A series of profiles, written by Ashley Diana Culver, highlighting alternative art spaces in Toronto and the people who make them.

Front door of St. Cyril and Methodius church, now SCaM Project Space.

“The terms artist, writer, curator, they are smoke screens for me doing whatever I want to do at that moment. Maybe because I grew up watching people make exhibitions. Part of me feels, it doesn't need to be so complicated. It doesn't always need to be this institutional,” said Ciar O’Mahony sitting on a bar stool at their kitchen counter. Later, from the other side of the counter, Joshua Rogin says, “You do that thing where you invent a name for the organization, but it's just you at a computer.”

Together the couple runs SCaM Project Space in the basement suite of the renovated St. Cyril and Methodius, a Slovakian Roman Catholic church, which also serves as their home. While O’Mahony grew up in this house, Rogin was born in Phoenix, Arizona and moved to Toronto via Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Oregon, and Illinois. The name of the independent gallery is an acronym of the former inhabitants. A name is a made up or selected word to identify a referent. Through use the value and meaning of a name becomes established. The name SCaM, which causes challenges when sending emails, is inherited from O’Mahony’s parents.

Emerald 邹佑, *doubles my angels*, 2026. Installation view SCaM Project Space.
Courtesy of the artist. Photo: Philip Leonard Ocampo.

Niamh O’Laoghaire and Michael O’Mahony moved into the building in 1994 after purchasing the front half of the church from the parish, who were relocating to Mississauga. O’Laoghaire was then an Assistant Professor of art history at McMaster University. And the basement, unlike its current white cube state, was raw. In 1998, SCaM Project Space was founded when their neighbour—actor, writer, and filmmaker Michael Achtman—asked if he could workshop a play in the basement. The artist Rose Jacobson painted the set for Achtman and afterwards, installed the first exhibition in the space. Then, shows continued with Patrick Little, Ann O’Callaghan, and Jason McDade among others until O’Laoghaire began a full-time job, in 2001, as the Director of the University of Toronto Art Centre (that has since merged with Hart House to form The Art Museum). Despite the brief lifespan of the original iteration of the project space, their child has vivid memories of hearing openings from her bed upstairs. O’Mahony reflects, “As a kid, I loved going into the same room over and over again, and having it be completely different.”

At first, O’Mahony resisted identifying with SCaM Project Space. In 2019, she curated three exhibitions in the same basement unit her parents had activated as a gallery years prior. However, O’Mahony chose to use the address as the title: 36 Claremont Project Space. She felt insecure about picking up her parents’ project and had a notion that she and Rogin should make their own thing. This flurry of activity did give her some experience before the couple moved to the United Kingdom the following year for her Masters of Fine Art in Curating at Goldsmiths, University of London.

Although a 2023 Instagram post on artist and filmmaker Miles Rufelds’ grid announcing an October opening lists 36 Claremont Project Space, Contaminated field of vision or: It's not Brakhage is when O’Mahony and Rogin consider SCaM Project Space reinstated. The solo exhibition, which featured a trio of lightbox tables displaying filmstrips among an assortment of other images and text, was the beginning of the couple’s official collaboration.

The two met while students at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Rogin recalls O’Mahony helping install an eight foot by four foot mirror to a ceiling for his graduate thesis project. During his seven years in Chicago, he organized a performance series called Cabaret Cabaret. It initially took place in various living rooms and attics and eventually, was held in “galleries, proper venues, and fancier basements.” With Rogin’s interest in theatre, performance, and writing, plus O’Mahony’s focus on visual art and curating, together they cover a broad scope of the arts field.

O’Mahony has not yet collaborated with her mother but is keen to have her participate in some way. They do, however, share a language when discussing SCaM Project Space. In spite of, or perhaps actually because of, each of their employment in large arts organizations, they are enthusiastic about working in an ad hoc nature. O’Laoghaire, who is now the Director of Varley Art Gallery of Markham, felt pressure to create a mandate for SCaM Project Space, but she says, “The ad hoc, it's worthwhile in and of itself, there's certain things you don't have to think about, because you're not really an institution the way other places are.” Likewise, O’Mahony, who works in visitor services at The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery, says, “I'm not so eager to professionalize. We're not an institution. I'm not so eager to mimic what I see, the way institutions need to work.”

Miles Rufelds, *Contaminated field of vision or: It's not Brakhage*, 2023. Installation view SCaM Project Space.
Courtesy of the artist. Photo: Laura Findlay, LF Documentation.

When entering SCaM Project Space in May 2026 for doubles my angels, a solo show by Emerald 邹佑, back and front (2026) meets your gaze from across the entrance. It is a gold-drenched panorama of a brick house exterior with three girls perched in a doorway that enframes them while smoking and peering out; another set of female friends–one balancing a tomato red umbrella on her shoulder–sit crosslegged in a window. 邹佑 painted the works the month beforehand knowing she was leaving the city soon. 邹佑 and O’Mahony are both currently members of the plumb, a collective that runs another basement gallery off St. Clair West Street. In the exhibition text, Rogin writes, “Washes of color unite figures and spaces as well, and what we come away with is the awareness that the places here are not just armature for relationships to hang on but are entirely a part of them. The house here is not a machine but a vital function of the social sphere.” This was written for the exhibit; yet, it also rings true for the project space. Visitors may view the oil paintings for seconds or minutes but O’Mahony and Rogin brush their teeth alongside their friends’ work. Their home is a gallery where art and life are in communion. It’s natural for them to check in about upcoming programming while washing dishes.

O’Mahony acknowledges SCaM Project Space is possible due to their parents’ ownership of the property. They live in downtown Toronto rent free because of this. Rather than hide this privilege, they have come to not only accept it, but find significance in embracing what it offers. “There's a lot of media catastrophizing the future, and making me feel I don't have agency,” says O’Mahony, “I try to protect space in my life to remind myself who I am and the people I work with have more power than we think. Also, having spaces like this reminds me that life will surprise you, people will surprise you, it's difficult sometimes, people will amaze you, and other things.” Today, the pair are pleased to connect with the history of their name and, as Rogin says, “keep the lineage alive.”

Alt Arts: St. Cyril and Methodius church, now SCaM Project Space

A series of profiles, written by Ashley Diana Culver, highlighting alternative art spaces in Toronto and the people who make them.

Frank Chang’s