Hello everyone,

This past fiscal year (ending on March 31^st), it is clear we all pulled together to help achieve a balanced financial position. Thank you to all for your efforts.

Every year, the financial position of the AGO is reviewed by auditors. The AGO is a large and complex institution with an annual budget of roughly $60M. This year, more than ever, the Finance team faced significant challenges, in terms of time and resources, and still completed the audit on schedule while addressing other operational issues. Kristine Medeiros led the audit while on a parental leave and Cindy O helped manage the day-to-day Finance activities in Kristine’s absence. And the Finance team members – Tracy La, Angela McCabe and Katarina Spehar – have all helped immensely during this period. The audit process is a ton of work, and I am grateful for the team’s focus and commitment to seeing it through.

Moving forward to this current fiscal year, which began on April 1^st, I need to be clear that we will have significant challenges. With the reduction of federal wage subsidies, increasing inflation and global volatility means that we all need to be very mindful of expenditures and soberly acknowledge that COVID will be most likely be with us for another 24 months. We are doing very well but we’re not out of the woods.

I am struck by the number of employees who have dedicated a good portion of their careers to serving the AGO. One example is Lesley Ashton, Productions & Studio Coordinator, in Education & Programming, who will be leaving the AGO next week after 21 years. Thank you, Lesley, for your contributions to the AGO and for helping to share art making and learning with our public.

Take care,

Stephan

Hello Volunteers!

I hope you are all having a nice week. It has been so nice to chat with those of you that have been back in the gallery. Getting to know Gallery Guides and Info Guides alike!

Thank you to everyone that tuned into our training session with Alexa Greist and Jim Shedden last week. For those of you who were not able to make it,

Here is a link to the recording – I AM HERE EXHIBITION TALK:

https://us06web.zoom.us/rec/share/NsRpVgZs3aB7pC1RQRXVXuCOVtI8ZU1aVFqlNGalaPt4fQ_DIb-OUgK5kE52_uIP.737VZmyJz-VeODTc?startTime=1652997792000

SAVE-THE-DATE: Our next online meeting will take place on Thursday, June 23 at 6-7 pm. Associate Curator and Head of European Art, Caroline Shields, will be joining us to share her knowledge and insight about the European Collection and recent install. Mark your calendars! 

Join Zoom Meeting (remember you can’t register in advance for this meeting – just save this in your calendar and click on the link 5 minutes before the start time):

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/81695686812

Stay well and hope to see you all soon!

Natalie

Natalie Lam (she/her)

Curatorial Assistant, Access and Learning

Education and Programming

[email protected]

Note: In office Wednesday – Sunday

Ahead of her AGO talk and Smoke Sculpture™ set for Sugar Beach this June, AGOinsider connected with the trailblazing artist, educator and writer.

This June, Toronto is in for a spectacle to be seen courtesy of Judy Chicago. In a much-anticipated return to the city, the renowned multi-hyphenate and champion of feminist art will transform Sugar Beach with A Tribute to Toronto to close out this year’s Toronto Biennial of Art (TBA). From a barge on Lake Ontario, non-toxic plumes of colour will swirl together in the air, illuminated with LED lights for a dazzling effect. A Tribute to Toronto – the first of Chicago’s Smoke Sculptures™ presented in Canada and the first presented on water – comes decades after she began experimenting with pyrotechnics in the 1960s and 1970s, paralleling the emergence of Land Art at the time. 

Chicago’s connection to the AGO is well-documented. In 1982, the artist presented her seminal work, The Dinner Party (1974–1979), here. Four plates and two drawings created for The Dinner Party are on view now on the Gallery’s Fourth Floor, having been acquired for the AGO Collection in 2019.

And this Wednesday June1 at 7pm, Chicago will be here for a conversation with Candice Hopkins, Toronto Biennial of Art Senior Curator, moderated by Xiaoyu Weng, AGO Carol and Morton Rapp Curator, Modern and Contemporary Art. (Tickets are Sold Out by interested volunteers can try their luck with the rush line, by lining up immediately before the event in Baillie Court)

Read the full interview with Judy Chicago about the directions of her current practice, HERE.

For the final week of Museum Month AGOinsider connected with first-time curator Tahnee Ann Macabali Pantig, who is making her debut with the AGO’s new exhibition Faith and Fortune: Art from Across the Spanish Empire. 

Brooklyn-based artist and designer Tahnee Ann Macabali Pantig is digging deep into her Filipinx ancestry for her curatorial debut in the new AGO exhibition Faith and Fortune: Art from Across the Spanish Empire, opening June 8. Born and raised in Scarborough, Ontario, Pantig has drawn much of her artistic inspiration from her parent’s immigration story and her time spent within Toronto’s Filipinx community. Her curatorial contribution to the exhibition – which features works from Latin America, the Philippines and Spain made between 1492 and 1898 – is a large installation of historical daguerreotype photographs from the Philippines. 

For our final week of Museum Month, AGOinsider connected with Pantig to get more insight about her Filipinx heritage, her upbringing in Scarborough, and how her desire to shape narratives about people from the Philippines  led to her debut as a curator.  

AGOinsider: As a first-time curator, what was your curatorial approach to Faith and Fortune? What did you draw on and what were you inspired by?  

Pantig: My curatorial approach to Faith and Fortune is very much based on my lived experiences being born and raised in Scarborough, in the Toronto Filipinx community. I’ve drawn much of my inspiration from my parents’ migration stories from Pampanga and Baguio City in the Philippines; what was it like for them coming to Canada? What stories did they see of themselves? What stories did they not see? I was also inspired by my own experiences growing up in Toronto and not feeling like I had stories about being Filipinx reflected back to me. Through this show I set out to create the type of representation I would have loved to have seen as a young person in this city.  

Read the full interview, HERE.

Faith and Fortune: Art from Across the Spanish Empire opens June 8. Join Curators Adam Harris Levine and Tahnee Pantig and Interpretive Planner Gillian McIntyre for an online conversation on Saturday June 11, at 2pm. More details about this free, pre-registered talk (which is being livestreamed) can be found HERE. Book your complimentary ticket, today.

Dear Colleagues,

What is happening?

The AGO is poised to install a bold new sculpture by acclaimed contemporary artist Brian Jungen, after many years in development. 

Site preparation will begin this week, and the sculpture will be installed in late June.

This work is the AGO’s first-ever public art commission and will be situated at the corner of Dundas and McCaul Streets – the former setting for Henry Moore’s Large Two Forms (1966–1969).

Stay tuned for information about celebratory moments in late June to welcome this important work to its new home!

 About the sculpture

• Entitled Couch Monster: Sadzěʔ yaaghęhch’ill, Jungen’s new sculpture is a monument to creative form and engineering.
• In his first large-scale work in bronze, Jungen constructed the figure of an elephant from discarded leather sofas.
• After completing construction in his studio in March 2020, the full-sized model was then transported to the Walla Walla Foundry in Washington State to be cast in bronze.
• The finished sculpture will travel to Toronto at the end of May, and we plan to install the sculpture over the weekend of June 18 and 19.

About the site

• Staff and volunteers can expect to see changes to the corner of Dundas and McCaul starting this week.
• A landscaping firm will commence with modifying the site to receive the sculpture. The area of work will be contained using protective fencing. 
• In addition to the sculpture, we will be planting three new healthy trees in the circular beds just outside the McCaul Street Entrance.
• Benches will be temporarily removed and later returned when the sculpture is in place.

We hope this refreshed corner will become a new meeting place for the surrounding neighbourhood and for our AGO visitors, staff and volunteers.

Questions?

If there are questions about this project, please reach out to Laura Comerford, Associate Director, Exhibitions. Thank you!

Laura Comerford (she/her)

[email protected]

Hello volunteers – In case you missed the live broadcast, Dr. Audrey Hudson’s conversation on How to Talk about Anti-Black Racism, a response to the continuing violence, and cross-border shooting in Buffalo last week, is now available online, to watch anytime, via the Gallery’s Youtube channel. See the link highlighted below. We encourage you to continue this important learning – Holly

Two years ago, we came together for a round table discussion on how to speak about anti-Black racism with the art in the AGO’s collection as an entry point. Sadly, the horrific impact of continued hate and systemic anti-Black racism brings us together for a part three. Join me Audrey Hudson, Richard & Elizabeth Currie, Chief of Education & Programming, as I moderate this round table discussion with community members, artist educators, teachers and activists: Freda Bizimana, Brandon Hay, Joy Martyr-Andre, Emmanuel Tabi, Sam Tecle and Laurie Townshend.

This round table discussion is for teachers, parents and anyone who wants to have these brave conversations.

Watch the latest episode, Part Three, HERE.

Please also see Parts one and two of this ongoing conversation. – Audrey.

Hello everyone,

This past weekend there were three mass shootings in the US: one in Buffalo, one in Dallas, and one in Orange County. Hearing of targeted mass shootings is demoralizing. It is clear these acts were brought on by racism and hatred. Buffalo is quite literally our neighbour. The people murdered were our neighbours.

We must confront systemic racism and take action to impact change. This Thursday, May 19 Dr. Audrey Hudson will bring together a panel of artists and educators to continue the conversation about anti-Black racism. The talk will be made available for our audience as well as employees and volunteers, and it will also be recorded. More information on the talk is available here: https://ago.ca/events/how-talk-about-anti-black-racism-part-three.

This is the third panel that Audrey has convened in recent years and coincides with the 2^nd anniversary of the murder of George Floyd. I am grateful to Audrey and others involved for making space for this important conversation.

I also want to acknowledge the emotions and trauma that some of you are experiencing as a result of continued acts of hate and racism in our world. Please reach out to colleagues, your manager or LT member or access any of the resources provided at the bottom or this email for support.

Thank you,

Stephan

• Mental Health Resources:
  • WellNest Therapy offers services with diverse therapists at a sliding scale available by request and need.
  • Black mental health resources in Toronto
  • Hoog Fook Mental Health Association serving Asian communities in Ontario.
  • What’s Up Walk in Clinic offers free virtual mental health counselling for children, youth and young adults.
• Article: Becoming Trustworthy White Allies by Melanie S. Morrison
• AGO Learning: Raising Awareness: Anti-Racism 101 – Moving from Not Racist to Anti-Racism by Letecia Rose, Principal Consultant – Skill Market Watch here – Passcode: AGOd&i2

Many thanks to Melissa Smith for passing this volunteer opportunity along, through her work with Access. Full details below:

• 

The White Cane Week Experience Expo is a fantastic opportunity to not only make a great impact in our community, and a day to learn about living with vision loss, but also to meet new lifelong friends!

• Date: Saturday, May 28, 2022
• Time: 11AM until 3:30PM
• Location: Miles Nadal Jewish Community Centre, Main Gym (750 Spadina Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 2J2)
• Directions: Corner of Spadina and Bloor Street West

A whole day event consisting of an expo, forum, and community social, it is one of the most important events for the organization and they can’t do it without the help of the wonderful sighted guides and support staff to keep things running!

Lunch and dinner are provided for all volunteers Please see the links to our website, the event website, and the volunteer sign-up sheet below:

Canadian Council for the Blind Toronto Visionaries Chapter Website:

http://www.ccbtorontovisionaries.ca/

White Cane Week Experience Expo Website:

https://ccbnational.net/shaggy/experience-expo/

Volunteer Sign-up Form

https://forms.gle/dqr4Htw4Vih67Ebq8

The CCB Toronto Visionaries is a local Toronto chapter of the Canadian Council of the Blind, a national registered charity.

Established in 2013, the CCB Toronto Visionaries is dedicated to breaking the isolation that so often accompanies vision loss. We encourage our members to be inspired by their peers, to build supportive social networks through sharing information, and to engage in a wide range of social and recreational activities.

Featuring lost-and-found home movies from the Prelinger Archives, alongside celebrated artworks by the likes of David Hockney, Patti Smith, Claes Oldenburg, Annie Pootoogook, Arthur Jafa and Mary Pratt, as well as snapshots, photo albums, letters, television, grocery lists, and social media, I AM HERE brings together a broad range of personal records from different time periods and locales to explore the shared human impulse to document life as it happens.

Join Alexa Greist, (the exhibition’s Co-Curator) for this training session, via ZOOM:

(A reminder, you can’t register for this talk in advance, simply click on the link below the night of to join us):

Join Zoom Meeting https://us06web.zoom.us/j/83368788793

Meeting ID: 833 6878 8793

We look forward to seeing you there!

Hello Everyone,

For the last few months, managers have been back on site for at least 3 days a week. It is really great to have so many of you back. We are in a much better place than we were in the winter – all provincial COVID health restrictions are now lifted, which means some of the protocols that were previously in place, such as social distancing, are no longer required.

At this point, with our immunization policy in place for all returning and new staff and volunteers, as well as our encouraged mask wearing, the AGO continues to be a safe environment for all of us and our public.

Going forward, the vast majority of remaining staff will be returning to work for a minimum of 3 days a week as of June 1st. This gives everyone a couple of weeks to plan for coming back onsite. If you have any questions about what this means to you, please speak to your Leadership Team member. It’s really important that we have opportunities to engage with one another face-to-face – this will help us communicate better and be more efficient and productive. 

Take care, Stephan