Downtown Oshawa building the canvas for multimedia artist during Convergence Festival

Multimedia artist Jenn E Norton will be using the former Genosha Hotel at 70 King in downtown Oshawa for her canvas during next month’s Convergence Music & Art Festival.

Norton, who was born in Oshawa and credits the city for “enriching” her adolescence, told music writer Will McGuirk her video projection art will speak to Oshawa’s legacy as the automotive capital of Canada.

“I will be using video projection to look at the history of 70 King and how it has transformed and, by extension, how Oshawa has changed along with it,” she told McGuirk and Oshawa Tourism, adding she was “thrilled” to be part of the Convergence festival. “My approach is pretty visual and imaginative, so the history is represented in an animated, free-flowing manner, playing with scale and the existing architecture.”

As the Genosha, the hotel opened in 1929 during the early years of Col. Sam McLaughlin and GM Canada’s rise to prominence and became a celebrity destination for a time, welcoming royalty and well known writers and entertainers of the day before ending up as a strip club by the end of the last century.

Completely re-modeled in recent years, 70 King is now home to luxury rental units.

Convergence is taking over downtown Oshawa from September 22 to 24 to celebrate artistic expression and community while bringing people together to appreciate the power of music, art, and Oshawa’s community.

Attendees will have the opportunity to see The Strumbellas, Chastity, Preston Pablo and other major acts for free on September 23.

There will also be a visual explosion of mind-bending art and light, a culture jam of international cuisine in the form of an ultramodern street food alley, a Punk Rock Flea Market and a Nerd Alley celebrating all things nerd culture.

For more information, visit https://www.convergenceoshawa.com/

70 King in downtown Oshawa. The former Genosha Hotel