The Education & Programming team is looking forward to running AGO art camps again this year! To learn more about how this year’s camps may affect staff, please read this message from Brit Higgens, Manager, Camp, Courses and Studio Programming.
When do camps begin?
Camps will run fromMonday, June 29, to Friday, September 4 (10 weeks this year!) There will be no camps on Wednesday, July 1, for Canada Day.
The Gallery will be welcoming over 150 campers, and 30 volunteers each week for a fun-filled, creativity-fueled day camp experience.
Our full counsellor team started on Monday, June 22, and volunteers joined us for training on June 25. Thanks in advance for everyone’s support in welcoming our team and campers for the summer season!
How might camps affect staffand volunteers?
The camps will be using multiple spaces in the Weston Family Learning Centre (WFLC). Please keep this in mind when booking internal meetings.
These spaces include:
Seminar Rooms 1, 2 and 3 all summer
The Gallery School
The Education Meeting Room all summer
The Education/Camp Office
The VSP recording space
Camps will exit to Grange Park via the South Entrance (Robert Harding Hall) for outdoor time and lunch breaks. We will also use the South Entrance for occasional programming. Please be mindful that the WFLC and concourse area will be filled with lots of activity and energy!
Thank you to all of the team members who are helping to take down the Paul McCartney exhibit and install the next big show at the AGO – The Impressionist Revolution: Monet to Matisse from the Dallas Museum of Art. Our audience is in for a real treat – lots of stunning Impressionist paintings hanging in delightfully, cheerfully painted galleries. A perfect tonic for the summer months!
Our retail refresh project is kicking off (see volunteer blog announcement, also shared this week). Thank you to teams across retail, Logistics and Art Services, Facilities and Food & Beverage, who are leading this work. Our pop-up shops for retail activity during this construction phase are now active across the museum, including locations at the scissor stairs, coat check, and a dedicated pop-up in The Impressionist Revolution, opening soon.
Starting Monday, June 22, the AGO Bistro will temporarily close while the Shop undergoes a retail refresh.
While the Bistro is not being renovated, its closure is needed to accommodate the extensive renovation work in the Shop. It will reopen at the same time as the Shop, this coming Fall.
Changes to the Grange House and Norma Ridley Members’ Lounge
The section of the Grange House currently known as the Norma Ridley Members’ Lounge will be temporarily renamed to “The Grange House.” The Grange House will encompass the main dining rooms and the Grange Library.
The Grange Library will temporarily be renamed the Norma Ridley Members’ Lounge. This will be a members-only space.
Members will be able to book reservations for the Grange House and the Norma Ridley Members’ Lounge (the Grange Library) up to two weeks in advance. All other visitors will be limited to walk-in access only.
Members will receive a 10% discount on all food and beverages (excluding alcohol) when dining throughout the Grange House. For every $50 spent by a party/table, members will also receive a complimentary dessert.
Questions?
If you have any questions about these changes, please reach out to the Food & Beverage Outlets team directly, at [email protected]
The Volunteer Endowment Trust (VET) is a fund created and sustained through the continued financial support of the Volunteers of the Art Gallery of Ontario. The fund is held in Trust by the AGO Foundation, which holds all AGO endowment funds.
The AGO is pleased to offer the following recognition and stewardship opportunities in acknowledgement of the philanthropic support from the Volunteer Endowment Trust: • Listing on the Annual Donor Wall and the Year in Review for the 2026-27 fiscal year • Tour exclusively for the Volunteers with the corresponding Curator or Program Lead • This contribution will be recognized as Volunteers of the AGO, and project specific recognition will be offered as follows:
Special Exhibitions and Artistic Programming • Recognition on temporary signage related to the exhibitions, such as: the exhibition title walls, web pages and select advertisements (if applicable). • Recognition in the publication for the Pointillist Politics: Neo-Impressionism, Science, Anarchy exhibition.
WINNING VOTE: Volunteers voted and made our choice for the 2026-27 Volunteer Endowment Trust. The winning vote goes to Pointillist Politics: Neo-Impressionism, Science, Anarchy exhibition. Curated by Caroline Shields, Curator, European Art. Co-organized by the Art Gallery of Ontario and The Clark Art Institute. As Volunteer President, I would like to formally thank all fellow Volunteer colleagues on your thoughtful, diligent contributions to the VET endeavour. I’m grateful to have shared the honor with the following volunteers attending the VET meeting on June 9th. Joan London and Sybil Wilkinson in recognition of 47 years of volunteer service. For all you both continue to and have given back, accomplished for the AGO. Thank you for all you do, enhancing the visitor experience, bringing your knowledge, dedication, hard work as volunteers and your participation in this VET meeting.
As per the image below, we had the pleasure of meeting with (left to right) Erica Russell (Development), Stephan Jost (Michael and Sonja Koerner Director and CEO), Volunteers Joan London and Sybil Wilkinson with myself, David Fleck (AGO Foundation Board), Holly Procktor (Volunteer Co-ordinator), Erin Prendergast (Director’s Office) and Caroline Shields (not pictured), Curator, European Art, on June 9th and signed the Volunteer Endowment Trust letter of agreement.
Can’t wait to see the Pointillist Politics: Neo-Impressionism, Science, Anarchy exhibition on the heels of the Monet-Matisse works, and all the programming, talks with respect to the works and exhibitions and learning from Caroline Shields, Curator, European Art.
Thank you again to all involved for this collaboration on the Volunteer Endowment Trust and for this opportunity for us volunteers to contribute.
Did you know? AGO Volunteers receive complimentary and discounted admission at museums & galleries, cultural institutions, and participating organizations all across Toronto, the GTA, and throughout Ontario – just by showing their AGO volunteer badge. This is one of our most wonderful volunteer perks -so read on!
Did you know? AGO volunteers receive free general admission to the ROM. Bringing a guest? They receive 15% off their ticket, as well!
Please go online to search and confirm the latest offers from the Royal Ontario Museum, McMichael Canadian Art Collection, Ripley’s Aquarium, the CN Tower, Little Canada, …. and hundreds more!
Each attraction has specific instructions and conditions for redeeming offers. Please read these carefully and make sure to note the volunteer offer before visiting an attraction. Questions? Make sure to call the attraction- each organization structures their own offer (not volunteer resources).
Prefer paper copies? We’ve posted both agreements, (over 50 printed pages in total!) in the volunteer lounge
The AGO’s CNE corporate discount provides staff & volunteers with discounted passes and admission to the CNE, which runs from August 21 to September 7, 2026. These are dates to keep in mind:
Until August 20, staff and volunteers can purchase:
$50 Ride All Day Passes (includes general admission)
$22 admission to the CNE
From August 21 until September 7, staff and volunteers can purchase:
Use the following access code to log in: 2026K73DXXVY
Once you purchase your tickets/passes, print them at home using a printer or present them on your mobile device at the CNE main entrance gate. Enjoy Canada’s National Exhibition!
As part of Dani Reiss Modern and Contemporary Gallery (DRMCG) construction, EllisDon will be removing the crane from the construction site on Monday, June 1, and Tuesday, June 2.
McCaul Street will be closed to vehicle and foot traffic from Dundas Street West to Grange Road starting on Sunday, May 31, from 11 pm until Tuesday, June 2, at 7 pm.
Staff and volunteers can continue to enter and exit the Gallery through the front entrance or through the South Entrance, with no disruption.
Next week, the AGO is hosting museum directors from the top 40 largest museums in the world. The group will be in Toronto from Wednesday to Saturday and the program features a discussion with Margaret Atwood and a tour of the Dani Reiss Modern and Contemporary Gallery led by architect Anabelle Selldorf, who is recognized globally for her work with museums – I mentioned last week that she will be undertaking the renovation of the Louvre in Paris.
It is a testament to each of you that the AGO was identified as the host of this gathering. The AGO is recognized as a leading global museum and the other museum directors are excited to learn more about the AGO and Canada. Thank you for all you do to make the AGO an extraordinary art museum.
Derived from the design of First Nations canoes, Makinaw boats were popular fishing vessels used in Odawa Mnis (Manitoulin Island) before the Second World War. From 1845 to 1939, these boats were built by five generations of Ojibwe, Odawa, and Pottawatomi (Anishnaabe) makers. Makinaw boats were used for long-line, bottom-net, and pond-net fishing, as well as for transporting people and goods across the lakes. Inheriting the flat bottom of its canoe predecessor and the innovation of a retractable rudder, this fishing vessel expertly navigated the shallow shores around the island.
Odawa artist Angus Trudeau (1908-1984) grew up watching Makinaw boats fill the North Channel of Manitoulin Island. In the later years of his life, he began creating detailed, hand-carved models of these boats, one of which has found its home at the AGO. Displayed on a mirrored plinth in gallery 230, Red Sailboat (around late 1970s – early 1980s) offers visitors a chance to take in the meticulous details of Trudeau’s rendering of Manitoulin history. Read more in this week’s Foyer, linked HERE.
Members’ Access: Jun 3–5, 2026 Public Access: Saturday June 6, 2026
Located on Level 1, Philip B. Lind Gallery, #131 and #132
Making his Canadian debut at the AGO, Diego Marcon’s cinematic vision draws on Hollywood musicals, horror films, melodrama, and slapstick, to present films both unsettling and tender. Incorporating CGI, prosthetics, and robotics, Marcon achieves an uncanny quality in his films: images that feel artificial, yet strangely alive.
At the centre of this installation is Marcon’s newest work, Krapfen (2025). Set in a bedroom, the film describes a child tormented by four characters — a pair of gloves, a foulard, a pair of trousers, and a pullover — who insist that the child should eat an apricot jam krapfen (or German doughnut). Part musical, part neurotic carousel, the objects hector the child as they swirl around, in a choreographed dance, set to music composed by Federico Chiari.
Diego Marcon, Krapfen, 2025 [still]. Digital video, CGI animation, colour, sound.
