Hi Everyone, 

February marks the 2022 Lunar New Year and a month-long of amplifying the histories, present-day Black experiences, significant contributions, achievements and aspirations of people of the African diaspora. 

On that note, to support colleagues in connecting with several activities taking place this month for both the Lunar New Year and Black history the following includes a list of events and resources, including AGO content. 

With best regards,

Cian

2022 Toronto Chinatown Lunar Year Celebration

• Live Lion Dance performance from 12 pm to 3 pm on Feb 5, 2022, from Huron Square to Chinatown Centre.
• Recorded Art-Making Workshop: Yue Moon: Tiger with Wings – Year of the Tiger Workshop with Paddy Leung
• Public Art Exhibition: Community co-created lanterns inspired by the traditional Chinese Palace Lantern design. Each panel showcases images of Chinatown’s histories, personal memories, and intentions for the new year to create an immersive, luminous outdoor experience during Lunar New Year celebrations. Located just beside Dragon City Mall and overlooking one of Chinatown’s latest public art murals produced by Wenting Li with STEPS.

Black History Month

AGO Content

• Exploring Black and Indigenous Futurisms – Presented in partnership with the AGO and the University of Toronto on February 28 from 6 pm to 8 pm. Register here.
• Talking Back and Together: Apanaki Temitayo (Oct 2021) – Presented in partnership with the AGO and Workman Arts to empower artists exploring mental health awareness and advocacy.
• Journey through historical and contemporary stories of the Caribbean by visiting Fragments of Epic Memory
• Check out the exhibition Out of Many by Toronto-based photographer Jorian Charlton exploring Jamaican-Canadian culture, and the installation Et La Lumière Fut (And There Was Light) by Moridja Kitenge Banza drawing on his complex feelings around identity and migration as a member of the African diaspora.

Free Webinars

• We Belong Here: Healing From Racial Micro-Inequities and Trauma in the Workplace with Bhasin Consulting and special guest racial inclusion expert Minda Harts on February 14 from 4 pm to 5 pm. This webinar will lead an in-depth, no-holds-barred Q&A discussion with Minda. Register here. 
• Queering Black Leadership – On February 8 at 2 pm join the Enchanté Network for a panel discussion on leadership from a Black 2SLGBTQI+ perspective. Panellists will explore their experiences with leadership, including how the 2SLGBTQI+ sector can support Black 2SLGBTQI+ communities. Register here.

Virtual Exhibitions

• Derailed (Nov 2021- April 2023) – The History of Black Railway Porters in Canada, a multimedia exhibition produced by Myseum in collaboration with author/scholar Cecil Foster.
• Performances by Randell, Dynesti & Esie Mensah, and Tracey Kayy (2022) – Holt Renfrew partnership with R.I.S.E. and Randell Adjei, Ontario’s first Poet Laureate, to showcase pieces that speak to the Black experience from unique perspectives.
• Brought In Bondage: Enslaved Blacks in the Town of York (Toronto) Downtown Walking Tour (2020) – Developed in partnership by Myseum and the Ontario Black History Society
• Black Art Matters – The Art Canada Institute celebrates the work of fourteen Black Canadian artists – historical and contemporary – to help disrupt how art history has obscured and overlooked artists who are Black, Indigenous and people of colour. 

Virtual Events

The St. Catharines Museum and Welland Canals Centre – Virtual Black History Lecture Series:

• The Daily Grind: Records of Freedom Seekers in St. Catharines – February 10, 2022, at 11 am – 12 pm. Register here.
• Tracing the Tracks of the Underground Railroad (2020) 
• Ontario’s Racially Segregated Schools w/ Natasha Henry (2020)

Recorded Panel Conversations

• National Black Communities Arts and Culture Round Table Talk, (Sept 2021) This talk, hosted by Craig Wellington of the Black Opportunity Fund and moderated by Karen Carter co-founder of BAND Gallery, showcases the different challenges and opportunities Black artists across Canada. Panelists include Gaëtane Verna, Stephanie Allen, Delvina Bernard, Dominique Fontaine, and Belinda Uwase and guest commentators, Dr. Julie Crooks, David Woods, Angela Cassie, Nadia Rousseau and Josh T. Robertson.
• Designing Leadership in a Time of Change (2021)  This talk, hosted by the Honourable Elizabeth Dowdeswell, Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, is a discussion on Black leadership in the arts and culture sectors.

Podcasts

• Get Hired Up: Episode 25 | Tackling racism in the workplace—for organizations committed to improving racial and ethnic justice with Dr. Afua Cooper is a multi-award-winning and celebrated speaker, scholar, historian, author, poet, performer, and social and cultural commentator for organizations worldwide committed to building diversity, equity, and inclusion strategies.
• Black on the Prairies, CBC – podcast and interactive website

TV Show

The Porter, CBC Gem – Season 1 of The Porter premieres February 21 at 9 pm on CBC and CBC Gem.

Hello Everyone,

This week has been very COLD so I hope you are bundled up! I also hope you find ways to enjoy the snow while it’s here.

We re-open next Tuesday and in addition to Fragments, Wong and Houle, our public will experience the changes underway in the European galleries on the main floor. When complete,  the biggest re-installation since Look:Forward, it will feature many more exquisite works that are coming out of the vaults. I encourage you to wander through the galleries when you are back on-site. Thank you to the European curators and everyone else involved, the spaces are really looking fantastic – and I love the new paint colours.

Earlier this week at the Managers’ Meeting, Rocco Saverino provided an update on where we are with this year’s budget – solid – and outlined the next steps for planning for 2022-23. We continue to anticipate a balanced position by the end of the year and I’m grateful to everyone for your attention to finances; your efforts to keep things tight while fulfilling our mission and serving our public is paying off.

Take care and stay safe,

Stephan

P.S.     February 1^st also marks the start of the Lunar New Year, welcoming the Year of the Tiger. (I was born in the Year of the Monkey.) To all those who celebrate, may the Year of the Tiger bring prosperity, joy, and health to you and your loved ones!

Good news is on the way! After a prolonged, full closure, the Gallery is looking forward to opening (at 50% capacity) on Tuesday February 1. Like visitors, volunteers can book tickets to see Fragments of Epic Memory (closing February 21) and more!

Visiting Guidelines: A gentle reminder that Walk-up tickets are not available. All tickets must be booked online in advance. 
Proof of vaccination required. Please bring both enhanced vaccine certificate with QR code and a government-issued ID that matches the proof of vaccination documentation with your date of birth when you visit.

Here’s how to book volunteer tickets:

you can also book up to 4 General Admission tickets in one visit. One of these tickets will be for you; and 3 for your guests.

For either option – you do not need to provide the name or contact details of your guests. The booking will be made under your name.

For both options, please:

Call the Contact Centre on 416-979-6608 or email [email protected] and make sure to:

• Please include the Date and time you would like to attend
• Provide the name and email address for where to email the tickets. (This can be a name other than yours).
• The tickets will be sent out as PDFs that can be shown on a smartphone or printed in advance of your visit.
• Please provide 5 business days’ notice in advance of your visit so we can email you your tickets.

Some important things to keep in mind:

• You can bring your volunteer badge for discounts in shopAGO or AGO Bistro, but it is not needed for entry into the Gallery. You will not be asked to show your badge along with your ticket, and badges can’t be used to gain entry into the building.
• You will need to use the main entrance to visit, not Jackman Hall, which is closed. The volunteer lounge also remains closed.
• When visiting, please remain in the public areas of the Gallery. The Volunteer Lounge and other back of house areas are restricted at this time for the safety of those who are required to work on-site.

For any Volunteers who have a membership or Annual Pass, we encourage you to continue to use your membership to book your tickets, online, in advance of visiting.

The Contact Centre is busy! We are grateful for your assistance in booking in advance.

We are looking forward to seeing you!

Wednesday February 2, at 7pm via Zoom

Register HERE.

This series is offered in Mandarin. Free and open to all, including English speakers.

This is a free event. 

Begin your evening with a 45 minute art-making session and learn about the many shades and ways of blue – free and open to all! Inspired by the exhibition, Matthew Wong: Blue View, participants will be guided in a drawing and colouring exercise led in Mandarin by artist instructor, Jenny Chen. This is a family time pop-up studio – all ages are welcome. Create and share your masterpieces with us!

Robert Houle: Red is Beautiful opened just before the holidays (December 3), but due to lockdown, many of you might not have yet seen it. Here, we’re linking some wonderful resources to help you get up to speed on this magnificent show. Curated by Wanda Nanibush, on now until April 18.

Click to view and listen:

• Robert Houle Artist Talk, (click here) celebrating the opening of the exhibition, and aabaakwad 2021

• Red is Beautiful: The Conversation (click here) – Robert Houle and Artist Faye Heavyshield with Artist & Curator Barry Ace in conversation about Red is Beautiful, presented as part of aabaakwad 2021.

• CBC Q Interview: Robert Houle and Wanda Nanibush (click here)

Inner Space Youth Advisory co-curates a new generation of artist led studio tours from across Canada.

Inner Space, a new monthly web series co-curated by the Inner Space Youth Advisory invites artists from across Canada to give personal tours of their studios. Giving a platform to youth curators and artists from their communities, Inner Space aims to make visible and legitimize a new generation of diverse, Canadian artists, while creating authentic youth-led digital content. Watch the trailer, HERE

The current iteration of the Youth Advisory is project-based and is made up of youth ages 16-25 from across Canada with the goal of co-curating a series of studio tours by and for youth. Meeting bi-weekly online from September-December 2021, this paid opportunity tasked the Inner Space Youth Advisory members with curating artists from their communities who they believe deserved a platform and visibility from an institutional context. The result, launched in January 2022, is a 12 episode monthly web series featuring a new generation of artists and their creative spaces from across Canada.

Dear Colleagues,

I am writing to share with you the wonderful news that our dear colleague Adelina Vlas has accepted the position of Head of Exhibitions and Publications at The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery at Harbourfront Centre in Toronto. It is an exciting opportunity and truly reflects her curatorial and professional excellence. We will miss Adelina immensely not only because of how much she has done for the AGO, but also how much of a genuine, dedicated, and collaborative colleague she is to work with. In our short time spent together at the AGO, I have grown to be an admirer of hers. 

Adelina joined the AGO in 2014 as the Associate Curator, Contemporary Art, and has left an indelible mark on the Modern and Contemporary Art Department and the AGO during her seven-and-a-half-year tenure. Her scholarship, commitment, and determination have led to the creation of many successful and innovative exhibitions.

Most recently, Adelina has curated two large career-survey exhibitions of artists Haegue Yang and Hito Steyerl, and commissioned Yang’s monumental-scale installation Woven Currents – Confluence of Parallels, currently on view in the Tannenbaum Sculpture Atrium. Both exhibitions featured works that were shown in Canada for the first time and accompanied by comprehensive catalogues. Adelina has spearheaded many solo presentations for the Iskowitz Prize including Liz Magor, Sandra Meigs, and Valérie Blass. She was the in-house curator of the successful exhibition Yayoi Kusama: Infinity Mirrors and has also curated two editions of the AIMIA/AGO Photography Prize. Besides organizing special exhibitions, Adelina has contributed significantly to the building of the contemporary art collection and has curated many collection-based displays among them: As If Sand Were Stone: Contemporary Latin American Art from the AGO Collection and Arte Povera. Since 2018, she has also coordinated gallery rotations on the fourth floor including an ambitious installation of Adrian Villar Rojas’s Today We Reboot the Planet. Additionally, Adelina has worked closely with many other departments at the AGO to advance our mission as a collecting institution to care for the artworks we acquire, most notably as the lead curator working with the cross-divisional Time-Based Media Working Group.

The opportunity at the Power Plant will allow Adelina to continue shaping the contemporary art scene in Toronto and Canada at large. I have no doubt that her work will create a lasting impact on the contemporary art community internationally. Her last day at the AGO is February 1, and she begins work at The Power Plant on February 14. Adelina will continue to work towards the completion of the publication on the major commission by artist Brain Jungen.

Please join me in congratulating Adelina on her numerous accomplishments at the AGO, and on this new adventure in her career. It is bittersweet to say goodbye, but we will certainly look forward to continuing conversations and collaborations with her in the future.

Warmly,

Xiaoyu Weng 翁笑雨

Carol and Morton Rapp Curator, Modern and Contemporary Art

Hello Everyone,

We are ending the week on a high note. It is very positive news that we will be re-opening on Tuesday, February 1st. This means that we will have three incredible exhibitions on view for our public: Fragments of Epic Memory; Robert Houle: Red Is Beautiful; and Matthew Wong: Blue View.

New banners have been installed outside the building promoting Houle and internally, we’ll have signage directing our visitors to both Fragments and Matthew Wong. 

I am very pleased that we will be re-opening. I really look forward to seeing more of you onsite, including the Visitor Welcome team. For the time being, those who can work from home will continue to do so. We have followed the direction from the Province and health officials throughout COVID and we will focus on keeping each other and our public safe. That remains my greatest priority.

Take care and stay safe,

Stephan

P.S. This weekend I will be eating cake and celebrating my birthday – 53!!

Dear Everyone,

I’m sure you have seen the news, but I am delighted to share that the Ontario government announced that as of January 31st, in the absence of concerning trends in public health and health care indicators, Ontario will follow a phased approach to public health measures with 21 days between each step.

This means that we can re-open the building at 50% capacity on Tuesday, February 1st. Leadership Team is reviewing what this means operationally for some of the onsite work that has been paused or delayed, but we know we will be welcoming back our visitors to our galleries, shopAGO and AGO Bistro. This also means active employees who serve our visitors onsite will not be served layoff notices. This is excellent news!

Thank you and take care,

Stephan

Dear Colleagues,

As you know, the AGO’s 10-year vision is to lead global conversations from Toronto through extraordinary collections, exhibitions and programs and by reflecting the people who live here.

There are four key elements to the vision, with three elements already in process:

• Collection – we will strengthen our Collection through donations and increased acquisition and endowment funds.
  • Exhibitions & Programs – we will export Canadian content and perspectives to inform global conversations, and import culture to be the partner of choice for the world’s leading art museums.
  • Audience – we will grow and diversify our audiences and remain vibrant and relevant to them today and in the future.

Planning for the fourth element is underway. We are in the planning stage of an exciting new expansion project – AGO Global Contemporary – to create additional exhibition space for our growing Modern & Contemporary collection. The Board of Trustees has approved the preliminary stage of the project – to begin the design process and create a fundraising strategy for this project.

There is a lot of work to be done, and this is not public information, but something to be excited about. More to come.

Stephan