Hello volunteers,

Did you know? Our information guide cooridnators- the Visitor Experience Management team – share weekly updates with the IG team. We’re reposting here (with their permission), so all volunteers can enjoy their weekly updates. More news from home (our shared Gallery home!) helps keep us connected. Over to the team,

Hi everybody!

This is a very strange time we are living in. As we shift towards this temporary new normal, we want to reach out and say that we miss you all! Though the AGO is currently closed, we want you to know that we are still going to regularly share this newsletter, and hopefully add some levity to your day! 

Be well and take care! We hope to see you in the not so distant future!

Please read on!

Favourites from the AGO Online Collection:

What we are loving in the collection

Welcome to the first feature of it’s kind! Each week, while we are closed, a Visitor Welcome team member will take a dive into our online collection and highlight one of their favourite works from the gallery. Did you know the AGO has a large portion of its collection online? Click here to go down the rabbit hole of art!

This week we focus on my favourite work in the Modern Collection, Otto Dix’s Portrait of Dr. Heirich Stadelmann. The portrait was painted in 1922, and the subject is a Dresden-based clinical psychologist who specialized in hypnotic therapy (don’t you feel hypnotized by looking into his saucer-shaped eyes?!). Why do I love this painting ever so much? The greenish-grey skin, clenched fists and those milky eyes have me captivated. It is surreal, strange and full of character – I love it! It also appears as though Dr. Stadelmann has had a rough couple of days! 

You can learn more about this portrait from the AGO Insider here. A reminder that the you can explore the archives of the AGO Insider to learn more behind the scenes information.

Take a tour through Illusions: The Art of Magic

Have you held off seeing lIllusions: The Art of Magic? Have you gone on a quick walk-through with plans to delve further at later date? Are craving a little of magical distraction in your life right now? Well, take a captivating tour with magician David Ben (he recently did an Art Talk at the AGO) into the McCord Museum collection of magic posters. Click here to watch the tour!

While we are on the subject, why not learn more about the psychology of magic and how it works. Clink here for an interesting read from the Guardian.

Be well and stay healthy,

Jonathan, Christine and Nicole