You’ve probably noticed some  Gallery Guides are going about their work with an iPad tucked under one arm. The AGO is in the early, but already rewarding, stages of a project that will encourage and train GGs to use this technology as an additional resource.

“It’s so cool,” says Jessica Duarte, who is both the Volunteer Executive representative for evening/weekend Gallery Guides and also one of the people who helped get this project off the ground. “Using the iPad can enrich the visitor experience, but it’s for us as well.”

This pilot-project stage is open to all interested Gallery Guides. In late January, they began learning how to create iBooks – basically an electronic book with turning pages and all – where they can store videos, 3D and interactive images and notes on a selected theme. The GGs will then be able to show selected images to visitors during a tour, while having quick access to more information themselves.

Some themes now being developed:

•  connections between symbolism in works in our collection and the upcoming Florence at the Dawn of the Renaissance exhibition ( by daytime Guide Val Fairclough);
•  the miniatures in our Thomson mediaeval collection (a prototype for the GGs, created by AGO intern Elyse Rodgers, who is involved in their training);
•  our African collection (by daytime Guides Fran Bleviss and Helen Sommers); and
•  Kent Monkman (by Jessica Duarte, her early experiment that helped start the project).

These are just a few early examples, and not all are yet at the iBook stage. Even so, they all show the power of this new tool. “When I’ve used the Thomson European Collection iBook created by Elyse Rodgers and zoomed in for close-ups,” says Jessica, “visitors become totally fascinated, because they can really see the detail.”

On January 30, Val cooperated with GG Barb Keilhauer, whose own iPad was temporarily not available, on a peer-group tour of our new exhibition of Stanley Spencer drawings. Barb developed and gave the talk, which included comparisons to some of his paintings (not at the AGO); at each relevant moment, Val held up the image of a painting that Barb had earlier selected and emailed to her.

There it all was, at the same moment in the same room, making the presentation that much richer for all concerned.

The iPad can be used even more simply than that, and still have impact. That same morning, says Val, “A visitor asked me about our Riopelle. We stood there in front of the painting and discussed it, he asked if we had more, I had to say no – but then I did a quick online search and showed him more images on my iPad. It was so easy, and he was so pleased!”

Jessica looks to all the future possibilities and says, “We are just scratching the surface.”