As the Gallery prepares for the opening of Keith Haring: Art is for Everybody on November 8,we are excited to invite staff and volunteers to preview the exhibition.  

The Staff and Volunteer Exhibition Preview will take place on Tuesday, November 7 from 3 pm to 5 pm on Level 4 of the Gallery. Staff and volunteers are invited to visit at any time during these hours, just bring your ID badge for entry. Please note that guests are not allowed – the preview is for staff and volunteers, only.

Staff and volunteers may visit the exhibition once it opens on Wednesday November 8th, but due to high demand for the exhibition, please do not “walk-in” additional guests using your ID badge. Everyone that visits the show must have a ticket.

How can guests of staff and volunteers access the exhibition? 

Staff and volunteers can secure entry to the exhibition for guests in these ways:  

1.  With complimentary tickets: Each staff member and volunteer are entitled to two complimentary tickets for Keith Haring: Art is for Everybody. 

To claim your two complimentary tickets: 

• Please book a date in person at the Welcome Desk (i.e. ticket wickets on the main gallery level) or email the Contact Centre at [email protected] 
• Please make sure to bring your ID badge with you to book your complimentary tickets  
• Complimentary ticket admission will begin on Saturday, November 11  

2. With their AGO Annual Pass or Membership. Annual Pass access beings November 11 

Only guests with complimentary tickets, memberships, and annual passes will be allowed in (no walk-in guests).

We thank all staff and volunteers for their cooperation and understanding!  

Watch the exhibition launch video for Keith Haring: Art is for Everybody here:

https://artcloud.ago.ca/index.php/s/CzSMQ6RkatMzn8m

You’ll be asked to enter a password. Please enter: Harin54AGO

Questions? 

Please reach out to Trish Popkin, Associate Director, Visitor Welcome, at [email protected]  

We are happy to share this link for Shelagh Barrington, Gallery Guide and National Docent Symposium Council Chair for Canada. Please see details, below:

Discover how The Walters Art Museum Docent Corps (Baltimore, Maryland, USA) examined and updated their touring tools and approach to make all visitors feel more welcome. Learn how they used the Museum’s DEAI goals as a framework to elevate their touring practices during this one-hour program.

• Tuesday November 14, at 2pm, online via Zoom
• Register, HERE

Familiarize yourself with The Walters Art Museum, HERE.

Think back with us a few months, AGO volunteers – to when you were asked to cast your vote to support a project for this year’s Volunteer Endowment Trust fund donation. You voted to support Making Her Mark: A History of Women Artists in Europe, 1400-1800, an exhibition and accompanying (gorgeous!) catalogue, edited by Alexa, and Andaleeb Badiee Banta, with Theresea Kutasz Christensen, Baltimore Museum of Art.

Join us: Tuesday November 14, at 5:30pm over Zoom

(*link to be provided closer, to the date of our session)

This illustrated talk, about the making of the book and exhibition (opening at the AGO in March 2024) will be led by Alexa Greist, Associate Curator & R. Fraser Elliott Chair, Prints and Drawings, with accompanying special guest, our Director and CEO Stephan Jost (who also wrote the catalogue’s foreword). This presentation is offered in thanks and recognition, for your generous gift of volunteer funds.

Making Her Mark introduces us to new artistic heroines (!), bringing together more than 230 objects from royal portraits to metal work, ceramics, textiles, and cabinetry, to demonstrate the many ways women contributed to the visual arts of Europe.

(Can’t wait!) Save the Date and see you there! – Holly (volunteer resources)

KAWS cut his teeth as a graffiti artist in the 1990s, “bombing” through the streets of Jersey City, then New York City with graffiti legends like Zephyr. He then graduated to guerilla-style public art interventions, painting his famed iconography and characters directly over top of corporate billboards and phone booth ads. After being introduced to vinyl toy mogul Hikaru Iwanaga on a serendipitous trip to Japan, KAWS made his foray into sculpture, issuing a small run of “COMPANION” toys in 1999 – the rest is history.  

Over the last two decades, KAWS has become a household name in the worlds of fine art and design. His iconic family of characters have appeared everywhere from the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade to Kid Cudi album covers, and his vibrantly coloured, hard-edged paintings are the pride of major art collections across the globe.

In the days leading up to the exhibition’s public opening, Foyer writers met with KAWS for a conversation. Seated comfortably amongst his newly installed works, he reflected on 30-plus years of art making – from teenaged graffiti writer to pop culture icon.

Read the full interview in this week’s Foyer, linked HERE.

Gallery Guide Shelagh Barrington has been travelling through India, and shares the story of an artist’s work she first saw at the AGO back in 2007 …

The National Gallery of Modern Art, Delhi, India  

I first saw Subodh Gupta‘s work at the 2007 AGO exhibition Hungry god: Indian contemporary art (linked HERE).  Other artists in the show included:  Atual Dodiya, Tallur L.N., Bharti Kher, Justin Ponmany, Subodh Gupta (work pictured below), Ranbir Kaleka, Jitish Kallat,Tushar Joag, and Reena Saini Kallat.

Drawing out attention to our disposable society by using everyday items to construct, a tree of life?      

Another interesting connection, I also saw a piece by this artist in a private collection in Kansas City while attending the 2022 National Docent Symposium.

Shelagh Barrington, Gallery Guide

National Docent Symposium (NDS) Council for Canada

We know it’s the time of year for travel for many of our volunteers. Want to share a story? Send your submission to Holly Procktor ([email protected]) to post!

It’s a busy Fall of back-to-back exhibition openings here at the Gallery. Next up, Keith Haring: Art is for Everybody (exhibition launch video, linked below:)

Click on this link to watch the video: https://artcloud.ago.ca/index.php/s/CzSMQ6RkatMzn8m

You’ll be prompted for a password. Please enter:  Harin54AGO

This is my personal favourite of the most recent exhibition launch videos we have shared this Fall. Georgiana speaks with such passion, and shares insights into why the show means so much to her. She’s peppered her presentation with archival footage of Haring himself, and interior shots of the Gallery the last time we hosted a Haring retrospective in the 80s (major throwback vibes!)

Enjoy!

In this essay for Foyer, Renée van der Avoird, AGO Associate Curator, Canadian Art, writes about the vivid colours, floral patterns and compelling imagery found in Sarindar Dhaliwal’s works on paper.

Like all of Dhaliwal’s work Triple Self Portrait with Persimmons and Pomegranates is characterized by saturated colour and compelling imagery. Deeply personal investigations into memory, identity and migration, her works are inspired by her travels and her experience living in India, England, and Canada. 

Dhaliwal delights in the sensuousness of words, the natural world and objects around her. And yet, the aspect of joy that permeates her works is always underscored by experiences from childhood or socio-political issues that were dislocating and traumatic to the artist. The delicate balance between beauty and hardship is one that she expertly strikes in all of her work.

Read more of Renee’s analysis, in this week’s Foyer, full article linked HERE.

Hello Everyone,

I am delighted to announce the appointment of Dr. Adam Welch to the position of Associate Curator, Modern Art. Adam will develop exhibitions, lead acquisitions, and help guide the installation of the AGO’s new Dani Reiss Modern and Contemporary Gallery. He will report to me as part of a newly independent Modern Art department and work closely with Debbie Johnsen, Manager, Modern and Contemporary Collections and our soon-to-be hired Carol and Morton Rapp Curator, Contemporary Art.

Adam joins us at a pivotal moment of collection growth and building expansion. He brings to the position an impressive track record of substantive exhibitions, as well as an intimate knowledge of Toronto and its unique role in the evolution of modernism.

Adam is curator of the acclaimed 2022 retrospective exhibition General Idea, currently on view at the Gropius Bau, Berlin. He comes to the AGO from the National Gallery of Canada, where he served as Associate Curator, Canadian Art. Prior to that he held positions at the Art Museum at the University of Toronto and the Whitney Museum of American Art. Adam holds a PhD in the history of Art and his doctoral dissertation from the University of Toronto, Borderline Research: Art between Canada and the United States, 1965–75, explored relationships between artists, curators, and dealers across the Canadian American border.

Adam grew up in Toronto so this new role with the AGO is a homecoming.

I know you will join me in welcoming Adam when he begins his role with us on Monday, November 13, 2023.

Thank you!

Julian

—

Julian Cox (pronouns: he/him/his)

Deputy Director & Chief Curator

Hello Everyone,

Tomorrow I will be going with Sophie Hackett and Anastasia Hare to São Paulo, Brazil with a group of donors for a week to see the São Polo Biennial and art from South America.

This morning, I had the opportunity to stop by and see the installation of Building Icons: Arnold Newman’s Magazine World, 1938-2000, which is being installed in Zacks. It is a beautifully hung exhibition curated by Tal-Or Ben-Choreen. Arnold Newman photographed many of the leading cultural and political figures of the twentieth century. The show opens next week and I hope you will take a moment (actually more than a moment – it is a huge show) to see the exhibition.

Take care,

Stephan

Hello Volunteers,

I’m happy to share below, a copy of the recording of our recent talk with Cian Knights, AGO Manager of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility.

Cian’s presentation provided a structured roadmap of our DEIA program and how it is unfolding at the Gallery. The slides are full of facts and figures, and plainly suggests what we’re doing, and where we need to go; milestones, celebrations, areas to work on, and next steps.

In our shared conversations in the volunteer lounge this week, some folks mentioned to me that this presentation felt like a review, (and it is), but my intention in inviting Cian to join us, was to re-establish the Gallery’s goals top of mind, and to set the stage for DEIA volunteer training to come.

For those that weren’t able to join us, I encourage you all to watch when you can. Click on the link BELOW to view: (a reminder, this resource is for volunteers only, please do not share)

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1SQnCLwzpRm2UeYaqHNYLYuNQu4beAyHR/view?usp=sharing

Cian mentions that a copy of the presentation can be downloaded, so no need to take notes – we’ve included a PDF of the presentation’s slides to volunteers in this week’s email (check your inbox!)

Next week, we’ll be sending a survey to all volunteers, so that you can help us pick upcoming topics; we want to hear what you feel you need, what you’d like to learn more about, and benefit from.

Thank you for your commitment to our continuous learning journey together!

– Holly (volunteer resources)