Embassy Cultural House

EMBASSY CULTURAL HOUSE

Established in 1983, the Embassy Cultural House was a community-driven gallery and hosted interdisciplinary programs. It closed its physical doors in 1990. In 2020, the Embassy Cultural House was re-envisioned as a virtual artist-run space and community website.
A not-for-profit initiative, the ECH delivers its projects through a dedicated team of volunteers, partners, community contributors and angel investors. Occasional funding through project arts grants also supports the ECH to honour the principle of payment of fees to contributors.

CURRENT PROJECTS

SF Ho, Money Mirror, 2020

Not/For The Money Online Exhibition

Zoom Launch: Friday August 8, 2025 at 11AM EDT
Contact [email protected] to RSVP

The Embassy Cultural House is pleased to present Not/For The Money, a group exhibition that highlights work by artists and cultural workers that examines themes related to money, capital, and value.

Money is a very urgent issue for many artists. An aspect of this issue is the general public’s inability to value the arts and cultural workers’ vital role and impact within any community. There is a lack of understanding in the way cultural workers survive and build meaningful lives, often with a minimum of resources. The issue of money, the impact of economic disparity, and insecurity dominates many of our lives. Without a stable income, most people struggle to afford basic necessities that are required for quality of life.

Not/For the Money includes works by Ron Benner, Karl Beveridge, Lily Cho, Matthew Dawkins, Holly English, Soheila Esfahani, Kelly Green, Jamelie Hassan, SF Ho, Michael Maranda, Alistair MacKinnon, Patrick Mahon, David Merritt, Mohamed Monaiseer, Sheri Osden Nault, Wanda Nanibush, Shelley Niro, Claudia Sambo, Ruth Strebe, and Jeff Thomas. The project has been organized by Ron Benner, Jamelie Hassan, Olivia Mossuto, and Mireya Seymour.

Queer Cinema for Palestine 2025: No Pride in Genocide

Saturday, June 14, 2025 at 7-9:30 PM
London Public Library, Lawson Room, 251 Dundas Street, London, ON
Special Guest: Award-winning Filmmaker John Greyson
FREE

Queer Cinema for Palestine “No Pride in Genocide,” is a single program of stellar new short films, to be presented by groups/partners in 50+ cities globally during Pride June 2025. The Embassy Cultural House, based in London, ON, will host a QCP screening event on June 14, 2025 at London’s Central Public Library.

Queer Cinema for Palestine began as a film festival in 2021, offering a hybrid ten-day program in thirteen cities around the world, celebrating Palestinian voices and queer solidarity with Palestinians and their liberation struggle. This is QCP’s 3rd year and Embassy Cultural House has programmed with QCP since the inaugural program in 2021.

QCP supports the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, in particular the call by the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) to boycott the Israeli government-sponsored LGBTQ film festival, TLVFest.

For more information, please visit QCP's website. The Embassy Cultural House would also like to thank Antler River Media for partnering with us to host this event.

Visit the Hiding in Plain Sight Virtual Tour

Hiding in Plain Sight Exhibition

Embassy Cultural House catalogue now online

It is with great pleasure that we are sharing an online version of the now out-of-print The Embassy Cultural House, 1983 to 1990 catalogue. This catalogue was published in 2012 to accompany the survey exhibit “The Embassy Cultural House, 1983 to 1990" presented at Museum London.

The late Robert (Bob) McKaskell curated the survey exhibit, and the catalogue was edited by the late Melanie Townsend. The catalogue also includes essays by historical curator Michael Baker and Toronto-based artist, educator, and activist Rebecca Deiderichs. The Museum London public program included a sold-out concert of an improvizational jazz performance by Eric Stach and local musicians.

With special thanks to Museum London, the estates of both Bob McKaskell and Melanie Townsend, all the contributors and supporters of the catalogue, and Colour by Schubert for making this publication available online to a broader public. Click here to read the catalogue online.

In memory of curator and writer Bob McKaskell, 1943–2020

In Memory of Bob McKaskell

It is with a heavy heart that we share the sad news that our good friend Bob McKaskell, independent curator and writer, died on June 30, 2020, from cancer.

He divided his time between Port Dover, Ontario, and Oaxaca, Mexico. While in Oaxaca, he decided to study Spanish, and he had just initiated a program of curating exhibits of Oaxacan artists in his apartment located in the centro historico of Oaxaca. He was a great cook, an excellent gardener, and his pursuit of knowledge was startlingly wide reaching. Anyone who knew Bob understood that his sometimes stubborn nature contributed to his ability to intensely focus in a very particular and detailed way to whatever subjects grabbed his interest.

Bob taught contemporary art history for many years at Western University. He was a huge supporter of both Canadian and international artists and had a commitment to challenging art practices, including conceptual art, performance works, and independent artists' projects. While in London, he was involved in programming at the Embassy Cultural House, the Forest City Gallery, Museum London and the McIntosh Gallery. He later became curator at the Art Gallery of Windsor, the Winnipeg Art Gallery and the Glenbow Museum in Calgary, where he built strong friendships and made contributions to the arts community across Canada.

We have so many fond memories of Bob. Especially close to our hearts is the survey exhibition he curated Embassy Cultural House: 1983 - 1990 at Museum London in 2012.