Toronto 
For decades, seeing many of the McMichael Canadian Art Collection’s best-known Group of Seven paintings has meant a trip to Kleinburg. This fall, 88 works are moving to the Royal Ontario Museum in downtown Toronto.
Image credit: Lawren S. Harris (1885–1970), Mt. Lefroy, 1930, oil on canvas, 133.5 x 153.5 cm. McMichael Canadian Art Collection, 1975.7 © Family of Lawren S. Harris
This Land: The Group of Seven and their Contemporaries opens at ROM on November 22, 2026, and runs until September 4, 2028. The unusually long engagement coincides with the McMichael’s temporary closure for a major redevelopment, with the Kleinburg gallery expected to reopen in 2029.
That makes This Land less like a conventional travelling exhibition and more like a temporary downtown home for a substantial selection from the McMichael collection.
What will you actually see?
The exhibition includes works by Lawren S. Harris, A.Y. Jackson, Arthur Lismer, Frederick Varley, Franklin Carmichael, Frank Johnston, J.E.H. MacDonald and A.J. Casson, alongside Tom Thomson and Emily Carr.
Among the specific works coming to ROM are Harris’s Mt. Lefroy, Jackson’s First Snow, Algoma and Thomson’s Woodland Waterfall. Paintings by Anne Savage, Yvonne McKague Housser and Bess Harris broaden the exhibition beyond the artists most commonly associated with the Group.
Instead of arranging everything primarily by artist or chronology, the exhibition takes visitors across eight Canadian landscapes: Georgian Bay, Algonquin Park, Algoma, the La Cloche Mountains, Lake Superior, the Rocky Mountains, British Columbia and the Arctic.
That geographical approach should make the exhibition particularly interesting for visitors familiar with these places. The landscapes themselves become the thread connecting paintings created by different artists.
How is the ROM exhibition different?
ROM is adding interpretation drawn from its own collections and expertise, looking at the geography and plants represented in the paintings. It will also introduce Indigenous place names and narratives that were often missing from the artists’ depictions of Canada.
That additional context matters. Visitors can look at these paintings both as art and as representations of real landscapes with histories extending well beyond the canvases.
Families have another way into the exhibition. An interactive “I-Spy” feature will give children and adults visual prompts encouraging them to examine details more closely. ROM and McMichael experts will also take part in special programming during the exhibition’s run.
Is it worth making a special trip?
The answer is yes!
For Group of Seven enthusiasts, the concentration of 88 McMichael works in downtown Toronto is the obvious draw, particularly while the collection’s permanent home is closed.
For casual visitors, there is less pressure to plan immediately. This Land runs for almost two years, and ROM has not yet announced the complete schedule of related talks and programming.
The location also makes this an easy exhibition to combine with the rest of ROM rather than treating it as a standalone excursion. The exhibition carries a $9 surcharge on top of general admission, so visitors paying full admission will get better value by allowing time for other museum galleries as well.
What You Need to Know – ROM’s This Land
What: ROM’s This Land: The Group of Seven and their Contemporaries brings 88 works from the McMichael Canadian Art Collection to downtown Toronto. The exhibition features paintings by Lawren Harris, A.Y. Jackson, Tom Thomson, Emily Carr and others, organized around eight Canadian landscapes, with added interpretation exploring geography, plants, Indigenous place names and narratives, plus an interactive family “I-Spy” experience.
Dates: November 22, 2026 to September 4, 2028
Member previews: November 20 and 21, 2026
Admission: $9 exhibition surcharge in addition to ROM general admission; free for ROM Members.
General Admission:
Adult: $26.00 & up
Child Ages 4-14: $16.00 & up
Senior Ages 65+: $21.00 & up
Youth Ages 15-19/Student with valid student card: $20.00 & up
Where: Royal Ontario Museum, 100 Queen’s Park, Toronto
Level 3, Centre Block
Transit: Museum Station is nearby; St. George Station is the closest accessible subway station and has elevators to street level
Parking: Several paid lots are within walking distance; ROM does not operate its own visitor parking lot
Accessibility: Manual wheelchairs are available free at coat check with ID; support persons may accompany visitors free of charge
ROM’s This Land exhibition page
