Hello Everyone,

Last Saturday was a BIG day for the AGO. There was no shortage of patience, good humour and excitement as we launched the new access model. A giant team of people helped develop the strategy and I’m grateful to everyone, employees and volunteers, who were here to ensure a great kick-off and warm visitor welcome. A special shout-out to Herman Lo, Director, Visitor Experience; Nympha Patel, Director, Membership & Database Marketing; and Mark McKay, Director, Digital for ensuring that the process to download a pass and then use it went as smoothly as possible.

We also held the first AGO All Hours on Saturday. This was another extraordinary team effort led by Heidi Reitmaier, Deputy Director & Richard and Elizabeth Currie Chief of Education and Programming, Devyani Saltzman, Director, Public Programs, Paola Poletta, Manager, Studio & Group Learning, and the entire PP&L team. The whole building was animated with cross-disciplinary programming that had broad appeal for multi-generational audiences. Nearly 5,000 attended the day’s festivities including many first-time visitors. In addition, we opened the Kusama Infinity Mirrored Room, which was 100% booked for the day.

With these new initiatives, our audiences will start to change. It will not happen overnight. The goal is to make the AGO as welcoming and accessible as possible to the diverse population of our city.

Enjoy the weekend,

Stephan