal owner Prinx Lydia since the beginning of July, said several exhibitions were planned for the gallery throughout the run of Culture Days .
“The Grand Gallery specifically is doing a series of eight incredible solo exhibitions; some of them for a couple of days, and some just for an evening,” said Jones. “And this is all part of a wider program called Culture Days, which is a nationwide program of free and donation-based arts and culture events taking place from September 18 to October 4.”
Jones said the excitement within the gallery all started last Friday.
“We had Deirdre Ann Photography’s exhibition open on September 18, which is her homage to the wonderful, wild world, and in particular her hometown of Waterford,” said Jones. “On Sunday, she was joined by other wonderful local artists Caroline Telfer and Sarah Evans of Belle Florals. Caroline is here with some of her incredible interactive wearable art, while Sarah is showing some wonderful floral installations as well as offering a cyanotype workshop. We also have Sarah’s fabulous friend Zinta Auzins here doing some dating and relationship advice.”
During the event, Evans helped visitors to create various cyanotypes using dried florals and repurposed objects. The slow-reacting photo process uses light-sensitive chemicals to produce striking monochromatic blue prints.
While waiting for the print to dry, many stuck around to receive dating advice from Auzins or get up close and personal with Telfer’s work, titled “Fashion, Font & the Figure.” The wired ballroom gown-inspired piece encouraged visitors to attach their own choice of words along the piece.
When asked what was so special about Culture Days, Jones said it’s all about making art more accessible.
“I think the fact that everything involved in the Culture Days calendar is either free, pay what you can or donation based, is just so wonderful,” said Jones.
Having been involved for several years now, Jones went on to say that it’s been great to see how much it’s grown.
“Culture Days has really evolved throughout the years because initially, it was kind of just integrating the public into things that were already going on. So, for example, if you had a play coming up, you would invite people to the rehearsal, or if you were an artist who already has a studio, you would open the door,” they said. “Now people are creating unique programming just for Culture Days, especially here in Brant, and that was partially thanks to the County’s incredible support through a microgrant program. Every year the programming grows, and every year more people know about it. I still remember when we first started doing Culture Days three or four years ago now, people were asking, ‘What is it?” and now, people know to look out for it.”
Kimberly De Jong’s reporting is funded by the Canadian government through its Local Journalism Initiative.The funding allows her to report rural and agricultural stories from Blandford-Blenheim and Brant County. Reach her at kimberly.dejong@brantbeacon.ca.
