We want to take this opportunity to thank and acknowledge the contributions of our outgoing Volunteer President, Maya Kotlarenko.

Maya began volunteering at the AGO in 2008, as part of Transformation AGO. She’s been a Gallery Guide – sharing her passion, growing expertise and a true love of art – ever since. In 2019, she answered the call for Volunteer President, bringing big strengths to light:  a knack for working with people, and an interest in helping all volunteers feel valued and appreciated, whether they’d been with the Gallery for three weeks, or thirty years. This would be a driving force of her Presidency, hallmarked by a new Volunteer Council brought together by interest as well as experience; Random Coffee – casual coffee break meet-ups, connecting volunteers across placements and programs; and, most significantly, through a new, democratic, volunteer-vote selection process that gave all volunteers the opportunity to choose an annual gallery project, funded by the Volunteer Endowment Trust.

During the Gallery’s extended covid-19 closure, and one-year into her leadership role, Maya pivoted with the pandemic, helming a Presidency off-site, and a program suspended. She helped us facilitate new diversity and inclusion training for volunteers, and lead successive discussion groups for volunteers and staff – all online.

The Gallery’s physical closure was a difficult time for volunteers, and we grew to know we could count on Maya’s unwavering support and partnership in the leadership of the volunteers and the program, in the face of provincial mandates that governed our staff and volunteer operations during those challenging years.

Post-pandemic, Maya graciously agreed to stay on as President, extending her term, as we carefully came back on-site. That stability allowed us to focus on coordinating a massive staff and volunteer return, retraining, and orientation; a big task in a still unsettled time.

Most recently, Maya’s enjoyed a refocus on her weekend Gallery Guide shift, reconnecting with visitors, and using art as a conduit for conversations. She joined in helping us recognize volunteer contributions at our annual party, an event that brought the community together again after so much time apart, and seems a most fitting way to cap off her Presidency (in celebration!)

On behalf of all of us, Maya, thank you for everything.  We’ll see you in the galleries!

– Holly Procktor, Coordinator, Volunteers & Alain Graham, Chief, People