Sharing this resource from AGO colleague Melissa Smith, who supports the Gallery Guide program and has pulled together valuable pedagogy and teaching tools that will guide her program moving forward. It’s important to recognize how change is being introduced throughout the Gallery, so sharing here. – Holly
It’s been another truly painful moment in our history and I’m sending
out love and support to everyone. I am committed as a white
privileged person to do better, so I’m sharing a resource I would like
everyone to review and spend time with:
Let’s
take this pause in the program to think about how we can all do more.
Please reach out if you have any ideas you want to share that I can help
implement.
I will be working closely with the Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Accessibility Committee and our Public Programming and Learning Department for next steps, as well. – Melissa Smith
Let’s build real change and a better future together!
As Gallery staff continue to report in from home, content on our website and other social media channels is really adding up! If you’re like me, you do find it a bit hard to keep track of all the online talks, maker series videos, and more. Here are a few helpful links to bookmark, to ensure you don’t a thing (new content is now being added daily!):
AGO facebook page (most Zoom talks and “live” events are advertised here). If you have a current facebook account, just search AGO to join. And while you’re at it, search AGO volunteers (a private group – by invitation only) to join our site to connect and share links with the AGO volunteer community.
AGO website (a great repository, for all AGO content – including maker prompts, online collection tours, and more)
The always passionate Kenneth Brummel, Associate Curator of Moden Art, (above) in conversation with Paola Poletto, Director of Leanring and Engagement, on grids, Agnes Martin and painting.
Oh to be back in the Gallery with them again, soon!
FINALLY, today, Thursday May 14 at 4pm, Stephan is continuing his series of connecting with Gallery Directors, this time in conversation with Kaywin Feldman, the Director of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, on the role of museums.
To join this webinar conversation, you’ll need Zoom. Follow this link to register. If you miss it LIVE, don’t fret – these conversations are being collected on our website, so check back.
Have you heard? Foxes are all the rage! With so many things closed right now, our attention has been turned to the wilds of the city. Whether it is the pack under the Gardiner Expressway, in the Beach or this very sweet family in Jonathan’s backyard in Barrie (they have grown so quickly). Have you spotted any wildlife during these times and captured them on film? Please share as we would love to see them!
While keeping your eye keen to the forest and sky, make sure to stay on top of the website as events and fresh content are being posted daily. Whether you are interested in artist talks like the one that came up on Thursday with artist Diane Borsato, or discussions with cultural leaders. It’s an opportunity to feel connected to the space we love and miss so much!
Finally, I want to wish many of you a happy Mother’s Day! I hope it’s full of virtual flowers and zoom chats!
Please read on!
Favourites from the Collection
This week we have invited Tamara Villagomez, team lead of the Saturday Alpha Information Guides, to discuss some of her favourite works from the collection.
Having been volunteering at AGO for over 20 years – the perfect balance with my full-time job mainly in the engineering field – undoubtedly, I have a plethora of favourite art works, including the Thomson Collection,Cornelius Krieghoff’s copious works, John William Waterhouse’s The Lady of Shalott, James Tissot’s The Shop Girl, Christi Belcourt’s Wisdom of the Universe and Norval Morisseau’s Man Changing into Thunderbird, just to name a few! However, I would like to hinge on Jacopo Tintoretto’s Christ Washing the Disciples’ Feet not only for its representation of exemplary humility and spiritual cleansing of sins act, described in the Christian Bible to have occurred on Holy Thursday, before the Last Supper, but for the rich art depicting many characters in a variety of poses and motions in vivid colours and use of “chiaroscuro” or strong contrasts between light and dark in it, effecting the floor pattern in the painting to follow the direction in the angle of the viewer. Something that most patrons do not realize, until we point that out – making them love this art work even more!
AGO from Home: Live!
The AGO hosted another AGO from Home Live event on Thursday. Stephan interviewed Glenn D. Lowry, Director of MOMA in New York City, and it was an illuminating, honest and surprisingly optimistic outlook on the current times!
If you missed the talk, click on the youtube link, here. We have also summarized some highlights from the discussion:
-Stephan and Glenn discussed the questions of how do we re-open and what values come into focus right now -the importance of digital tools that have always been there – pivoting to using the virtual space while the physical space is closed -changes in exhibitions as loans will be hard to secure right now -Glenn discusses the re-opening of of the new MOMA in October 2019, and how under 6 chief curators and and 70 curators they re-imagined each of the gallery spaces -each director spoke of Canadian artists that we need to know right now (Jeff Wall, Janet Cardiff and Patterson Ewen to name a few)
Armchair Traveller – Let’s visit the Royal Collection in England
Trish here! This week come with me to look at some of what the Royal Collection in England has to offer. When I was first out of my museum studies program I worked for the Royal Collection in London as an Operations Supervisor for the ‘Annual Summer Opening’ of the State Rooms at Buckingham Palace. We welcomed upwards of 6,000 people per day and I learned my love for welcoming lots of visitors and all things logistics! Then, I was made the first Education Coordinator for Buckingham Palace, where I developed all the Public Programming. It’s a vast collection, which early in my career allowed me a lot of on-the-job professional development in art history and ignited a now life-long love for art history and making what may be daunting places to visit more accessible.
The Royal Collection comprises the three Official Residences of The Queen: Buckingham Palace, the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh and, Windsor Castle; including the paintings and drawings, works of art, cars, carriages, buildings and furniture, jewelry etc. In addition to the Residences, there are two Queen’s Galleries that are open to the public year-round, as well as the Royal Mews. More and more of the collection is online – you can search here or you can take a virtual tour here. One of the questions I am most asked, is did you meet The Queen? I did! As one of the employees of the Royal Household, in addition to meeting members of the Royal Family during the course of our duties, we were also given a present by Her Majesty The Queen each year at Christmas. When I was there (some years ago now, things may have changed) the gifts were presented in the White Drawing Room. I remember nervously practicing my curtsy – worried I might fall over! You can tour the White Drawing room here (there’s a secret entrance in and out of the room – anyone want to take a guess where?). In addition to the White Drawing room, you can tour other rooms including the Throne Room and garden (where I was once chased by a Canada Goose, but that’s another story). When scrolling, don’t forget to look up – the ceilings, particularly in the Throne Room are pretty remarkable.
Following the advice and recommendations from public health officials, the Ontario government has developed a framework for re-opening the province and is beginning to plan when and how non-essential services like the AGO will progressively re-open to employees and the public. At the direction of Stephan, we have been asked to lead the AGO’s Re-opening Planning Team to ensure that we will be ready when provincial authorities give us the go-ahead.
The Re-opening Planning Team will develop a plan that includes when and how employees will return to work, the work required to be ready to open to the public and how we will welcome our audiences when we are open.
Friday Gallery Guide Anita Wisner passed away on March 21, after a long illness. She was a longtime volunteer at the AGO and a generous source of art knowledge for her colleagues. While she was unable to come in in to the gallery for past year or so, she kept in touch and hoped to return.
Anita was originally from Romania. She and her husband Paul lived through WWII there and just missed being sent to a concentration camp when the country was taken over by the Soviet Union, bribing their way out and leaving with only a few suitcases. They spent six months in Rome with their two small children while waiting for their visas to Canada, where Paul had a job waiting. Anita described her time in Rome as wonderful, as it gave the family many opportunities to enjoy art and culture. In Canada Anita was active in the arts and Jewish Communities, volunteering at the National Gallery in Ottawa and sitting on the board at the Canada-Israel Cultural Foundation.
GG Karin Warren remembers Anita fondly: Anita was such a special woman, one who lived in various cities and countries throughout her life and I’m sure gained knowledge and enjoyment wherever she “hung her hat”. I spent a lot of time with Anita when I was a guide in the first few years. The majority of my time was spent floating in the African gallery that was new for the gallery and unique. Anita and Paul collected African art and had some very interesting pieces. She was quite knowledgeable about it and so pleased to share with me! But it wasn’t just knowing the facts that was her forte’; she would make connections, add personal anecdotes and weave together such fascinating history and influences to come to the information of given pieces. Always friendly, approachable and a dedicated Friday GG.
GG Sian Evans also remembers Anita: She was the first gallery guide I shadowed when I started my placement at the gallery as a trainee. My first impression was of a gracious, elegant woman who knew EVERYTHING about art. But was she intimidating? No: she was warm and funny and more than willing to share what she knew – so much! – and loved.
I was welcomed into Anita’s apartment many a-time to watch art videos and look at books. Her illness struck suddenly. One summer she was the generous hostess of our annual Friday GG get-together lunch and the next she was too ill to come to the gallery. But we had become good friends and I visited her when I could – so enjoying our conversations about our families, art, books and our lives. She told me of growing up in Romania; of returning there years later for a visit with her family; of living in Rome and Paris; of staying in Cambridge to do an intensive art history course; of the years she was a docent at the National Gallery in Ottawa. Whatever I mentioned – an artist I hadn’t known; a trip I might take – she had been there and had a book I should read. I, like so many at the gallery, will miss Anita very, very much.
Written by Anne Fleming, fellow Gallery Guide, with contributions, as shared above.
Hope you are enjoying the flowering forsythias that are out now and the beginnings of the cherry blossoms. Apartment dwellers like myself can keep our eye on the exploding blooms of the cherry blossoms in High Park via the 24-hour Bloom Cam (they are starting!!).
Finally, we wanted to share this heartwarming story from Trish’s neighbourhood in the east end. The neighbourhood children (including Trish’s daughter and son) have created themed works of art in their front windows so other people can enjoy an art scavenger hunt. I may have shed a tear watching this!
Please read on!
Favourites from the Collection
Gallery Guide Coordinator (and Curator of Community Programs), Melissa Smith, nailing the museum selfie!
Today we hear from the wonderful Melissa Smith, as she discusses her favourite works by Janice Kerbel from the Contemporary Collection:
I’m not sure many people know how big a nerd I am, but I have an M. A. in Art History under my belt (along with Museum Studies – it was a circuitous route). I specialized in semiotics and symbolism in 16th and 17th century art. I wrote a very long thesis on 16th century emblematic books, a real page turner lol! I had every intention of pursuing an academic career but changed my mind after getting accepted by some Phd programs. I realised that I was feeling a sense of dread, instead of elation. This is what led me to work in museums, where I discovered my true passion – engaging with visitors, breaking down perceived and physical barriers to art and museum objects. I truly believe that art and culture not only improves our wellbeing, but can change the world.
All this to say, I have a great many favourites in the AGO and many reside in the European and Prints and Drawings collections (I also studied Printmaking!), but working in museums also opened my eyes to Contemporary Art. A period of art production, I wanted nothing to do with, while I was in school. See change is possible!
So I’m very excited to share that one of my most favourite works in our collection is by Janice Kerbel. We acquired the Remarkable series, a group of panelled silkscreen prints on campaign poster paper, a few years ago. Kerbel works tongue and cheek with language, design, and font in this body of work and I LOVE IT! She plays off of circus/fair tropes, particularly those associated with the problematic sideshows from yore, and subverts them in such a way that we are seduced into looking closer, while considering our past and current practices. We’re currently exhibiting The Regurgitating Lady poster on the 4th floor, but we also have the originals and digital files to reproduce exhibition versions for The Temperamental Barometric Contortionist, The Shyest Person Alive, Faint Girl, and Iggy Fatuse The Human Firefly. Confronted by the stark, two meter posters with slab serif typefaces conjures the sideshow impresario and performers and I love the contrast of referenced fairground sideshow ephemera in a gallery context. They originally appeared at the 2007 Frieze Art Fair in London and were wallpapered all over. Maybe there was a commentary there around the absurd theatricality of the event and the art world, in general….Mostly, for me, there is a certain poetry hidden in the lines of these typographic monoliths that brings a smile to my face every time I walk past them.
I miss you all and hope you’re doing well. It’s important to find the things we can smile and laugh about, now more than ever, and I hope this work brings a smile to your face too.
Armchair Traveller – Let’s go to the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam
Our journey will take us back to Amsterdam to visit The Rijksmuseum. The virtual reality tour of the museum is particularly impressive! Spend some time in the Great Hall and marvel at the vaulted ceilings, the incredibly detailed mosaic floors and the stained glass windows. You can approach several pieces in the collection to get a close-up view and even get a narrated interpretation of the work you are looking at. Pictured above is Jan Asselijn’s The Threatened Swan. Asselijn was a known Dutch landscape painter (the AGO has Landscape with Ancient Ruins in the collection), but he shockingly (based on the mastery) only painted one animal! Follow the story of the painting and learn what may have made the swan so angry. You also won’t want to miss a thorough exploration of Rembrandt van Rijn’s Night Watch!
While you are marvelling at the museum, you may be interested in a 10 minute Ted Talk from Wim Pijbes, the emeritus General Director of the Rijksmuseum. You will find that the AGO and the Rijksmuseum have a similar vision of opening access to art for all!
Christine and I (Jonathan) are subbing in for Nicole this week.
I think that those of you who live in Toronto are faring decidedly better than those of us up here in the hinterland. The old song misquoted above promises May flowers after all the rain that April usually gives us, I hope it is true for the snow as well. Maybe old man winter just wanted to have a last hurrah and ensure that everyone is staying inside? There will be warmth and sunshine again!
Please read on!
Favourites from the Collection: Guest Post
This week we get a visit from a very talented and friendly person, Holly Procktor, Coordinator, Volunteers (People Team- HR). Holly always says she functions like an umbrella across the volunteer program, supporting staff, volunteers & the Volunteer Council, alike. Over to you, Holly:
William Kurelek’s Bowl Full of Tomatoes: One Bad Tomato Spoils the Whole Basket, 1969 (snapped with Holly’s iphone)
Last February, while wandering the galleries, I took a quick snap of William Kurelek’s Bowl Full of Tomatoes: One Bad Tomato Spoils the Whole Basket, 1969, when it was displayed at the entrance to the Thompson collection galleries on the main floor.
Much is written about the religious and moralizing intent of Kurelek’s work, but that has never been the reading for me. I am attracted most to Kurelek’s still lifes, for their strong aesthetic qualities. I love a simple composition, built around a central image (think also of Andy Warhol’s iconic soup cans!) The volunteers also know I am a bonafide pattern-lover (I’ve never met a floral I didn’t like!) and that navy blue wallpaper in the background – against those gorgeous red tomatoes, my favourite colour – is so bright, warm and homey, well – it takes me right back to a prairie kitchen, full of old crockery and vintage tablecloths. Oh my heart!
Of course, it’s not lost on me that in this time of the pandemic, I’m finding even more comfort than usual in the domestic. I’m definitely on trend – baking bread, printing with potatoes, (it’s true- see my post on the volunteer blog!) and pursuing everything homespun. I find keeping my hands busy helps calm my mind, and allows me to focus on something other than the uncertainty of these strange days, at least for a few moments.
Armchair Traveller – Let’s go to the Caribbean!
After all the cold, snow, sleet, and hail we had this week we thought it would be great to travel someplace warm and sunny. So get your tropical drinks and sunglasses ready and let’s go island hopping to visit some galleries in the Caribbean! Our first stop is the Gallery of Caribbean Art in Barbados which promotes art from the entire Caribbean. Check out the art in either the Gallery view or by artist and experience the “countless expressions of colour”. Next let’s jet to Puerto Rico and visit the Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico. The permanent collection exemplifies significant and representative examples of Puerto Rican art from the sixteenth century to the present. The third stop is the Caribbean Museum Centre for the Arts in the Virgin Islands where we agree with their motto that “Art Raises the Spirit”. Finally we return to the AGO, where in 2019, with the support of a group of donors, we acquired the Montgomery Collection of Caribbean Photographs. These photographs span 100 years of history and feature more than 3,500 photographs from the Wider Caribbean Region including Jamaica, Barbados and Trinidad. We are looking forward to viewing this exhibition at some point in the future.
How did you come to volunteer at the AGO? Volunteering has always played an
important part in my life as my mother was a very active volunteer during the
1950’s, 1960’s and 1970’s. Her dedication to the various community groups
provided a strong direction for me to follow. Consequently, when my children
were young, I enjoyed the camaraderie of volunteering for a number of groups
in my neighbourhood. After I retired, I began
searching for rewarding opportunities in volunteering, different from my background
in nursing, banking and school libraries. This brought me to a favourite
organization, the AGO! Lesley North, an Information Guide encouraged me to join
the team and I did in 2015.
Is there a staff who mentored your path?
I was mentored by both fellow volunteers and staff. Volunteers, Lesley North, Jane Eastwood and Chloe Wittes were key in ensuring that I found my feet and Paul Ayers, former Information Guide co-ordinator, provided a superlative ongoing training program. He prepared clever and innovative newsletters and a provided a training programs that kept us all informed and excited about welcoming our visitors.
What was your most memorable experience?
Every Friday is a memorable experience! The ambience here in the Gallery, the chance to interact with a constantly changing stream of visitors and working together with a special group of volunteers provides a treasure of experiences. One never knows how the shift is going to play out! The opportunity to be exposed to the wonderful art collection is the bonus. A win/win situation!
Thank you Carole, for your continued dedication to the AGO and our visitors
Carole’s story concludes our 2020 Ontario Volunteer Service Award profiles. We have loved learning more about these wonderful folks in our community. And we’d like to learn more about YOU, too! Everyone has an interesting story to tell; if you’d like to share some of yours, contact Shelagh Barrington, who graciously volunteered to write these posts, and many of the other profiles you see on the blog. You can reach Shelagh at [email protected]
How did you come to volunteer at the AGO? Kathy Lochnan, now retired AGO Senior Curator
P&D, is an old friend and through her, I became interested in volunteering
in P&D. Although I was an art historian with 43 years of teaching
experience, I knew little about works on paper. I continue to learn!
What was your most memorable experience? I work in the P&D vault, so every day is
exciting; one comes upon works that one has not seen before as we “pull them”
for visitors or classes.
What do you do with your time when you are not at
AGO? (or what did you do before you became an AGO volunteer?) I taught art history to all grades (5-12
& Teachers in training) at Canada’s National Ballet School from 1961 until
retirement in 2004. I then became involved with the founding of the Toronto
Summer Music Festival in 2005 and served on its Board. Stephen, my husband and
I love European travel (often for opera) and otherwise try to keep up with 16
descendants who fortunately all live in the Toronto area.
Is there a staff member who mentored your path? I cannot speak too highly of Brenda Rix who quietly encourages all volunteers to keep learning. We have just heard about her coming retirement; and the knowledge she has acquired over the last 40 years of service to the AGO, will be missed. Alexa Greist, Caroline Shields, Sophie Hackett and Julie Crooks are always available to us and are so generous with their time. We miss Sasha Suda, now Director of the National Gallery in Ottawa, but are thrilled by Adam Levine’s return to the department. We are an incredibly fortunate group of volunteers to have such close daily contact with our Curators. I must also mention the help I have had from Larry Pfaff and Marilyn Lazar when researching, The Grange and Donald Rance, when I need to find stuff!
Not enough volunteers realize how helpful the E.P.Taylor
Library staff can be!
Thank you Jane, for your continued dedication to the AGO and our visitors
How did you come to volunteer at the AGO? After retiring from teaching I took
a year off to recharge. However, I began to miss talking about art and thought about
the AGO. While I didn’t miss teaching students, I did miss the opportunity to
converse about art and volunteering as a Gallery Guide at the AGO seemed
perfect.
What was your most memorable experience? The most interesting and unusual experience occurred 2 years ago when Rubens’ The Massacre of the Innocents was installed at the AGO with The Elevation of the Cross hanging across from it on the opposite wall. I was studying the latter painting for tour preparation when I noticed a man and a woman standing in front of the Massacre deep in discussion. I turned to them and asked whether I could help them with any questions they might have. The woman let me know that, not only were they both Rubens’ scholars, but that the man was in fact David Jaffe, who had first identified the painting as being an autographed Rubens. He had also written the pamphlet that was distributed to the Gallery Guides as an introduction to the work. I was quite embarrassed by my presumption but ended up having a lovely chat with them. David Jaffe even answered a question that had stumped me about the Elevation of the Cross. How often does an expert appear just at the moment when you have a question to ask? It was perfect.
What did you do before you became an AGO volunteer? I taught art in the Toronto school
system at the secondary level. I loved teaching art and felt privileged to have
the opportunity to open up students’ minds to the history of art as well as the
creative problem solving aspects of studio work.
You have also been involved in other volunteer activities at the AGO? Yes. I was on the Volunteer Executive,
now the Volunteer Council, from 2016 to 2019. Also,
after the rehang rollout of the permanent collection began in 2015, I became
interested in the contribution of the Women’s Committee to the AGO. Many of the
most outstanding artworks in the collection appeared to have been either gifted
by the Women’s Committee or purchased with their assistance. That started me on
a research project which resulted in an initial series of 7 articles published
on the Volunteer Blog in 2018, under the title “Connections and
Collections “. A second installment is planned to follow as soon as
I’m able to continue my archival research.
Thank you Susan for your continued dedication to the AGO and our visitors
