Hello Everyone,

• Mike Mahoney attended the Toronto Urban Design Awards ceremony earlier this week to accept an award on behalf of the AGO. The Grange Park Revitalization project won the Award of Excellence for Large Places and/or Neighbourhood Design. Congratulations to everyone who helped with this significant initiative – I know it was not an easy process!

• It was wonderful to see so many AGO Members at Members’ Appreciation Night on Tuesday evening, which included activations in the Norma Ridley Members’ Lounge and shopAGO. Approximately 1,200 Members attended out of our base of nearly 100,000. Don’t forget that it is Members’ Appreciation week at AGO Bistro through to Sunday.

• This weekend, the AGO once again hosts Canzine, the festival of zines and underground culture.  More than 200 artists and vendors will be on-site. It will be a busy weekend.

• Another one of our core values is “achieve financial equilibrium.” Basically this means that on an annual basis, we need to achieve a balanced budget. This is important because it gives us stability, it allows donors to feel confident we are living within our budget, and perhaps most importantly, it means we are not saddling the AGO with debt.

Enjoy the weekend,

Stephan