2017 Ontario Service Award Winner Profiles: Linda Tyrrell, Info (and Grange) Guide

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We asked this year’s award winners a bit about themselves.  This week: Info Guide Linda Tyrrell

linda

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

I first started at the Grange as a costumed interpreter in 1981 and was there until the Grange closed for the Gehry renovation in 2005.  At the re-opening in 2008,  I began volunteering as an Information Guide which I enjoy very much. I have learned so much from volunteering at the AGO, from fellow volunteers, information meetings and from visitors.

What is your most satisfying memory at the gallery?    

While at the Grange, we volunteers learned much of the early 19th century history of Toronto and the part that the Grange family, the Boultons, played in that history as members of the Family Compact. Under the supervision of Ruth Keene, the resident expert on heritage cooking, we learned how to bake bread in the brick oven and how to bake the best shortbread ever.  In those early days of the 1980s, to our visitors’ delight, we served samples of that bread and shortbread. 

While serving as an Information Guide since 2008, I have learned much about art, again, from special training sessions, new shows, fellow volunteers and visitors.  I have learned that everyone sees and interprets art differently.  There is no one way to see what a given artist wants his/her viewer to see or feel.  I enjoy listening to visitors’ and fellow volunteers’ comments on what certain artworks mean to them.  Many  have had varied experiences of the art world and have much to offer.

Volunteering at the AGO is a place to meet others from Toronto and around the world, to inform, be informed, and is an opportunity to play a small part in providing a service to our community.