Dear Everyone,

Thanks to everyone’s efforts to follow health guidance and practices such as wearing masks and physical distancing, we are managing things very well at the AGO. We have a safe building and our protocols are working.

We have followed the advice of public health professionals and provincial directives throughout the pandemic.

As we are hearing in the news, there is a rising number of COVID-19 infections, particularly due to the Omicron variant. As a result, the Province has announced that indoor areas of venues with a usual capacity of 1,000 or more will be subject to a capacity limit of 50%.  This directive includes museums like the AGO.

Our Visitor Experience team will continue to monitor ticket sales to ensure that we remain at 50% capacity throughout the museum.

We have worked very hard to keep our staff safe throughout this pandemic and will continue to do so. This week, we pressed pause on bringing back our Volunteers and have asked those Managers and others who can to do their work from home and resume working remotely.

What protections are in place for employees and visitors?

We will continue to be guided by the advice of public health officials. We have the following measures in place:

• All employees and visitors over the age of 12 are required to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19, unless they have a valid exemption. Visitors must show proof of vaccination and a corresponding ID on arrival.
• All employees and visitors over 2 years of age are required to wear a mask or face covering in a manner which covers their mouth, nose and chin, while visiting the AGO.
• We have increased our cleaning schedule and will be disinfecting high touch and high traffic areas multiple times a day. Our state of the art HVAC system has a 95% efficiency or MERV 15 rating, ensuring regular fresh air exchange and filtration. 
• This summer we installed UV sanitizing lighting in all fan systems throughout the building. UV sanitizing lighting is considered to be an effective tool to further aide to reduce the spread of pathogens and provide ongoing disinfection.

A reminder of what we need from you:

• Please wear your mask at all times when working with others.  We strongly recommend you wear a mask provided by the AGO.
• Please practice physical distancing and where possible stay at least 2 metres from one another.
• Please wash your hands frequently and properly.
• Please limit your movement around the building so that you minimize contact with others.

Sick policy:

• Please stay home if you are feeling unwell. As usual, notify your manager.
• If you think you have COVID-19 symptoms or have been in close contact with someone who has it, use this self-assessment tool to help determine how to seek further care. Please stay home if you are feeling unwell.
• If you, or someone you live with, are diagnosed with COVID-19, please contact your Manager and Kyle Nhan, Manager, Health & Safety, immediately. His email is [email protected]. We will keep this information confidential.

Leadership Team is paying close attention to the situation and we will keep everyone updated on the situation, should additional restrictions come into play. In the meantime, if you have any questions, please talk to your manager or LT members.

Thank you and stay safe,

Stephan

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For those volunteers interested, the Gallery has announced Extended Hours Until 9 pm (for Picasso Only)
Tuesday and Thursday Evening: December 28 and December 30
The exhibition closes January 16, 2022.

Also posting here, a reminder on the Procedure for Booking Volunteer Tickets. With less staff on site, and new contracting staff often taking shifts over the Holiday Break, please be patient with booking – this procedure will not be familiar for new folks. Just make sure when you book a ticket that you clearly share you are a volunteer looking to book a volunteer ticket(s). Thank you for your patience and support:

VOLUNTEERS are invited to book any of the following:

2 Special exhibition tickets for Picasso: Painting the Blue Period (There is a maximum of 2 exhibition tickets per volunteer) – one of these tickets will be for you, another for your guest. Picasso tickets include general gallery admission, which includes access to Matthew Wong, and Fragments of Epic Memory.

Not planning to see Picasso? A friendly reminder, 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:

• Specify if you are booking ticket(s) for Picasso (which includes General Gallery Admission), or General Admission only
• Please include the Date and time you would like to attend, and 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.

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.

Remember: all visitors/volunteers/staff must show proof of vaccination. For more details, please see all of the guidelines posted on the AGO website: https://ago.ca/visitor-information/visitor-guidelines

Hello Everyone,

This past weekend of aabaakwad was amazing. aabaakwad (it clears after a storm) is an annual Indigenous-led conversation on Indigenous art by those who create, curate and write about it. I was at the opening on Friday evening, and it was astounding to see, hear, and learn from so many stellar Indigenous artists.

Aabaakwad brought people together to share thoughts and ideas. Gatherings like this really do grow, change and shape culture over time.

A massive thank you to Wanda Nanibush and her imperative vision for this program.

I also want to make note of the production and operational work that goes into pulling off a weekend of this stature. It is a lot and often goes unnoted. Thank you to Deborah Nolan who was the lead for production and operations and all the teams across the museum who worked to make this happen: Communications & Brand, Education & Programming, Facilities, Finance, Food & Beverage, Media, PSD, Visitor Services and many others!

Finally, as Leadership Team continues to monitor and respond to the COVID environment with more employees back in the museum, it is extremely critical that we continue to adhere to Public Health’s recommended guidelines by:

• wearing a mask while walking through the Gallery
• practicing physical distancing
• sanitizing and washing your hands regularly
• staying home if you are feeling unwell

Everyone has done an extraordinary job since we’ve re-opened and these activities will ensure that safety amongst our colleagues is a priority.

Take care and stay safe,

Stephan

Robert Houle: Red is Beautiful is on view now. Take a closer look at Houle’s Mohawk Summer, four banners inspired by a historic moment in the struggle for First Nation’s sovereignty.

For over 50 years, Anishnabe Saulteaux contemporary artist Robert Houle has been trailblazing. Since the Canadian Museum of History’s 1970 acquisition of his painting Red Is Beautiful, Houle’s influential work as an artist, curator, writer and educator has profoundly impacted the world of contemporary First Nations art in Canada – and globally. 

On view now, the AGO exhibition Robert Houle: Red is Beautiful surveys five decades of the artist’s monumental career and includes more than 90 large installations, paintings and drawings. Friday, December 3, 2021 – live from the AGO’s Baillie Court (and online) – was the kickoff of aabaakwad 2021, the third annual international gathering of Indigenous artists, curators and thinkers. This year, aabaakwad welcomed Robert Houle to deliver an opening keynote address, followed by a panel discussion with artists Faye HeavyShield and Barry Ace. 

Mohawk Summer (1990) is a large-scale work by Robert Houle consisting of four vibrantly coloured cloth banners, each showcasing a word directly related to a historic standoff between the Mohawk nation of Kanehsatà:ke and the Quebec provincial police in 1990. As part of Red is Beautiful, a re-creation of Mohawk Summer – done by Houle in 2010 – will be hung in Maxine Granovsky & Ira Gluskin Hall at the AGO. These grand and majestic banners will greet visitors when they first enter the Gallery, prepping them for the landmark exhibition.      

Read the full article on AGOinsider

In recognition of the Volunteer Endowment’s Trust’s donation to support the AGO’s Access program, please join Director and CEO Stephan Jost, Volunteer President Maya Kotlarenko, and Alexa Greist, Associate Curator, Prints & Drawings, for an exclusive volunteer thank you, followed by a presentation of New Acquisitions in Prints & Drawings.

You can’t register for this meeting in advance, simply click on the link to join:

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/81711053060?pwd=YXZ2cjVkN2hlc25RYUxFQzRUZHBJUT09

Meeting ID: 817 1105 3060

Passcode: 743108

We look forward to seeing you there!

Hello Everyone,

With lots going on, there are two moments from this week that stand out for me. The first was a presentation by three of our conservators (Lisa Ellis, Sherry Phillips and Shu-Wen Lin) speaking to a group of AGO Trustee Emeriti. Our conservators are incredibly specialized, and the trustees were captivated by their work and the way they spoke about it with such authority and knowledge.

The second was the spectacular opening event for Robert Houle: Red Is Beautiful. Robert is a leading contemporary artist who deftly blends modernism with a First Nations perspective. All of us are familiar with Seven Grandfathers in Walker Court and now we have much to learn and take in from this retrospective, which includes more than 100 works. A special dinner was held in Galleria Italia last evening and curator Wanda Nanibush read a message from Governor General Mary Simon to acknowledge aabaakwad, which is taking place this weekend at the AGO (both onsite and virtually). Thank you to Wanda and other educators and staff who have played a role in bringing aabaakwad together.

An update regarding the Volunteers of the AGO: We have developed a phased approach of returning a small group of volunteers back to the Gallery this month. Our goal is to begin with an initial small cohort of Information Guides to support wayfinding over the busy holiday season while having three major exhibitions on view. Within this phased approach, we are planning for Gallery Guides to be back in the museum at the end of January. If you see one of our volunteers onsite, please welcome them back!

Take care and stay safe,

Stephan

P.S. Our public statement on Diversity, Inclusion, Equity and Accessibility has been updated on ago.ca. Here is the link: https://ago.ca/about/ago-for-all

Robert Houle is one of the most influential First Nations artists to break into the contemporary art world. His work blends abstraction, modernism and conceptualism with First Nations aesthetics and histories. Houle went from residential school to art school to museum boardrooms and on to the art world stage as an artist, curator and writer.

Robert Houle: Red is Beautiful consists of over 90 large installations, paintings and drawings created between 1970 and 2021. Themes in the exhibition include Sacred Geometry, The Spiritual Legacy of the Ancient Ones, Beyond History Painting, The Aesthetics of Disappearance, Residential School Years, and Sovereignty.

The exhibition runs December 3 – April 17, 2022

Employees and volunteers are invited to attend the One of a Kind 2021 Winter Show at the discounted rate of $13 for adult admission (regular price $15). Note: if you are a senior, the seniors regular rate of $8.50 is a much better purchase for you! Similarly, university/college students enjoy a $10 admission fee)

This year’s show takes place November 25 to December 5, 2021, at the Enercare Centre and features over 400 exhibitors from across North America.

Tickets are available online. You must purchase a timed-ticket to attend; walk up tickets will not be available this year.

Click here to be taken directly to the OOAK Ticketing Page or use the promo code AGOW21 at checkout. 

One of a Kind 2021 Winter Show Hours:

• Weekdays & Saturdays: 10 am to 9 pm
• Sundays: 10 am to 6 pm

Visit www.oneofakindshow.com to preview hundreds of gift ideas and learn more about the artisans participating in this year’s event. 

We were incredibly saddened to hear of the passing of revolutionary artist Rita Letendre

“I wanted to create a new world, and if you have a world, it has to have poetry.” – Rita Letendre

Born in Drummondville, Quebec to Abenaki and Québécois parents in 1928, Rita Letendre began painting in 1950s Montreal. Renowned for her bold and visceral style, she pushed the boundaries of colour, light and space to new heights. Letendre used the paintbrush, airbrush, palette knife and her hands to express the spirit of life. Her work embodies her ongoing quest for connection and understanding.

In 2017, the Gallery celebrated Letendre’s vibrant career with a retrospective titled Rita Letendre: Fire & Light.

There’s a beautiful article that commemorates Letendre’s life’s work in her own words in this week’s AGOinsider.

This week, AGO volunteers are invited to take part in shopAGO’s Members’ Shopping Days. Volunteers save 20% on shopAGO’s beautiful selection of prints, cards, ornaments, home decor, and much more! (some exceptions apply) Happy Shopping!

20% ends on Sunday, November 28.