I know we are all feeling the difficulty
of the continued COVID-19 restrictions, but there is reason to be hopeful. The
vaccination rollout is underway, and last night the Province announced that
anyone 40 and above may now get the AstraZeneca
vaccine. I have my appointment booked, and encourage you to do the same if
you’re eligible.
Over the weekend an employee at the
AGO tested positive for COVID-19. We are all keeping this person in our
thoughts and hoping they recover quickly, and we must respect
their privacy during this difficult time.
The People team has notified everyone who
may have been in contact with this person, and advised that they
should self-isolate. If you have not been notified and you are part
of the staff currently working, you can continue your work based on the
results of daily screening for symptoms of COVID-19 before entering the
building.
This news is concerning and
I understand you may be worried.
We have done everything we can to ensure we have a safe
work environment, and we take this very seriously. Most areas are already
shut down, and we continue to do frequent deep cleaning. We are monitoring the
situation closely and will send out further communication if needed. Your
safety is our number one priority.
If you have any questions, please don’t
hesitate to contact your Manager or Leadership Team member.
Gustave Caillebotte. Iris bleus, jardin du Petit Gennevilliers, c. 1892
With the days getting warmer and the colours getting
brighter, we think there’s no better time to connect and celebrate with our
fellow AGO volunteers!
As part of National Volunteer Week, the Friday Night Gallery and Info Guide group invite you to our Virtual Spring Tour, via Zoom, happening Wednesday, April 21st, from 6:00pm-7:00pm. Floral/Spring-themed attire and Zoom backgrounds are encouraged!
Sit back with your favourite beverage as five of our wonderful guides take you through various works in the AGO collection that answer the question “What makes us think of Spring?”. A Q&A period, along with free time to catch up and connect will follow.
Today, March 31, marks the end of our
fiscal year. I am pleased to report that we have achieved a slightly better
than balanced budget in this exceptionally challenging year. We couldn’t
have done it without you and the significant personal sacrifices you made. The
combination of your actions, private philanthropy and government support made
it possible. I am incredibly grateful for your many contributions, and your
commitment and passion for the AGO. The Finance Team will be doing all the
end of year details in the coming weeks but what we have all achieved together
is extraordinary.
For those who are celebrating – Happy
Easter. Please continue to keep safe and well.
Revisit the haunting beauty of Kenyan-American artist Wangechi Mutu’s This You Call Civilization?, a collage acquired by the AGO in 2009
Kenyan-American Wangechi Mutu is a globally recognized contemporary artist. Widely known for her collage-based works on Mylar and large-scale installations, Mutu also works across other media, including painting, drawing, sculpture and video. Born in 1972, she was raised in the suburbs of Nairobi, Kenya, later studying in both Wales at the United World College of the Atlantic and the U.S. at The Cooper Union and Yale University.
In 2009,Wangechi Mutu: This You Call Civilization?at the AGO was the first major exhibition of Mutu’s work in a North American art museum and it featured 16 key works including collages on Mylar, videos and installation.
Created specifically for the opening of Transformation AGO in 2009, This You Call Civilization? (2008), with its washes of watercolour, intricately placed magazine clippings and granular elements (like soil and glitter), creates an animalistic abstraction of the human form. Mutu strikes an unsettling balance between the beautiful and the grotesque—the long-legged, leopard-clad figure captures a hybridization between animal, human and machine. As if to allude to the piecing together of one’s cultural and racial identity, Mutu masterfully collages together magazine cuttings including lips, eyes, motorcycle wheels, manicured hands, feathers, leaves, high-heeled shoes and fruit.
Volunteers will love to revisit this 2010 video in which Mutu discusses the creative process behind This You Call Civilization? and the thematic complexities in her work:
You should be able to join automatically by clicking on the link, but if prompted, please enter:
Meeting ID: 854 3351 0797 and Passcode: 436729
This call is an opportunity for you to discuss and share what you’ve learned with other volunteers, and consider how you can better support a more diverse and welcoming volunteer community. Our focus is to create a positive space, to encourage bold and brave conversation, to talk and grow together.
In this upcoming session, we will be joined by a special guest, Cian Knights, our new Manager of Diversity and Inclusion. Cian is helping to structure and support our learning, including making our upcoming D&I sessions more accessible. She’s a support and consult to help everyone advance diversity & inclusion efforts and initiatives throughout the museum – a new and unique role. Cian is so looking forward to meeting you all. Please help us welcome Cian!
(You can read more about Cian and her journey to the AGO, here)
A final note: these volunteer connector calls are voluntary. Not everyone learns in the same way. If you are finding them difficult to participate in, please do whatever feels best for you!
This week’s Art in the Spotlight focuses on Toronto born, self-taught artist Tau Lewis
Join artist Tau Lewis in conversation with Hammer Museum curator Erin Christovale about her work.
Join Tuesday March 30 at 4pm, via Zoom (register, here)
Tau Lewis, Passing the green specimoon, 2020. Recycled fabrics and leather, acrylic paint, stones, sea shells. Image courtesy of Night Gallery.
Tau Lewis employs arduous methods such as hand sewing, carving, and assemblage to build intricate sculptural portraits and quilts. A self-taught artist, her practice is rooted in healing personal, collective, and historical traumas through labour. The materiality of Lewis’ work is often informed by her surrounding environment: she constructs out of found, gathered, and recycled materials from Toronto, New York, and outside of her family’s home in Negril, Jamaica. Lewis will be included in 2021 exhibitions at the Hammer Museum, the Grinnell College Museum of Art; Prospect 5, New Orleans; Haus der Kunst, Munich; and the National Gallery of Canada. She lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.
Erin Christovale is a Los Angeles-based curator and programmer who currently works as an associate curator at the Hammer Museum at the University of California, Los Angeles. Together with Hammer Museum Senior Curator Anne Ellegood, Christovale curated the museum’s fourth Made in L.A. biennial in June 2018. She also leads Black Radical Imagination, an experimental film program she co-founded with Amir George. Christovale is best known for her work on identity, race and historical legacy. Prior to her appointment at the Hammer Museum, Christovale worked as a curator at the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery. She has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts.
We’re highlighting this week, this wonderful Art in the Spotlight talk that recently made it’s way to the AGO’s Youtube channel (for those of you that can’t watch Zoom talks in real time, they all eventually make their way here!) We really enjoyed this conversation between three powerhouse women! Watch, here.
Sandra Brewster, Viscosity (still). 2021. 4:25min, digital, black and white, sound.
Join artist Sandra Brewster and scholar, writer, and musician Leanne Betasamosake Simpson for a conversation with the AGO’s Wanda Nanibush about Black and Indigenous place-making through their collaborative audio-visual project, Viscosity.
Viscosity was filmed at Leslie Spit in Toronto – a human made piece of land that juts into Chi’Nibish (Lake Ontario) and has now become naturalized. It is also a setting in Simpson’s novel Noopiming: The Cure For White Ladies.Viscosity appears in poem form in Noopiming. Viscosity is one of the tracks on Simpson’s latest release Theory of Ice, which was released on March 12, from You’ve Changed Records.
I am proud of all that we have all done here at the AGO to keep everyone as safe as possible during COVID. When I arrived here – almost five years ago – I spoke about how it is vital to balance our work life and our personal life. I want to again send a clear message that it is important to not communicate work related things on weekends or after hours unless it is truly urgent. I firmly believe that restorative breaks from work helps us all do a better job. I admit that after a year of this COVID thing I am pretty exhausted – which I know hardly makes me unique! – so I am also going to encourage all of us to use some of your vacation time. I will take several days off during the April school break (Niagara Falls!).
On Wednesday, we received an update from Cian Knights, Manager, Diversity and Inclusion, and Nathalie Sato, Manager, Talent, on the AGO’s Diversity & Inclusion Learning Plan. Do take a moment to read the e-mail (also posted on the blog).
At the bottom of this message, I have included a number of Canadian Centre for Diversity & Inclusion webinars and other resources that all staff and volunteers can access to continue independent learning. If you have any questions about these opportunities, please contact Cian at [email protected].
What is
diversity and inclusion? Why is this important for workplaces across Canada?
What is the business, people and social imperative? Join us to cover the
building blocks of your D&I comprehension.
Equity
recognizes that different approaches have to be applied for fair results for
diverse individuals. This webinar will move the needle from equity to justice
to shed light on how organizations can develop approaches to individual
approaches at the systems level.
Bystander
Intervention to Stop Anti-Asian Harassment and Xenophobia Workshop (facilitated by Hollaback, an
American organization)
The one-hour,
interactive training will teach you Hollaback!’s 5D’s of bystander intervention
methodology. We’ll start by talking about the types of disrespect that Asian
and Asian American folks are facing right now — from microaggressions to
violence — using a tool we call the “spectrum of disrespect.” You’ll learn what
to look for and the positive impact that bystander intervention has on
individuals and communities. We’ll talk through five strategies for
intervention: distract, delegate, document, delay, and direct; and how to
prioritize your own safety while intervening. We’ll have time at the end for
practice, and you’ll leave feeling more confident intervening the next time you
see Anti-Asian harassment online or in person.
We wanted to update you on the D&I Learning Plan. Since
our last virtual session in February, we have been busy working on
developing more comprehensive learning offerings for employees, volunteers
and Board members.
The AGO has recently become an Employer Partner with the Canadian
Centre for Diversity and Inclusion. Through
this partnership we have access to live webinars, recorded webinars and passes
to an annual conference. This year, the CCDI
conference is virtual and we have offered passes to several
employees, who are leading D&I work and/or have been volunteering
their time to support and champion D&I work within the AGO. Those who
attend will be encouraged to share learnings with their
teams/committees/D&I discussion groups. We look forward to continuing
to share education opportunities with other employees in the future.
Look out this week for more information about CCDI recorded webinars on topics
such as Moving the needle from equity to justice.
Staff Training
· We aim to offer the next virtual D&I learning presentation in April. Currently, we are in conversation
with a number of specialists to schedule
future sessions in a wide range of topics, including disability, mental health,
and LGBTQS2+ awareness. Updates will be shared shortly with the next topic area,
date and time.
· Work to support each division with specific D&I
learning needs has also begun. In April, the
Development Team will be participating in workshops delivered by fundraising
professionals specializing in equity, diversity and inclusion to build their
capacity as a team to address their D&I objectives.
Volunteer Training
· Holly Procktor (Coordinator, Volunteers) and Maya Kotlarenko (Volunteer President) began the D&I education program with our volunteers in February. Volunteers are invited to watch the recorded D&I learning sessions and then meet to discuss the learning objectives.
Executive Leadership Training
· The leadership team have registered for Indigenous Cultural
Safety Training delivered by San’yas. In May, LT will be participating in an eight-week online
interactive course designed to increase the knowledge, self-awareness, and
skills that contribute to safer practices and safer workplaces and key
organizational cultural safety strategies.
Board Training
· We are pleased to share
that our Board of Trustees have started their journey with D&I learning. This week, they are participating in Diversity and
Inclusion Terminology training facilitated by Letecia Rose (Principal
Consultant, Skill Market) who we have been working
with for the past eight months. Over the coming months, we will be exploring
other learning opportunities to continue to
build the Board’s capacity in D&I.
If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to Cian Knights by email at [email protected] or by phone (437) 778-4302.
Thank you,
Cian Knights, Manager of Diversity + Inclusion &
Nathalie Sato, Manager of Talent
Thank you all so much for your continued enthusiasm and commitment to our Diversity & Inclusion learning sessions! We hope you’ll continue to join us for brave and bold discussion in our accompanying Volunteer Connector Call Discussion Group (see end of post!)
Thank you for your feedback on additional sessions and improvements. We’ll share the learning syllabus as the planning team – our IDEA Group and our new Manager of Diversity and Inclusion, Cian Knights, move forward.
Next up: Session #2: “Anti-Racism 101 – Moving from “Not Racist” to “Anti-Racist” (2 hours)
This learning session continues the conversation introduced in our first session. Letecia Rose, Equity Advocate and Community Engagement Specialist, joins us once again.
Our Second Session: Here’s What to Expect
Land acknowledgement with Erin Prendergast, Chief, Strategic Initiatives (2 mins)
Introduction by Stephan Jost, Director & CEO (5 mins)
Overview of Agenda and Learning Objectives, with Nathalie Sato, Manager, Talent (5 mins)
Anti-Racism 101: Moving from ‘Not Racist’ to ‘Anti-Racist’, with Letecia Rose (90 mins)
Questions/Answers (pre-recorded), with Letecia Rose (15 mins)
You will be asked to enter your name, email and password (please copy and paste the password that has been provided, here): AGOd&i2
Please allow a couple of minutes for the recording to begin
(Note for any staff coordinators watching: to access, you must be disconnected from the VPN to view)
Things to Keep in Mind:
These videos are pre-recorded webinars, not live (chat/ Q&A function is not active)
Depending on the speed of your internet, or how many volunteers are watching the recording at the same time, the video may be slow to load. Please be patient with any interrupted viewing.
As pre-recorded content, we regretfully aren’t able to now re-record this session with closed-captioning; we recommend the Otter app (a speech-to-text app, that enables users to transcribe voice conversations) It’s available on desktop, Android, and iOS devices. Closed captioning will be a part of new sessions currently being planned.
Keep a list of thoughts you’d like to share in our Volunteer Connector Call! – (see more, below)
Related Resources:
Here’s a resource list to learn more about the ideas and issues introduced in this recording:
Here is one of the video clips from Letecia’s presentation
about micro-aggressions. Take the opportunity to watch it again and reflect on
how language, even unintentional, can be harmful.
In March 2020, as part of AGO Talks, writer Desmond Cole as he launched his new book The
Skin We’re In, which explored injustices experienced by many Black
Canadians. Here is a link to the event including an audio recording: https://ago.ca/events/futures-desmond-cole
Join our AGO Volunteers Connector Call. This is
an opportunity for you to discuss and share what you’ve learned with other
volunteers, and consider how you can better support a more diverse and
welcoming volunteer community. Our focus is to create a positive space to share
our own personal learnings, and to encourage bold and brave conversation, to
talk and grow together. The group sessions are not mandatory if you are finding
them difficult to participate in. Please do whatever feels best for you.
Volunteer Connector Call #2,Anti-Racism
101 – Moving from “Not Racist” to “Anti-Racist”
Join us: Wednesday April 7, 5-6pm (You cannot register for this call in advance, simply click on link on Wednesday April 7 at 5pm to join)
You should be able to join automatically by clicking on the link, but if prompted, please enter: Meeting ID: 854 3351 0797 and Passcode: 436729
More about Our Featured Speaker: Letecia Rose is an equity strategist passionate about creating inclusive and accessible spaces. Her career has transcended multiple sectors working in the arts, youth development, education, recreation and social service. Working in the area of social justice for the past 15 years, Letecia has trained thousands of organizations, educators and stakeholders in hands-on diversity programs across Ontario and has created spaces for individuals to have courageous conversations about issues of discrimination and inequity.
Letecia is a
recognized city-builder working alongside groups like Civic Action as a Fellow
and has received the United Way Innovation and Creativity award, a Vital People
award from Toronto Community Foundation and Inclusion Innovation Award from the
National Basketball Association (NBA).
