Among the first artists in Canada to experiment with abstraction, Kathleen Munn was active in Toronto in the 1920s and ’30s; she was considered by some as one of the most advanced, if confounding, artists of her time. Discouraged in part by the dominance of the Group of Seven and landscape painting in Canada, she stopped making art around 1939, and by the time of her death in 1974, she was relatively forgotten.
Recent conservation work, and research undertaken in partnership with the Canadian Conservation Institute, have yielded significant new understandings of her techniques, methods and materials. We connected with Stephanie Barnes, former AGO Koerner Conservation Fellow, and Georgiana Uhlyarik, AGO Fredrik S. Eaton Curator, Canadian Art, to learn more about their efforts to reveal Munn’s accomplishments.
If you’re missing a glimpse behind-the-scenes into the details of collections work, read the whole newsy exchange, here (via AGOinsider).
It’s the long weekend so I’m going to keep
this short.
Yesterday the province announced its re-opening plan.
In terms of what this means for the AGO, Leadership Team will be assessing the
3-part plan for the next few days. I will be back in touch next week with more
details.
Basically, the more people who get vaccinated, the
more quickly we can put COVID behind us. Finally, we are seeing the light at
the end of the tunnel. It’s there and it’s real.
Sun’s out, shades out. Have fun this weekend and be
safe.
Hello volunteers, Though we don’t share all staffing announcements, we know Christy will be familiar to many of you, given her appearance at Town Halls, and in guiding our exhibition program. Such exciting news for Christy! A fresh start; we will miss her at the AGO – Holly
Christy Thompson
Hello everyone,
I’m writing to share the
extraordinary news that Christy Thompson has accepted the position of Senior Deputy Director, Exhibitions and Collections, at
the Museum of Modern Art, New York. I am
exceptionally proud of Christy, but of course it is bittersweet to say goodbye
to a wonderful colleague who has done so much for the AGO.
Christy joined the AGO in
2013 as the Associate Director of Administration & Corporate Secretary. In
2015 she was appointed Chief, Exhibitions and Collections, and soon after Conservation was added to her
responsibilities and title. She led and directed activities of exhibition and
collection installation, collection care, registration and the scheduling,
logistical management of gallery installations, and much more.
Some of the experiences over the years
that are most noteworthy to Christy include working with Maxine Granovsky
Gluskin as Corporate Secretary when Maxine was newly appointed President of the
AGO Board of Trustees; securing the touring Yayoi Kusama exhibition for the AGO
and overseeing its successful installation; working with her entire division on
Look:Forward, the sweeping reinstallation of the AGO Collection, virtually
overseeing couriers during the pandemic; and co-chairing the COVID task force
as the Gallery navigated through complex circumstances.
This opportunity at MoMA will draw on
Christy’s strategic thinking and creativity as the museum navigates its
post-pandemic future in one of the world’s largest cities. She will be
challenged in exciting new ways, and I have no doubt that her work will make a
positive impact on the museum community internationally. Christy begins at MoMA
in mid-September. Her last day at the AGO will be
in mid-summer, with the exact date to be determined. Interim plans for her
position will be announced at a later date.
Please join me in congratulating Christy on her many accomplishments at the AGO, and on this
remarkable step in her career. We will miss her.
For a
second year in a row, the Volunteer Council (VC) and the AGO Development team
are excited to present the Volunteers of the AGO with the opportunity to select
a gallery project to financially support using funds from the Volunteer
Endowment Trust (VET).
The
Volunteer Endowment Trust (VET) was established in 2001 with a Letter of Agreement
between the AGO, The AGO Foundation and the Volunteers of the AGO. The original
capital that created the fund continues to remain invested and, each year, an
annual distribution of 4% of the fund (approx. $50,000) is made available in
order to fund a project. The AGO Development team has identified 4 projects for
consideration that reflect the Gallery’s strategic priorities of Art, Access
and Learning:
Exhibition Support: Robert Houle: Red is Beautiful (December 3, 2021- April 3, 2022) Dates subject to change
Program Support: Access Initiative
Program Support: Virtual School Programs
Exhibition Support: Matthew Wong: Blue View (August 14, 2021 – April 18, 2022) Dates subject to change
The 4
options are outlined in the link below, and you can ONLY CHOOSE ONE PROJECT to
support. For more details on each project including exhibition images and
donor recognition details, please see the PDF attachment, sent via Holly’s
email. (If you missed this, feel free to email Holly for an additional
copy of the PDF).
Voting is
open to volunteers from May 11-28, 2021. To ensure only one vote per volunteer, we are
asking you to include your name, email and placement type at the end of the
survey. This will also help us to identify trends in volunteer priorities!
Please be assured that your individual responses will be kept confidential and
only viewable to Maya and Holly.
If you
have any questions about the survey, please reach out to Holly Procktor ([email protected])
or your Volunteer President, Maya Kotlarenko ([email protected])
Thank you for having your say! Voting closes May 28.
Join our AGO Volunteers Connector Call: Wednesday May 26, 5-6:30pm. This call is taking the form of a discussion group around our latest Diversity & Inclusion Learning session: Anishinaabe Philosophy and Land, linked on the blog (see previous post)
A quick reminder: you can’t pre-register for this discussion. Simply log on at 5:00pm on Wednesday May 26 to join! –
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.
In this session, we’ll be incorporating 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:
What stood out to you about this session?
What is something that you learned that you didn’t know before?
Last year, the Curatorial team renamed works from the AGO’s Collection (with First Nations subject matter) as part of a broader effort to eliminate culturally insensitive language from titles in our collection. Has Wanda and Duke’s conversation given you more to think about in this regard?
June is Pride Month, and in the latest AGO Hot Takes, trans representation takes centre stage via the insights of drag performer Pearl Teese and comedian Dylan McKeever.
Pearl Teese and Dylan McKeever; images courtesy of the speakers.
Hot Takes is an AGO series that invites various creatives, artists and thinkers to meet via Zoom and collectively analyze contemporary images in the media, as a means of better understanding current cultural and social moments. Last week, Hot Takes welcomed drag performer Pearl Teese and comedian Dylan McKeever to discuss the complexities of trans representation, using two groundbreaking Time magazine covers as conversation starters.
In 2014, iconic American actress and LGBTQ advocate Laverne Cox became the first trans woman in history to grace the cover of Time. Both Villajin and McKeever remember this as being an inaugural moment in mainstream trans representation. Each reflected on the cover story’s profound personal impact on their lives, while also noting a significant ongoing need for more diversity and complexity with regards to trans representation in media.
Back in March of this year, Canadian actor and producer Elliot Page was also featured on the cover of Time magazine. In a recent interview with Oprah, Page publicly revealed his trans identity, boldly advancing trans visibility through his global platform. For McKeever, Cox represents more of an aspirational figure, whereas Page inspired in her a sense of responsibility to support and protect those who have recently transitioned. In reflection of both cover stories, Villajin expressed her hope that in the future trans representation in mainstream media will include more people who don’t visually fit into clear gender binaries, providing a broader and more realistic picture of the trans community.
Watch the full “hot take” discussion, moderated by AGO’s Annie Roper, here, via AGOinsider
Dr. Julie Crooks is looking forward to presenting the upcoming exhibition Fragments of Epic Memory. It is a bold exhibition that draws on the AGO’s Montgomery Collection of Caribbean photography as well as contemporary art from the Caribbean Diaspora. It will be a beautiful and groundbreaking exhibition, opening in September. I know an entire team of staff from various departments are working hard on the exhibition and I just want to say Thank You.
Did you know the AGO is partnering with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and the National Ballet of Canada for our Virtual School Programs? Or that the AGO has partnered with the Tate Modern, London, and the Museum Ludwig, Cologne to collaborate on the upcoming Andy Warhol exhibition? Or that as part of the 25thanniversary of the CONTACT Photography Festival, there is a Zoom talk this month on the topic of queer photography? The AGO is working in innovative ways to share the power of art through cultural partnerships and our online platforms. If you haven’t visited www.ago.ca lately, take a moment to check out what is happening now and upcoming in the weeks ahead.
Finally, the beautiful spring weather is here. I will
be taking as many long walks as I can this weekend. I know we’ve all been doing
a lot of walking lately – there’s not much else to do! – but now we get to bask
in the sunshine. Let’s all make the most of it!
Shifting Time and Place: Luke Parnell examines transformative narratives within Northwest Coast Indigenous art. Learn about his series of thought-provoking paintings, recently acquired.
Luke Parnell’s artistic practice plays amidst notions of past, present and future. He’s primarily concerned with investigating oral histories and contemporary iterations within Northwest Coast Indigenous art. Raised on the western coast of Canada in a community where Indigenous and non-Indigenous people live together, Parnell is Wilp Laxgiik Nisga’a from Gingolx on his mother’s side and Haida from Massett on his father’s side. He’s informed both by tradition—he completed an apprenticeship with a Master Northwest Coast Indigenous carver—and by academia: he holds both a BFA and an MAA from OCADU and ECUAD, respectively. A multidisciplinary artist and assistant professor at OCADU, his work has been shown in a range of exhibitions at the National Gallery of Canada, the MacLaren Art Centre and more.
Luke Parnell, The Legacy, 2014 acrylic on canvas, wall text 91.4 x 91.4 cm. Art Gallery of Ontario, Purchase, with funds by exchange from the Estate of Jennings David Young, 2020
For a deeper look into Parnell’s work, watch his conversation with Curator Wanda Nanibush, from September 2020. ThisArt in the Spotlight talk was generously supported by TD Ready Commitment.
We are excited to continue with the next lesson in our series of Diversity & Inclusion recordings, part of the Gallery’s commitment to building a more diverse and inclusive staff and volunteer community. This informal session takes the format of a discussion between Wanda Nanibush, and Dr. Duke Redbird.
Session #3: Anishinaabe Philosophy and Land
This learning session features Wanda Nanibush, Curator, Indigenous Art, in conversation with Dr. Duke Redbird, Ojibway Shaman/Elder and Wisdom Keeper, Indigenous intellectual, poet, painter, broadcaster, film maker and keynote speaker
AGENDA/ what to expect:
Land Acknowledgement by Julian Cox, Deputy
Director & Chief Curator
Introduction by Stephan Jost, Director
& CEO
Facilitator Introductions and Opening
Ceremony by Jessica Bright, AGO IDEA Group (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity &
Access), and Senior Director, Strategic Initiatives
Presentation by Wanda Nanibush, Curator,
Indigenous Art & Dr. Duke Redbird, Ojibway Shaman/Elder
and Wisdom Keeper, Indigenous intellectual, poet, painter, broadcaster,
filmmaker and keynote speaker
Keep a list of questions/reflections you’d like to share in one of our Volunteer Connector calls – these sessions are your opportunity to discuss and share what you’ve learned.
Related Readings –
Here’s a Resource List to Learn More About the Ideas and Issues introduced in
this recording:
AGO Video: Picturing the Americas with artist, writer, and curator Rick Hill Artist, writer and curator, Rick Hill, discusses the intersection of Indigenous and Western knowledge and how treaties were developed based on an Indigenous philosophy of conservation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Sp0aR7UHdI
AGO interview and video: Anishinaabe artist Michael Belmore speaks about two new works in his self-titled exhibition, recently on view at the Gallery https://ago.ca/agoinsider/belmore-ago
Questions/ Ideas? Would You Like to Talk More About What You’ve Learned? Join our AGO Volunteers Connector Call: Wednesday May 26, 5-6:30pm
(a reminder: you can’t pre-register for this discussion. Simply log on at 5:00pm on Wednesday May 26 to join!)
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. We’ll be incorporating 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:
What stood out to you about this session?
What is something that you learned that you didn’t know before?
Last year, the Curatorial team renamed works from the AGO’s Collection (with First Nations subject matter) as part of a broader effort to eliminate culturally insensitive language from titles in our collection. Has Wanda and Duke’s conversation given you more to think about in this regard?
Thank you for joining the discussion! We look forward to seeing you there!
For a second year in a row, the Volunteer Council (VC) and the AGO Development team are excited to present the Volunteers of the AGO with the opportunity to select a gallery project to financially support using funds from the Volunteer Endowment Trust (VET).
The Volunteer Endowment Trust (VET) was established in 2001 with a Letter of Agreement between the AGO, The AGO Foundation and the Volunteers of the AGO. The original capital that created the fund continues to remain invested and, each year, an annual distribution of 4% of the fund (approx. $50,000) is made available in order to fund a project. The AGO Development team has identified 4 projects for consideration that reflect the Gallery’s strategic priorities of Art, Access and Learning:
Exhibition Support: Robert Houle: Red is Beautiful (December 3, 2021- April 3, 2022) Dates subject to change
Program Support: Access Initiative
Program Support: Virtual School Programs
Exhibition Support: Matthew Wong: Blue View (August 14, 2021 – April 18, 2022) Dates subject to change
The 4 options are outlined in the link below, and you can ONLY CHOOSE ONE PROJECT to support. For more details on each project including exhibition images and donor recognition details, please see the PDF attachment, sent via Holly’s email. (If you missed this, feel free to email Holly for an additional copy of the PDF).
Voting is open to volunteers from May 11-28, 2021. To ensure only one vote per volunteer, we are asking you to include your name, email and placement type at the end of the survey. This will also help us to identify trends in volunteer priorities! Please be assured that your individual responses will be kept confidential and only viewable to Maya and Holly.
If you have any questions about the survey, please reach out to Holly Procktor ([email protected]) or your Volunteer President, Maya Kotlarenko ([email protected])
