Hello Everyone,

• Last weekend, we hopped on the ferry and visited the Toronto Islands. Thanks for the tip! The view of Toronto from Wards Island is stunning. I also went to the Taste of Italy festival near our house and ate a delicious porchetta sandwich!

• I viewed one of the prayer beads made from boxwood at the European Curatorial meeting on Tuesday. The craftsmanship is breathtaking. The work that conservation is doing with creating high-resolution scans is allowing us to make new discoveries. It will be a crazy interesting exhibition.

• On Wednesday, I attended my first Annual General Meeting (AGM). I enjoyed the President’s Report and the recaps of art and programming highlights. Congratulations to everyone who helped make 2015/16 a success.

• I walked through the Lawren Harris exhibition several times this week. Clearly it is a huge team effort. Andrew and Steve Martin held a captivated audience on Wednesday night at Roy Thomson Hall. Steve’s comment that Harris’s works are uplifting rung true, and Andrew’s humour and intelligence shined.

I am leaving mid-next week for the UK for a few days, where I’ll be seeing the Georgia O’Keefe exhibition at Tate Modern and meeting with various museum colleagues. I’ll report back when I return to the AGO on July 7!

Stephan

P.S. The pink dress Monique is wearing is not sewn well but I confess I did it myself!