Hello everyone,
AGO campers are here! It gives me great joy to see so many children creating art and having fun together. I’d like to thank Education & Programming staff, camp leaders and volunteers for all their hard work to make the camps safe and organized.
It is also wonderful to see new acquisitions on view in the Irina Moore Gallery. These works have recently been acquired through the Arts of Global Africa and the Diaspora (AGAD) curatorial department. Please take a moment to view the works, which are now part of the AGO’s collection. Also opened this week is Bright Signs: Spotlight on Video Art on the 5th floor. Some of the installations have been on view previously, such as Lisa Reihana’s Venus Infected and Theaster Gates’ Baby Neon, but several pieces have never been displayed. Again, like the new AGAD acquisitions and art featured in Moments in Modernism, all works are from our collections. In many ways these are a gift to future generations.
I am very proud of the quality of content we are offering our public. Last fiscal year, we went all in on exhibitions and programs in an effort to build back our audience from the previous pandemic years. I am pleased to acknowledge that our attendance was 871,152 – the 5th highest attendance in the AGO’s 124-year history. Thank you – everyone – for helping achieve this historic outcome.
Finally – many of you have been directly impacted or have friends and family impacted by Hurricane Beryl in the Caribbean. Islands like Grenada, Carriacou, Petite Martinique, Barbados, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Cayman Islands, Jamaica, and others have been hit hard. It has caused massive destruction and hardship. The changing weather patterns and the intensity of these storms is in large part due to human impact on the environment. Please check in on one another and offer support. There are many ways one can help, including contributing to this fund established by the Government of Grenada: https://pay.gov.gd/ and the Canadian Red Cross.
Take care,
Stephan