Hello Everyone,

• A big shout-out to everyone on the team who was involved in the selling of Yayoi Kusama tickets. While our technology was slower than we expected, our systems did not crash like those of several other museums that hosted the exhibition. I am impressed at how hard folks worked, how we maintained our sense of humour, and how much we all learned.
• We are now in the winter season (I’m restating the obvious!) and there may be times when we get significant snowfalls. Did you know that the AGO has a Staff & Volunteer Emergency Hotline you can call for updates in the event of inclement weather or other situations that may affect the Gallery’s operations? Please ensure you have the number with you throughout the season: 416-977-5249.
• Over the last ten days, Erin Prendergast has been in Japan and by all accounts is having a marvelous time! It is important we all take vacations to recharge and refresh. For those of you who are taking time off – enjoy. And to those who are working extra hard over the holidays – a deep and heartfelt thank you!

Stephan

P.S. Some stats about Kusama:

–       We can comfortably process 1,500 online ticket requests per hour. At one point we had 18,000 people in queue.

–       The previous record for calls at the Contact Centre for first day ticket sales was Mystical Landscapes at 500 –Kusama broke that record at 1,300.

–       On average we have 8,000 visitors a day on our website – on Tuesday/Wednesday it reached a combined 60,000.

–       Approximately 30,000 tickets were booked for the first members’ booking opportunity.

WOW!