Hello everyone,

About a week ago the Association of Art Museum Directors (AAMD) met in Denver, Colorado. AAMD has just over 200 members representing art museums from Canada, Mexico and the United States. I had two main goals I wanted to achieve during my year as President of AAMD and I am pleased to share that we made real progress at our meetings at the Denver Art Museum (DAM). 

The first goal was to get museums to endorse something called the Bizot Green Protocols, which basically change climate control standards in a way that is both safe for art and reduces how much energy museums use to heat and cool their buildings. It is pretty nerdy stuff, but it is one of the systemic changes we all need to make to reduce carbon use. 

Over the past months, the AGO has partnered with other museums to lead this change and to get buy-in from the museums in North America. Many AGO staff created presentations and engaged with questions from other museums about how and why we should change how we do things. 

My second goal was to have the entire AAMD membership read and gain a better understanding of The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). Marcia Nickerson – who is of Mi’gmaq British ancestries with kinship ties to Acadia First Nation in Nova Scotia and a modern treaty negotiator – presented on UNDRIP and we then had a discussion about the opportunities and challenges of working together. It is a massive topic that will take time to fully grasp, but it was our effort to lay the groundwork for more understanding between museums and indigenous peoples. As you know, one of our goals is to lead global conversations and the meetings in Denver are part of this effort.

Finally, this weekend is an important milestone for the construction of the Dani Reiss Modern and Contemporary project. The outside foundation is almost completed, and a huge crane is scheduled to be erected on Saturday and Sunday. The crane will be the first sign for many members of the public that there is a major construction project underway. Behind the scenes, new foundations will be laid so a new freight elevator can be built over the coming two years. This freight elevator will allow us to move art from the loading dock directly onto any of the five floors of our expansion.

Take care,

Stephan