The National Docent Symposium Council (NDSC) is a North American docent/guide organization that provides continuing education and exchange of ideas for docents and guides. NDSC activities include:

• Sponsoring biennial symposia for the professional development of docents and guides
• Providing an up-to-date interactive website with articles of interest and shared practices for docents, guides and educators
• Hosting an online forum for ongoing issues of importance for docents and museum educators
• Publishing the Docent Handbook

Docents at the Indianapolis Museum of Art organized the first nationwide meeting of docents in 1981; since 1985 the symposium has been held every other year at a museum in the United States or Canada. (The Art Gallery of Ontario hosted in 2009; the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts in 2017.) The next symposium, originally planned for Kansas City in 2021, has been postponed until the fall of 2022. The Atlanta NDS will take place in 2024 and the Council is currently recruiting for NDS 2026.

NDSC is run by a volunteer board. In addition to its executive, the NDSC has a number of regional directors. The usual format for Canadians is two directors for Eastern Canada and two for Western Canada. Currently, Shelagh Barrington (Friday GG) is the only Director responsible for Canada. Shelagh plans to continue as a Director until the completion of the next symposium in Kansas City 2022.

Going forward, vibrant forward thinking Canadian volunteers need to take up the challenge of connecting and keeping our community current. Could you be one of them? Directors are expected to serve a 4-year term, which includes alternately attending symposia and planning meetings each year, at their own expense. (Because of COVID the Council is becoming well versed in digital connecting.) There are a number of additional ways for Directors to assist the Council; Shelagh is an editor for the web site and Facebook page, among other ways to contribute.

Why become a director? Shelagh answers: “While there is a financial and time commitment, the good news is the NDSC is a great group of educated and dedicated individuals, from all over the USA and Canada, who love what they do.”

If you would like to see what the NDS is all about, please go to the NDS web page which will also connect you to the NDS Facebook and NDS Forum pages. After you have taken a look, if you have any questions please feel free to contact Shelagh at [email protected].

Hello Everyone,

This week was one of the toughest we have endured together since COVID hit. The impact of the pandemic on the AGO’s operations, unfortunately, has meant that we have had to say good-bye (for now) to some of our colleagues and friends. These are all good people who have done nothing wrong. I am truly grateful for their contributions to the AGO. This is hard, hard, hard.

Many of our behind-the-scenes staff were involved this week with the Haegue Yang, Michael Belmore and Mary Heister Reid installations. I had the pleasure of touring one of the exhibition supporters through the Haegue Yang exhibition. It was a joy for me to see her family’s excitement about the beauty of the show. The art is extraordinary and I believe our public will enjoy it very much.

To support our ongoing efforts in Diversity & Inclusion, here is this week’s reading below, do take the time to read it and continue your learning journey:

https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/2020/09/17/so-you-want-to-be-an-ally-against-systemic-anti-black-racism.html

Let’s all focus on staying safe, and getting through this period to help the AGO thrive again.

Thank you. Take care,

Stephan

Sharing here, volunteers, an upcoming Curator’s Talk on our new feature exhibition, Haegue Yang. As the Gallery enters a new programming season, make sure to check out ago.ca for so much digital content – lots of ways to connect remotely with new works we love.

Wednesday, October 7, 4 pm via Zoom (click on link to register)

Join Adelina Vlas, Associate Curator of Contemporary Art at the AGO, for an overview of the AGO’s Fall exhibition Haegue Yang: Emergence.

A leading artist of her generation, Haegue Yang (b. 1971 Seoul) is celebrated for her prolific and diverse work that evokes historical and contemporary narratives of migration, displacement and cross-cultural translation. For over two decades, Yang has been transforming how we experience everyday domestic materials, turning items such as venetian blinds, light bulbs, drying racks, knitting yarn and bells into meticulously constructed installations and sculptures. To unleash the historical and emotional resonances of these objects, Yang activates them with sounds, light, air, scents and movement.

Prior to joining the AGO in 2014, Adelina Vlas held curatorial positions at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the National Gallery of Canada, where she concentrated on permanent collection displays and special exhibitions. She holds a Master’s Degree in curating contemporary art from the Royal College of Art, a Master’s Degree in art history from York University, and a Bachelor’s Degree in Art History from McGill University. Vlas’s area of specialty is post-war contemporary art with a focus on conceptual and time-based media practices. 

Dear Volunteers, 

When I think back to when we first closed our doors in March because of the rapid, global spread of COVID-19, it feels like a lifetime ago. I thought that the 6-month AGO Plan for employees might be sufficient to get us through this period. I hoped that COVID-19 would be managed effectively around the world. Clearly, its impact, including reduced attendance at the AGO and our ability to generate revenue has had a profound effect on our business. Yesterday –  much to my deep regret – we had to reduce our workforce. 

Limits on the number of people who can gather in one place, physical distancing rules, a slow return to physical spaces and restrictions on travel have had – and will continue to have – a significant impact on our operations. As a result, we have made the difficult decision to terminate or layoff more than 100 employees, both management and unionized. This change is solely related to the pandemic and our challenges in generating revenue because of it. We wish to thank these colleagues for their work at the AGO, and we will support them as well as we can through this time. 

Volunteers are part of our AGO family and we know you share in the sadness of this challenging time. Volunteers have been an important part of our past, and you remain vital to our future. We know your time on hiatus has been difficult. We want to reassure you that we are planning to bring volunteers back to the gallery, but it will take time.  The health and safety of our staff, volunteers and visitors are our top priority so we will continue to follow public health and government directives.

We are facing a period of prolonged uncertainty. Restrictions will be in place for many months to come, until we are able to return to normal operations once a vaccine is found.  

The pandemic WILL end. The AGO will thrive again in the future but these are difficult times. I truly wish it were different.

Thank you for your care and compassion during these changes with our employees.

Stephan and Maya

Stephan Jost

Michael and Sonja Koerner Director, and CEO

Maya Kotlarenko 

Volunteer President 

We can all use a little happiness these days. Whether it’s the kindness someone showed you at the grocery store, that baked loaf of bread you’ve perfected, or the sun setting just right on another tough day, there’s still a lot worth celebrating. 

For those who frequent the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC)’s Glencairn Station, that feeling can be found by simply looking up. Spanning 200 metres across the ceiling of the station, renowned artist Rita Letendre’s breathtaking work, aptly titled Joy, has returned after a hiatus.

In 1978, Letendre was commissioned to design an art installation for the new subway stop at Glencairn. The coloured canopy of glass was and is one of the TTC’s largest art projects. The vivid work remained in place for almost 20 years before it was removed at the artist’s request due to water damage. Today’s installation is a reinterpretation of Letendre’s original commission with improvements in structure and materials. The updated work has been six years in the making, involving an intricate process of re-mounting a series of laminated and tempered glass panels based on Letendre’s 1977 painting Ixepec.

Click through to the full story on AGO.ca to see Glencairn Station in all its glory. And make sure to subscribe to the AGOinsider for more stories like these!

Hello Everyone,

On Wednesday, we came together for our first all-employee Diversity & Inclusion training session. Thank you for your participation and in particular Nathalie Sato, co-hosts Akilah Child and Audrey Hudson, and presenters Elder Dallaire and Leticia Rose. Thank you also to the IDEA Group for helping to advance these important conversations within the AGO. (Edit: volunteers – Diversity & Inclusion training will be announced for you as well; we’ll keep you posted)

One of the key learnings from Leticia’s presentation was definitions of certain words that I would like to reiterate here:

Diversity – the presence of difference within a given setting

Inclusion – the integration and consideration of different identities within places and spaces to increase participation, visibility and value

Equity – an approach that ensures everyone has access to the same opportunities

I encourage you to think about these definitions and their relation to your work and engagement amongst each other and the public at the AGO.

With an uptick in COVID-19 cases in Toronto and new restrictions to social gatherings numbers, we must all be reminded that this pandemic is very real. And, unfortunately, it is having a very real impact on the AGO’s ability to generate revenue and provide meaningful work in some areas. We will continue to do our best to navigate challenges – and I’m very proud of what we’ve accomplished together so far – but I do want to acknowledge this is a difficult period for the AGO. Let’s be kind and supportive of one another.

Thank you,

Stephan

Dear Everyone,

In June we posted a statement on AGO.ca in response to the current social justice environment. We have now posted the first in a series of updates for the public on our website on the progression of the AGO’s Diversity & Inclusionstrategy. This update includes just some of the work we’ve done at the AGO and will continue to be updated quarterly.

Our Commitment to Diversity, Inclusion, Equity & Accessibility

UPDATE #1

We’re reflecting, listening and embracing an ongoing, refreshed approach to diversity, inclusion, equity and accessibility for our employees, volunteers and visitors that reflects our values and vision through extraordinary Collections, exhibitions and programs by reflecting the people that live here.

This is the first in a series of regular quarterly updates on the progress of the AGO’s Diversity & Inclusionstrategy. Here’s what we’ve accomplished to date:

ART & LEARNING:   

We continue to provide platforms for artists who are voices of change in our culture and better reflect the diversity of our community:

·         In the last several months, we have focused on hosting talks and performances featuring leading Black, Indigenous and People of Colour artists.

·         Our weekly newsletter read by 250K subscribers, the AGOinsider, features profiles of artists and programs in the gallery and increasingly, outside its walls. Recent articles include a two-part roundtable on How To Talk About Anti-Black Racism with community leaders and educators and a discussion with AGO Trustee and prominent art collector Kenneth Montague about artist James Van Der Zee in celebration of our photography’s department’s 20^th anniversary.

·         Work is ongoing to ensure that our Collections, exhibitions and programs reflect our diverse communities: 

·         In 2017, we announced the reorganization of the department of Canadian art. The Department of Indigenous & Canadian Art is co-led by curators of Indigenous and Canadian Art and organized on a nation to nation basis. Visitors to the completely renovated J.S. McLean Centre for Indigenous + Canadian Art can see contemporary and historical works organized thematically in dialogue, with label text in Anishinaabemowin, English, French and Inuktitut. 

·         In 2019, we hired Indigenous Art Educators to deliver the grade 9 NAC10: Expressions of First Nations, Metis and Inuit Cultures, a school program focused on Indigenous art as part of our dedicated partnership with the Toronto District School Board and the Urban Indigenous Education Centre.

·         In February 2020, our curatorial and programming teams collaborated to create a month-long inter-generational celebration of Black History Month.

·         We have created Teacher Resources on a number of works by Black, Indigenous, People of Colour artists.   

·         This fall, School program offerings will be digital. For the first time ever, we have a program focused to teach students more about Black histories and futures. In the Getting to Know Black Canadian Artists program, students will explore the works of Black artists in the Collection and explore concepts of identity through the history and presence of Black communities in Canada. Details about how to register will be coming shortly.

·         Our website, social media posts and digital promotion have reflected this programming and communications focus.

OUR PEOPLE:

We are fostering a safe and inclusive work environment where everyone can be their true self:  

·         Our Board of Trustees has established a new Diversity & Inclusion Board Committee.

·         Established in 2017, the Inclusion, Diversity, Equity & Accessibility (IDEA) group is comprised of employees from across the AGO who have been advocating for a more equitable and inclusive culture. This fall, the group has formalized its mandate.

·         We have begun a robust anti-oppression and anti-racism training program. The first mandatory training for all employees took place on September 15. This training launched a regular and ongoing program of mandatory D&I training, and will be included in all staff and volunteer onboarding.

·         We are in the process of hiring our first-ever Manager of Diversity & Inclusion. This position will report into the Director’s Office.

·         The overall hiring process is currently being reviewed and will be reconstructed to include a diversity and inclusion lens on all aspects including, interview questions, where jobs are posted and who is involved in the hiring process.

OUR AUDIENCE:

We believe everyone should have access to great art and programming. Every visitor should feel safe, welcome and like a member of the AGO community:

·         The introduction of the AGO Annual Pass in May of 2019, and the sweeping admission changes that came with it, including free admission for all visitors age 25 and under, has meant that our audience is more diverse than ever and more accurately reflects the people who live in our community.

Thank you,

Stephan 

Dear Everyone,

I’m very pleased to announce that Dr. Julie Crooks has been promoted to the position of Curator, Global Africa and the Diaspora, effective Monday, September 21, 2020.

Julie joined the AGO in 2017 and most recently held the position of Associate Curator of Photography. She holds a PhD from the Department of History of Art and Archaeology at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, UK. Since joining the AGO, she has curated a number of significant exhibitions, including Free Black North (2017), Mickalene Thomas: Femmes Noires (2018), and presentations from the AGO Collection such as Photography, 1920s–1940s: Women in Focus (2019–2020). She has actively participated in bringing works by Black artists into the collection, including Dawoud Bey, Paul Kodjo, Ming Smith, Malick Sidibé, and David Zapparoli, and most notably the Montgomery Collection of Caribbean Photographs, acquired in 2019 — which was made possible by Julie’s work to bring together an unprecedented group of supporters primarily from Toronto’s Black and Caribbean communities. This collection will form the core of a major exhibition, Fragments of Epic Memory, to be presented next summer.

Prior to joining the AGO, Julie consulted on the Frum African galleries (2007–2008) and the exhibition Jean-Michel Basquiat: Now’s the Time (2015). 
 

Julie has maintained an active presence in the cultural community outside the AGO. She co-curated Here We Are Here: Black Canadian Contemporary Art at the Royal Ontario Museum in 2018. She is also a founding Board member of Black Artists Network in Dialogue (BAND) where she also curated many exhibitions including, Ears, Eyes, Voices: Black Canadian Photojournalists, 1970s–1990s (2017), and she is a founding member of the Black Curators Forum which launched in 2019 to advocate for and support Black curators working in Canada.

In her new position, Julie will plan, build and present a collection of art that affirms the interconnectedness of the art of Global Africa within the wider diaspora, both past and present. She will play a leading role in connecting our visitors with extraordinary art and ideas as we work together to lead global conversations while reflecting the people who live here. She will work closely and collaboratively with the other curators and colleagues across all departments to ensure that her vision is realized.

Julie will report to me and receive administrative and planning support from Jill Offenbeck, Executive Coordinator for Curatorial Affairs. Her appointment also coincides with the formation of a new donor support group, Friends of Global Africa and the Diaspora (FGAD), which will help raise awareness and appreciation for the artistic legacy of Global Africa and the Diaspora and its centrality to the Gallery’s mission.

Please join me in congratulating Julie on her well-deserved promotion, which represents an exciting and important new chapter for her and for the AGO.

Sincerely,

Julian Cox

Deputy Director & Chief Curator

We continue an occasional series of volunteer profiles. This week Shelagh Barrington catches up with the new Lead Guide for Friday Evenings, Breah Sovegjarto.

What do you do when you are not here at the AGO volunteering?

I do a lot of driving! I live in Niagara Falls and I travel to Toronto specifically to volunteer at the AGO. I also have a 9-year-old daughter who is a dedicated competitive gymnast so we spend a lot of time at the gym or on the road attending competitions. Together we enjoy guitar lessons on Saturdays and I take Hungarian language lessons twice a week before work. I am enrolled in a BA program for Adult Education at Brock University and I am a member of a local Toastmasters group.

And besides all that, you work?

Yes! I work for the largest Canadian producer and distributor of commercial and estate wines, as a production supervisor. I work with our estates and off-site manufacturers across Ontario.

Why did you decide to volunteer at the AGO, in Toronto?

One of my classes at Brock briefly touched on education in public spaces. It sounds cheesy, but I was SO intrigued, I began spending all my time reading about public programming in galleries and museums and happened to be on the AGO website when I noticed the call for volunteers for the Anthropocene Exhibition [in September 2018]. I immediately submitted an on-line application and went through a great interview process with Paul Ayers and Holly Procktor. They were both great! I felt so lucky to join the team and had an amazing experience. During my Exit Interview with Paul and Melissa Smith, at the end of Anthropocene, I let them know how much I would enjoy continuing as a volunteer gallery guide at the AGO. They brought me on and I joined the Friday Evening group and started the process of learning about art and the art of touring. I was lucky enough to team up with another new Gallery Guide in training and we would study in the library together, critique each other’s speaking points, and we created a joint tour to spice up our Friday night shift. The support we received from each other, fellow volunteers and staff made a real difference.

What was one of your memorable experiences at the AGO?

I was a pretty serious fan girl of Anthropocene. I went to the viewings Anthropocene, Watermark, and Manufactured Landscapes in Jackman Hall. I bought the DVDs, the books. I was lucky to be able to attend the Anthropocene artist talk with another volunteer; we had a list of questions about the exhibit for Ed Burtynsky that we were determined to bring back to our volunteer group. It was so much fun and I am so thankful for the great memories.

What is the most important element of preparing to give a tour?

My number one tip is: before you start, make sure the art in your tour is actually on display in the gallery! If a piece is out on loan, it can be tricky! I spend the first part of every shift making sure each of my pieces is where it should be. If you do bring your group to a space and the object of your talk is missing, you soon realize the value of the advice from the more experienced Gallery Guides; be prepared and have a related alternate near by for a quick substitution …. and no one will ever know you have changed it up.

Thanks Breah! Glad to have you on the Gallery Guide team!

Hello Everyone,

Earlier this week I visited the Haegue Yang installation. It is a very large show with complex builds given the nature of her work but it looks great. Her commissioned work that is currently being installed in the Tanenbaum Atrium is about 80% complete. The team is doing a fantastic job.

As we head into the fall months – typically the beginning of cold and flu season – it is really important to stay home if you are sick and report any illness to your manager so we can keep track of employees’ health. A reminder that only the people who have been identified for working on-site should come to the museum. If you are one of those people and you are feeling sick, do not come to work. Everyone else must continue to work from home. And don’t feel guilty about it! You are doing the right thing by staying and working at home.

Thank you, take care,

Stephan

P.S.     Another reminder – September 15^th is the last day of the AGO Plan so going forward, including next Friday, our work week and days return to 100%. Thank you again to everyone for the 25% sacrifice you made to help make the AGO Plan possible.