Hello everyone, this week we’re grateful to share this beautiful post from Michael Younder. Michael is part of a dynamic duo – he (and his mother, Susan) volunteer together at the AGO, both as Gallery Guides. With Susan’s recent retirement, we share this note from Michael. With thanks, – Holly
Hi everyone,
Some of you may have heard that my Mother, Susan Younder, decided last month to bring to an end, her over 30-year career as a volunteer guide at the AGO. Both the gallery and myself, are richer for it.
My mother’s passion for the arts began well before volunteering at the AGO. My earliest memories were her support, with the late Susan Rubes, of the Young People’s Theatre and its opening on Front Street East in Toronto for its 1977-78 season. This involved fund raising, hosting cast parties (where we got bedtime stories by Susan’s husband Jan) and of course, attending lots of plays. She also was on the board of Prologue Performing Arts during the same time – an organization whose mission still, is to bring the arts to children. Here again, she brought me along to performances in various high school gyms across the city. In high school myself, entering grade 9, I ran out of options for electives so mom managed to convince the school to let me take the grade 10 theatre arts class. I had no idea what to expect or what I was going to do. She assured me that I’d be just fine. This scenario would repeat itself as you will soon see.
The AGO was a fixture in this upbringing – well before either us volunteered. For me, it started with her taking us to see the first King Tut show in 1979. In 1982, it was Judy Chicago’s The Dinner Party, where I recall asking “What kinds of plants are on the plates” to which my mother deadpanned “They’re not plants, they’re vaginas”. Right, got it. Then she started volunteering and I recall her sharing the buzz that was the Barnes exhibit, boasting that the cash register in the gift shop was so full she couldn’t close the door properly (and even getting my skeptical late Father to attend, where he said “I don’t know who this Barnes guy was, but he was a hell of an artist…”). Bowie and Ai Weiwei were two other favourites. In the middle was Transformation AGO, where she got to meet Frank Gehry. Each big exhibit involved the same pregame: the buying of the catalogue and several other books, meticulous research and planning, and expert but approachable delivery of content through her dots and tours, to literally thousands of visitors. The Province of Ontario recognized this veritas too, and bestowed a volunteer award on her.
It was one of those exhibits, a photography collection by Canadian Scott McFarland that mom took me through in 2014 (in which, we had an animated discussion on whether or not photography is art – I convinced her it was) that she convinced me to join the AGO as a volunteer guide. I had no idea what to expect or what I was going to do. She assured me that I’d be just fine. And I was. And so was my mother, as the building, the collection and the approach to engaging our visitors, have all evolved over her tenure.
As I come into the AGO each Wednesday night, I continue to stand on her shoulders and now will attempt to fill her impossible shoes.
Michael Younder
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An addition from Holly – some of you will recall a wonderful article in AGOinsider focusing on Michael and his Mum – linked, HERE.