Friday Gallery Guide Anita Wisner passed away on March 21, after a long illness. She was a longtime volunteer at the AGO and a generous source of art knowledge for her colleagues. While she was unable to come in in to the gallery for past year or so, she kept in touch and hoped to return.

Anita was originally from Romania. She and her husband Paul lived through WWII there and just missed being sent to a concentration camp when the country was taken over by the Soviet Union, bribing their way out and leaving with only a few suitcases. They spent six months in Rome with their two small children while waiting for their visas to Canada, where Paul had a job waiting. Anita described her time in Rome as wonderful, as it gave the family many opportunities to enjoy art and culture. In Canada Anita was active in the arts and Jewish Communities, volunteering at the National Gallery in Ottawa and sitting on the board at the Canada-Israel Cultural Foundation.

GG Karin Warren remembers Anita fondly: Anita was such a special woman, one who lived in various cities and countries throughout her life and I’m sure gained knowledge and enjoyment wherever she “hung her hat”. I spent a lot of time with Anita when I was a guide in the first few years. The majority of my time was spent floating in the African gallery that was new for the gallery and unique. Anita and Paul collected African art and had some very interesting pieces. She was quite knowledgeable about it and so pleased to share with me! But it wasn’t just knowing the facts that was her forte’; she would make connections, add personal anecdotes and weave together such fascinating history and influences to come to the information of given pieces. Always friendly, approachable and a dedicated Friday GG.

GG Sian Evans also remembers Anita: She was the first gallery guide I shadowed when I started my placement at the gallery as a trainee. My first impression was of a gracious, elegant woman who knew EVERYTHING about art. But was she intimidating? No: she was warm and funny and more than willing to share what she knew – so much! – and loved.

I was welcomed into Anita’s apartment many a-time to watch art videos and look at books. Her illness struck suddenly. One summer she was the generous hostess of our annual Friday GG get-together lunch and the next she was too ill to come to the gallery. But we had become good friends and I visited her when I could – so enjoying our conversations about our families, art, books and our lives. She told me of growing up in Romania; of returning there years later for a visit with her family; of living in Rome and Paris; of staying in Cambridge to do an intensive art history course; of the years she was a docent at the National Gallery in Ottawa. Whatever I mentioned – an artist I hadn’t known; a trip I might take – she had been there and had a book I should read. I, like so many at the gallery, will miss Anita very, very much.

Written by Anne Fleming, fellow Gallery Guide, with contributions, as shared above.