VOLUNTEERS: THE RESOURCE THAT KEEPS ON GIVING AT THE AGO

(Fun)draising | Samantha Summers

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Last term, I attended an iSkills workshop with Melissa Smith, Assistant Curator, Community Programs, Public Programming & Learning. After learning about how Melissa organizes the Gallery Guide volunteer program at the Art Gallery of Ontario, I became intrigued by the idea of volunteering as a form of fundraising. After all, volunteers donate their time, which has a cash value. Interested in learning more, I sat down with Melissa to discuss the finer points of the volunteer programs.

The Art Gallery of Ontario, located at 317 Dundas Street West, Toronto. (Source.)

What do you guys do here? What is your mission?

With Stephen Jost, our new Director and CEO, we’ve shifted our mission more toward three words: access, art, and learning. We also want to lead important conversations that are based in Toronto that become more known throughout the world.

How many volunteers do you manage?

Typically there are anywhere from 600 to 800 volunteers in the building at any given time. My team is the gallery guides: the folks that offer tours, pop-up art conversations, and float in the galleries, of which there are 200.


And you estimated that just for the summer, the cash value of those volunteers was $2000 a month?

$2000 to $3000.

The main concourse of the Art Gallery of Ontario, where tours often begin. (Source.)

That’s hugely impressive. This is a well-established gallery, but I can’t imagine there’s room in the budget to pay for that kind of manpower.

Something I hear a lot from folks is, “Oh, you must have a lot of money.” You know, this program has no budget. But it would be sad if we didn’t have that volunteer commitment and that volunteer passion, and if we weren’t supporting that. We would not have the daily tours and the daily engagement. What I find most important about the gallery guides is that they lower barriers to the collection, and it’s really important that there’s someone there to support folks in seeing that they can make meaning in art. We know that the number one reason don’t come to art galleries isn’t cost, but that they feel they need to come equipped with art knowledge. If you have somebody there that’s there to greet you and has information to share, that’s wonderful. That’s fundamentally what I care about, and what our team does very well.


When I speak to development professionals who work with traditional donors they often have massive budgets to thank donors. They throw galas, private talks, and so on. Volunteer programs often don’t have that same leeway to throw huge events for volunteers.

That’s where we’re different. We have our Volunteer Annual Party. It’s a huge event supported internally. Our food and beverage team is involved, there are hors d'oeuvres, wine, and it’s all free. We often invite special speakers to give a talk about something the volunteers are interested in. There are activities and door prizes. Volunteers plan it with our budget team and with our food and beverage team, so it isn’t the staff dictating what we think volunteers want.

We have a reciprocal agreement for Toronto, Ontario, and certain institutions in the United States and Europe. We also have volunteer appreciation week in April, when the whole establishment is activated to show appreciation for volunteer contributions. We also have a long service program in place, where at a certain milestones volunteers receive a certificate that’s signed by the director and a letter of thanks. For people that are over 20 years there is an additional tea event hosted to thank them for their long service. When you might transition out the program we have an alumni tea event, which we host once a year. We also provide free tickets to special exhibitions which people can share with their friends and family. Finally, volunteers get discounts at the cafe, at the bookstore, and on courses.

The view on Dundas Street from the interior of the Art Gallery of Ontario. (Source.)

Often in museums you find that there’s a pizza party once a year for volunteers, and that’s all.

A big concern for volunteer management is volunteer burnout. When you have really robust, demanding placements, the longer someone is in a role the more they think, “What I’m contributing is really important, why aren’t you acknowledging this?”


What do you see other institutions get wrong about managing volunteers?

I think you have to be very clear about what the volunteer role is and really manage expectations in order to get good volunteer integration into the institution. Some of our legacy guides were recently invited to speak at a national symposium. They didn’t tell me they were accepted, and went and represented the gallery without approval. The folks that have come on with me have a better understanding of the scope of their work, how they integrate into the gallery, and what that relationship is. For a very long time, this type of integration - clear placement descriptions and managing expectations - wasn't as big a priority. These elements, when properly communicated, are what support the best integration into the program.

The viewing hall in the Tannenbaum Centre for European Art at the Art Gallery of Ontario. (Source.)

Do you find that the staff here value the volunteers as much as you think they should?

Certainly. The people that see the impact they have on the visitors, and they talk about this even at the Board level. They are very important elements in the building. However, I don’t know if people completely understand the true amount of effort and time and energy they put into their roles. I don’t know if it computes. It’s like trying to understand how much a million dollars is. For me to say I coordinate so many volunteers who do so many tours, and we talk to 64 000 people in the galleries every year, that’s huge. The amount of energy and passion that goes into that is huge. It’s probably undervalued, which isn’t to say it isn’t valued at all. I just know how much energy and effort the volunteers put in. I think it people really knew that they would be even more blown away, although they are already very appreciative.


Since you came on board here, what is the most exciting thing that has been accomplished through volunteering?

What I’ve been seeing lately is a shift in activations. What I’ve noticed is that curators are more apt now to ask for special projects for certain exhibitions or artworks that are put out on the floor. There was this stereoscopic viewer that Sophie Hackett [Curator, Photography] wanted to put on the floor. It required that you flip it by moving a certain element, but as a museum piece it was so delicate that it couldn’t be moved. Sophie asked the gallery guides to help support that object by activating it with visitors, by helping them look through the viewer but making sure they didn’t touch it. That way they were be able to see the slides in it, and those slides changed weekly. I thought that was a great way to activate an object which would have had lots of barriers, but could be engaged with through guidance from a gallery guide.

When we had our Brian Jungen exhibition and we wanted to have a more embodied experience for visitors and play with how visitors perceived the gallery. The gallery guides created multisensory bags, where we put scents and things in the bag to help activate the space in a different way. The gallery guides would have multisensory pop-up dots. Staff see volunteers as a resource now.

The entrance to the Art Gallery of Ontario. (Source.)

Visit the Art Gallery of Ontario at 317 Dundas Street West, and check out these upcoming events and exhibitions: Hito Steyerl: This is the Future, AGO Live: Music in the Galleries, Art & Ideas: Drawing. Drinks. Social.