Hello Everyone,

Last night we celebrated the 5th anniversary of the AGO’s Women’s Art Initiative (WAI) (linked HERE). This is a group of 58 women who support major exhibitions by women artists developed by our curators. They have raised over $1M in five years and it is impressive to look back at the exhibitions they have supported — Rita Letendre: Fire & Light, Rebecca Belmore: Facing the Monumental, Hito Steyerl: This is the future, Haegue Yang: Emergence, Fragments of Epic Memory, and currently, Denyse Thomasos: just beyond. Next year the group will be supporting an exhibition by Sarindar Dhaliwal. The Women’s Art Initiative is a good example of people in our community working together to support the AGO’s commitment to women artists. They are a passionate group and hope to continue to expand their support in the next while.

Over the last five years we have been actively aligning our vision for a diverse and inclusive exhibition program with very generous philanthropic support. When we all work together, great things really do happen. Again, I want to urge everyone to go to the 5th floor to see the Denyse Thomasos exhibition. In the Carol & Morton Rapp Gallery there is a major work entitled Arc which was purchased for the AGO with funds provided by the WAI. It is an extraordinary investment in great art that AGO audiences will enjoy for generations to come.

Stay warm!

Stephan