We asked this year’s award winners a bit about themselves.  This week: Library Volunteer, Vanessa Lameche. (Find the full list of winners here.)

How did you get started at the AGO? How long have you been here? What roles have you played here?

I first started volunteering as an audioguide during the Chagall exhibition in 2011. Then I became an infoguide before eventually joining the Research Library & Archives.

It’s an exciting time to be volunteering in the Research Library & Archives. The new entrance is really going to open up the space. I enjoy helping library users to find the information they need about artists, works of art, and exhibitions and enrich their experience of the AGO. I especially enjoy hearing which works of art volunteers are preparing talks on.

We’re holding exciting events that increase access, like the Wikipedia Edit-a-Thons, where people are coming together to use the library resources in a very social and interactive way in order to create Wikipedia entries on art and artists.

What is your favourite work?

I could never choose just one. I find Trans Am Apocalypse No.3 exciting and kind of scary…

I always take my friends to see the miniature portrait of Charlotte Corday because most of them are familiar with David’s The Death of Marat and this portrait of his assassin connects art and history and brings art to life.

Do you have any memorable moments?

So many. Just last week, a teenager came up to me and showed me a pencil drawing that she had just made. It’s wonderful that, for her, the AGO is a place where she could experience art on so many levels: looking at it, creating it, and then showing it to someone. Her sketch was of Mr. Peanut with a green hat, as she said ‘just to change it up a bit’.

And, of course, getting to know other volunteers, who are all so curious and knowledgeable and generous with their knowledge. I can’t leave the volunteer lounge without learning something…