I’m delighted to announce that Jessica Bright has accepted the position of Chief, Exhibitions, Collections & Conservation, effective August 3, 2021. Jessica is an inspired and strategic leader whose 22 years of experience at the AGO position her well for this role.

Jessica has had an impressive trajectory at the AGO, and stepped into the Chief of Exhibitions and Collections role in 2018/2019 on an interim basis when Christy Thompson was on parental leave. Most recently she has contributed significantly to several important portfolios in her Leadership Team role of Senior Director, Strategic Initiatives. Working closely with LT and all of us in the Director’s Office, she has advanced our Diversity & Inclusion and Exhibition & Program strategies, and successfully onboarded several new AGO leaders. Jessica has also played an integral role on all the task forces we struck to manage the pandemic.

Joining the AGO in 1999 to run our summer Art Camp, Jessica has held various roles in the Director’s Office, Curatorial and Exhibitions, including as a Project Manager and Director of Exhibitions. Her negotiation skills, keen sense of strategic possibilities, excellent logistical management and friendly approach have resulted in some big wins for the AGO including David Bowie Is, Mystical Landscapes, King Tut and General Idea to name a few. In 2018 Jessica attended the Getty Leadership Institute, an esteemed leadership program for top museum leaders. One of her greatest strengths is building relationships and networks with museum leaders and lenders around the world, which will serve her well as she advances our operational driver of leading global conversations through extraordinary collections, exhibitions and programs.

Christy Thompson leaves the AGO for her new role at MoMA in September, but she will be taking time off in August so her last day in the office will be July 30. I want to once again thank Christy for all of her excellent work – she will be missed.

Please join me in congratulating Jessica on this well-deserved appointment, and wishing her well in her new role.

Sincerely,

Stephan

Hi everyone,

I am sharing a quick message today in Stephan’s absence – he is taking vacation days on Fridays during the month of July.

Some of you might have heard the province’s announcement today (Friday July 9) about moving forward with Stage 3 re-opening on July 16, a little ahead of schedule than previously communicated. This is amazing news. With vaccination rates going up, COVID-19 cases are coming down dramatically and some restrictions are loosening.

Please note – here at the AGO, we are sticking with our re-opening date of July 21^st. Everyone has been doing incredible work preparing for a successful re-opening and we’ll stick with our plan. So far, ticket sales are strong and there is a lot of excitement from our public about coming back to the AGO.

Any capacity changes or other key details coming out of today’s announcement will be considered and further updates will be provided.

I hope everyone has a safe and enjoyable weekend.

Thank you,

Erin

—

Erin Prendergast (she, her)

Chief, Strategic Initiatives

Hello Volunteers,

An update about volunteer visits!

For volunteers who are not members (i.e. for volunteers who do not have an access pass or a gallery membership) – the Gallery will be sharing a communication that outlines how volunteers can book tickets, the week of July 26 (following members’ previews for Warhol).

This message will outline how to book special exhibition (Warhol) tickets, as well as tickets to visit the permanent collection galleries. For now, our hardworking Visitor Experience team needs to focus their energies on booking members’ preview tickets (they’re busier than ever!), with this new lens of covid. Let’s cheer them on!

Thank you for your continued patience and support!

Holly (Volunteer Resources)

The Gallery is pleased to be recruiting for a volunteer representative to serve on the AGO Board of Trustees, beginning this Fall. This position is open to current AGO volunteers, with two or more years of service.

Volunteers can read more about this opportunity and find the application at this link: https://ago.ca/ago-board-trustees-ex-officio-volunteer-representative

Please note the deadline for application is August 11, 2021.

For our final learning session of this series of Diversity & Inclusion programs, volunteers are invited to listen to this First Nations International Exchange, presented by the Australian Council for the Arts, in partnership with the Canada Council for the Arts: (linked here)

This conversation is focused on the importance of First Nations, Inuit and Métis-led governance and recruitment, programming and community engagement, marketing and communications, when considering decolonization within large institutions.

The Australia Council for the Arts has a strong commitment to international exchange between Australia and Canada, and to seek opportunities to maintain and deepen relationships between artists, producers and presenters from both countries through the sharing of information, thought leadership and practice development.

This commitment is outlined in the current Letter of Agreement (LOA) between the Canada Council for the Arts and the Australia Council for the Arts, which articulates our shared values and aspirations for stronger creative and cultural relations between our two countries.

This initiative looks to bridge connections between leading Australian practitioners and their international counterparts, creative individuals, arts organizations, civic institutions and community stakeholders – to share and impart their knowledge, skills and perspectives.

We won’t be hosting a Volunteer Connector call around this session. This is a self-directed opportunity to deepen volunteers’ learning, courtesy of a link to this important conversation, shared with the AGO by the Canada Council for the Arts.

As treaty people living in Canada, we have an important responsibility to lifelong learning about treaties and Nations, the lived experiences of First Nation, Inuit and Métis peoples within the borders of Canada and to understand the conditions upon which we are to share resources and land with the many Nations who are the original stewards of this land for over 10,000 years.

Below you will find further resources, including our AGO Diversity & Inclusion Learning Sessions, to support your continued learning journey as we move towards renewing positive relationships and creating an inclusive Gallery that includes centering Indigenous art and cultural ways of knowing.

Resources

• Read:
  • The Survivors Speak – Canada’s Residential Schools
  • Canada’s Residential Schools: The History, Part 1 Origins of 1939
  • Canada’s Residential Schools: The History, Part 2 1939 to 2000
  • Canada’s Residential Schools: The Inuit and Northern Experience
  • Looking Forward, Looking Back
  • Settlement agreements:  Full Circle and http://www.residentialschoolsettlement.ca/settlement.html

• Listen to testimonials from survivors of Residential Schools:
  • Legacy of Hope – Where are the Children
  • Legacy of Hope – Escaping Residential Schools Virtual Exhibition
  • Connie Walker and the firsthand legacy of residential schools
  • Residential Schools Podcast Series

• Consider taking:
  • Reconciliation Through Indigenous Education – a free course by the University of British Columbia exploring how Indigenous histories, perspectives, worldviews, and approaches to learning can be made part of the work we do in organizations, communities, and our everyday experiences in ways that are thoughtful and respectful. In this course, reconciliation emphasizes changing institutional structures, practices, and policies, as well as personal and professional ideologies to create environments that are committed to strengthening our relationships with Indigenous peoples.
  • Understanding Indigenous Perspectives: We are all Treaty People – free modules by the University of Toronto OISE exploring treaty rights and how it benefits Indigenous populations and Canadians/settlers, diasporic populations and newcomers. Learn about our rights and responsibilities as a treaty people and understand the conditions to share land and resources with Nations who were here first.

• Engage in AGO Diversity & Inclusion Learning sessions:

• Anishinaabe Philosophy and Land – Password: AGOD&I3!

• Raising Awareness – A Conversation with Indigenous Art Education – Password: D&ITrainingSession4

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at [email protected]

Best regards,

Cian

Cian B. Knights (pronouns: she/her)

Manager, Diversity and Inclusion

Free artmaking livestreams, Monday – Thursday from 10:00am – 11:15am

Looking for something to do with your kids this summer? We’re offering FREE online art classes all month long!

Get ready for Summer POP! Join us this July for FREE online art activities, every Monday through Thursday. These daily artmaking breaks are open to children of all ages and you can do them all at home, inside or out! Each day has something new to offer.

Each activity is inspired by Andy Warhol and the Pop art movement and they’re led by a team of creative AGO Art Instructors. You’ll discover fun new ways to express yourself with themes like Volume, Repetition, Colour and Movement.

Get started on preparing your materials now. There are simple material lists for each day — or you can simply follow along with what you have on hand! No registration is needed and sessions will be live-streamed here on AGO.ca

Stay connected with us! Sign up to receive Family, Children & Youth Programs info from the AGO.

Thursday July 8, 12 pm via Zoom (register, here)

Join celebrated historian Robin D.G. Kelley (USA), whose book Freedom Dreams explores the Black radical imagination, in conversation with renowned artists John Akomfrah (UK/Ghana) creator of Vertigo Sea—a stunning meditation on the whaling industry, the slave trade and the current migrant crisis—and Bushra Junaid (Canada), whose Two Pretty Girls… brings to life the entanglements between Newfoundland and the legacies of plantation.

Together they explore what it means to visualize freedom dreams, placing their own contemporary work in dialogue with historical images contained in the Montgomery Collection of Caribbean Photographs recently acquired by the AGO.

Moderated by Julie Crooks, AGO Curator, Arts of Global Africa and the Diaspora and curator of upcoming exhibition Fragments of Epic Memory.

The AGO and Tangled Art + Disability teamed up on a series of videos featuring the important work of six artists.

Founded in 2003, Tangled Art + Disability is a Toronto-based organization dedicating itself to enhancing opportunities for artists with disabilities. Earlier this year, Tangled Art and the AGO unveiled a new collaborative project that centres the disability arts movement. Between February and June, the two groups presented six videos made by various artists from Tangled’s community, highlighting their respective practices and insights while showcasing the possibilities of a world that honours access, disability and difference. 

The partnership was spearheaded by Melissa Smith, AGO Assistant Curator, Community Programs. (Linked here) take a look at all six AGO Tangled Art Talks, and stay tuned in the coming weeks for more about our partnership with Tangled Art + Disability (via AGOinsider).

Join our next AGO Volunteers Connector Call:  Wednesday June 30, 5-6:30pm

We’ll discuss our latest Diversity & Inclusion Learning session: Raising Awareness: Sharing Knowledges – A Conversation with Indigenous Art Educators (see previous post)

A quick reminder: you can’t pre-register for this discussion. Simply log on at 5:00pm on Wednesday June 30 to join! –

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89371667498?pwd=aVcyM0lHSDdYZXdCaWl0THU0YXJidz09

Meeting ID: 893 7166 7498
Passcode: 670064

This call is an opportunity for you to discuss and share what you’ve learned with other volunteers. Our focus is to create a positive space, to encourage bold and brave conversation, and to talk and grow together.

As with last month, in this session we will once again incorporate break-out rooms into our discussion, so folks have the opportunity to delve into deeper conversations with one another, in smaller groups.

To prepare for this call, we encourage you to consider the following questions: (Feel free to bring some of your own!)

• What stood out to you about this session?
• What did you take away from how Louise and Mahlikah presented indigenous art?
• How do we talk about difficult history, and not shy away from ongoing conversation?
• Is there anything you learned that will change the way your approach your volunteer role at the Gallery?

Thank you for joining the discussion!

We look forward to seeing you there!